When photographer Martin Parr visited the Northern seaside resort of New Brighton more than 40 years ago he had no idea the shots he would take there would divide a nation.
It was meant to be about capturing a moment in time and challenging people’s perceptions of social classes.
The collection, New Brighton, The Last Resort, showcased the best – and worst – days at the seaside, with pictures of day trippers enjoying picnics among the litter and rundown amenities which characterised the Wirral town at the time.
But, ahead of a new film about his life, Parr admits those famous seaside shots “became very controversial”.
“People from London and the South-East, they really didn’t know what places in the North looked like,” said Parr, now 72.
“The litter was quite terrible, but they just weren’t used to it, so it was almost like it was my fault that the place looked so scruffy.”
While Parr initially felt like he was a victim in a blame game, he said he was simply showing the resort beside the River Mersey as it was.
He said he came in for criticism from people who questioned “how dare this middle-class photographer photograph the working class in this cynical way”.
“So it became very controversial, which in the end hasn’t done me much harm,” he added.
Martin, who was born in 1952, in Epsom, Surrey, said he had always had an affinity with the north west of England.
His grandfather, George Parr, was a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and it was he who inspired Martin to become a photographer.
When he came to do The Last Resort, it was a radical move in the early 1980s, partly because he opted to use colour film.
“At the time, I was trying my best to bring an encapsulation of what I see in front of me into photographs.
“I like to see how people unravel, try to capture the moment.
“New Brighton was a very rundown resort at the time, so there was litter everywhere.
“It was really scruffy, but still of course people went there for their day trip. It was part of the tradition.”
Parr added he wanted to contrast “people having a good day out” with the “shabby backdrop”.
“That was an amazing project for me, and still to this very day it is my best-known body of work”.
He said the film, I Am Martin Parr, will be screened across north west cinemas including New Brighton which “makes perfect sense”.
“What better place to show the film but in New Brighton where a lot of the footage of me walking around there, talking to people, was shot?”
Additional reporting by Isobel Fry
