Satire, selfies and the situation we are in

British documentary photographer Martin Parr says the world has never needed more satire like this in his images, arguing that many people are now too rich and living in unsustainable ways. The 73-year-old warned the “we’re all in” situation was dire.

Known for his humorous snaps of bronze sailors and selfie-taking tourists, Parr spoke to AFP in Paris during a visit to promote his autobiography, titled ‘Utterly lazy and careless’ – a line taken from his French teacher’s scathing school report when he was 14.

“We are all very rich. We are consuming all these things in the world,” he told AFP, referring to the surge in tourists flocking to European cities such as Venice and Rome. “And we can’t. It’s unsustainable. This joke about zero [carbon emissions] — it’s never going to happen.”

Parr’s latest book combines a selection of photographs with his trademark commentary, chronicling his journey from the son of a bird-watching father to a professional photographer with a keen eye for the absurdities of everyday life.

Among the images featured are Ireland’s first McDonald’s in 1986, the toilets of a Masonic Lodge in London in 2001 and an adult holding a Donald Trump doll in 2016 – shortly before his first election.

Parr has photographed life in North Korea, Albania, Japan and Russia, among other countries, although he said he has never obtained a visa to visit Iran. His first line, he added, has always been the supermarket.

Everyday spaces of consumption remain fertile ground for his work, the Magnum Photos member said, “because they’re constantly changing.” “Now you don’t have to actually go to the cash register. You just walk out,” he noted, referring to stores where a tracking system automatically charges customers.

Parr’s autobiography spans an era from the discovery of steam trains to Tesla cars, but he said the biggest social change in his life was the arrival of smartphones. “I think smartphones have made a huge difference to things like tourism – what people do and how they respond to reality,” he said.

He added that visiting landmarks today seemed less about seeing the sites themselves and more about taking photos. “You collect points, like you would collect points for a game or a game,” said the photographer, whose more than 100 publications include “Death by Selfie.”

Parr said he was much less worried about artificial intelligence. “I’ve seen AI renditions of my work. They’re horrible,” he said. “Lots of colors, just a mess. It’ll get better, but I’m not worried at all.” He was equally unimpressed by the AI-generated writing.

While promoting his autobiography, Parr discovered several books purportedly about him on the Internet in which he had no involvement. “It’s all AI-generated, digitally printed — horrible, in general,” he said.

AFP found one such biography on a US website, written by an unknown author, with a 17-word title and a clumsy description. Parr confirmed that he had bought it. “I pack for the hell of it,” he said.