Martin Parr: The Show You Can’t Miss in Paris

Martin Parr: Global Warning opened at the Jeu de Paume in January and continues to draw crowds eager to see the beloved photographer’s take on life under late capitalism. The show is a piercing, urgent homage to an artist who brilliantly captured his time, beginning with work from 1970 and spanning the globe from the slopes of St. Moritz to the Argentinian coast.

Although vibrant and full of kitsch, Parr’s work is deep and probing, asking crucial questions about humanity’s self-undoing. Parr was a master of capturing the absurd in the everyday, with images simultaneously composed and candid that highlight the artifice inherent in contemporary life. This is art that asks a degree of self- interrogation from the audience, and although he died in December, Parr’s spirit permeates the show, as though teasing us for our complicity from the beyond. 

Two months in, Global Warning remains the hottest ticket in Paris, with lines stretching through the Tuileries at all hours, and the packed gallery spaces can be difficult to navigate. Claustrophobics or even those just wanting a closer view of Parr’s work may consider waiting to attend, once the crowds have thinned a bit. The show has caused such a sensation that the exhibition catalogue had completely sold out and was awaiting reprint when I visited, much to everyone’s displeasure. The bookstore staff fielded repeated demands asking when it would be back. It all felt like a scene Parr had written himself, a real-time reflection of his work’s commentary on consumer culture, global tourism, and the fracturing of our relationship to nature driven by capitalism and technology.

As further testament to the resonance of Parr’s work, two additional gallery shows are opening in Paris as March comes to a close — Martin Parr: In Plain View at the Magnum Paris Gallery, and Small World at the Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière. Parr’s photographs presage so much of the reality we live in today: glaring inequality, climate catastrophe, and an often blissful lack of self awareness among consumers.

Global Warning charts the proliferation of global tourism and its impact on the planet, making for a rather meta experience as crowds of tourists led by museum guides hover around Parr’s images, phones out to document the fact of their attendance. The beach as a reproduction of the urban environment is a particularly interesting motif — seeing hordes of people occupying every square inch of sand, colors and noise emerging from Parr’s photographs, as similar hordes gather round to observe, decades on.

The Jeu de Paume offers an excellent film program, and Karine Chambefort-Kay, a senior lecturer in British visual culture at Paris-Est Créteil gave a sold-out talk following the screening of two of Parr’s documentaries on March 28. If you missed out on tickets, consider seeing I Am Martin Parr, Lee Shulman’s 2022 documentary, also on view. While a visual feast, full of color, found footage, and beautiful stills, Parr himself remains an inscrutable subject. Although interviews with Parr’s wife are interspersed throughout the narrative, she doesn’t give much away either. And as the film’s narrator, Parr is evasive when it comes to definitive statements about his work, non-committal to the politics, satire, and even humor embedded in his photographs. Still, it’s lovely to see so much of Parr’s working life captured on film, including scenes from his studio and cameos from a dedicated staff.

To get a better picture of the man behind the camera, I called Ms. Chambefort-Kay to ask her about Parr’s legacy and influence, especially on younger artists. “He was a godfather to young photographers,” she said, and had a significant influence on the younger generation, including artists like Nadia Lee Cohen. Chambefort-Kay said the influence wasn’t necessarily aesthetic, especially considering the maximalism of Parr’s later work, but that Parr was that rarest of things — a generous icon willing to take developing artists under his wing. She also emphasized the banality of Parr’s personal life, down to the way he dressed as a way to blend in, describing him as someone discreet yet magnanimous, who cultivated a dedicated parish of his own.

Selected works of the South African photographer Jo Ratcliffe are being exhibited in tandem with the Parr show, and visitors are invited to trade the apocalyptic chaos upstairs for an apocalyptic tranquility downstairs. Rendered in black and white, her photographs offer a measured, almost zen counterpoint to Parr’s work, despite the common themes. The images offer a similarly critical view of the way we live now, though through a different lens, and are frequently displayed in triptychs or quads, so they unfold as a miniseries — panoramic views of faraway landscapes in medium format. The result is a sort of distancing, and yet each series demands engagement, ultimately pulling the audience in for a closer look.

Emerging from the museum at dusk, filled with inspiration and 10 euros lighter after my purchase of an excellent Parr-themed art revue for children, I recalled a snippet from Parr’s narration of his own life, as documented in I Am Martin Parr: “You have to have the belief that when you go out, that today could be the day when something happens.”

DETAILS

Martin Parr: Global Warning 

Through May 24, 2026 at the Jeu de Paume (Jardin des Tuileries, 1st)

Full-price ticket: 14 euros 

Closed Mondays 

Open Tuesday and Wednesday 11 am – 9 pm

Thursday and Friday 11 am – 7 pm

Saturday and Sunday 10 am – 7:30 pm 

Tickets are 14 euros and free for 18 & under 

Martin Parr: In Plain View 

Opens March 28 at the Magnum Paris Gallery 

Tuesday through Friday 10h00-19h00 

Saturday 11h00-19h00 

Small World  

Through May 30 at the Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière  

Tuesday-Saturday 11h00-19h00