The photographer loved to record the small details of life, so it was only fitting that his family should organise a send-off inspired by his work. ‘Funerals can be really beautiful,’ says the person tasked with recording the event
Funerals are conventionally designed to smooth a person into graceful solemnity, carefully editing out the unsavoury bits of a life. But Martin Parr spent more than half a century sending up the idiosyncratic and the awkward, in a way that was sometimes unflattering, mischievous, and always unflinching. So his own funeral was never going to be a typical farewell. At the ceremony at the chapel in Woodlands Memorial Garden near Bristol, people who had known Parr throughout his life spoke, and Parr’s favourite music played – guests arrived to Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto and Stan Getz’s The Girl from Ipanema. Parr had recently photographed the original girl from Ipanema, Helô Pinheiro, who is now 82.
With the help of the staff at the Martin Parr Foundation, the family organised the ultimate Martin Parr send-off after the ceremony: a colourful country fete-themed celebration decked out with bunting, with clingfilm-wrapped sandwiches, cupcakes with sad faces on, a collection of teapots with natty tea cosies, and a tombola of unwanted Christmas gifts – in memory of the annual auction the Parrs used to put on. (The proceeds went to food poverty charity the Trussell Trust.) The Art of Dining, a collaborative duo creating interactive dining experiences formed of Parr’s chef daughter Ellen and set designer Alice Hodge, recreated the food from many of the late photographer’s most famous images.
Continue reading...
The photographer loved to record the small details of life, so it was only fitting that his family should organise a send-off inspired by his work. ‘Funerals can be really beautiful,’ says the person tasked with recor...
See more
