Martin Parr at the Wolfsonian

Last night as part of a benefit, several of us had the opportunity to have our portraits taken by Magnum photographer, Martin Parr, at the Wolfsonian in Miami. Martin Parr is a key figure in the world of photography, widely recognized as a brilliant satirist of contemporary life. He is the author of over 30 photography books, including Common Sense, Boring Postcards, and Think of England (the image above right is the cover of that book). His photographs have been collected by museums worldwide, including the Getty, The Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern. Parr was featured in Cruel and Tender, the Tate Modern's major survey of photography in 2003, and a retrospective of his work that opened at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 2002 continues to tour major museums around the world. His most recent work, Luxury, has focused on the photography the "ostensibly wealthy of the world" and can be seen on his website: http://www.martinparr.com/.

We were expecting him to quickly snap our photos in one shot, but he spent time with each of us, directing our posture and pose ("No smiling!") and taking several shots (as many as 10-15) before he was satisfied with the image. We haven't picked up the prints yet, so we can't tell you how they look.

I first heard of Parr's work when he published his book, The Phone Book, in 2002. The book was comprised of photos from around the world of people talking on their cell phones. Although that book wasn't available on Amazon when I last checked, several other of his books are.