Martin Parr Turns a School Insult Into an Autobiography

British photographer Martin Parr has published his first autobiography. The title, Utterly Lazy And Inattentive: Martin Parr In Words And Pictures, is lifted directly from a high school report card. A teacher once used those words to describe him. Now they sit on the cover of a book that traces a career defined by sharp, attentive observation.

Parr has produced over 130 photobooks, covering subjects from British seaside resorts to global consumer habits. His images often push the everyday toward something surreal. Ordinary moments get lit and framed in ways that feel quietly alien. The new book pairs a selection of these photographs with written stories from across his life, from childhood snapshots to current work.

“This is the first and only time I’ll publish a book about myself,” Parr said. “My autobiography is a combination of stories and photos taken from across my life. It was a way for me to understand my progress as a photographer: to see what has changed, and what has stayed the same, both in my work and in the world. It has allowed me to see how everything is connected.”

The book is co-authored with Wendy Jones and published by Penguin Books Ltd. It arrives as a deliberate self-examination from a photographer whose work has always looked outward, finding strangeness in the mundane without relying on digital manipulation. The school report insult, once a mark of critique, becomes a wry framing device for a life spent capturing human life with unsettling clarity.