Paris show by late Martin Parr views his photos through political lens

PARIS

The last major exhibition prepared by British photographer Martin Parr before his death last month has opened to the public in Paris, exploring the often overlooked political message in his five-decade career.

Parr died in early December aged 73, having spent his life documenting Britain and the world with an unflinching eye that often captured the absurdity and shallowness of modern existence.

He had been collaborating on "Global Warning" at the Jeu de Paume exhibition space in Paris, which will run until May 24, until his health deteriorated suddenly following a diagnosis for blood cancer.

Although not a full retrospective, it pulls extensively from Parr's vast archives of globe-spanning color-saturated images that are often amusing and sometimes cruel.

"Global Warning," a play on words about global warming, is divided into five sections spanning Parr's interests in leisure, consumption, tourism, animals, and technology.

Though his acidic sense of humor, criticized as condescending by some, is evident throughout, Parr's 180 photographs also amount to a portrait of human folly and environmental destruction.

"There was a very structured 50-year-long reflection on themes that may seem light, but are in fact about our Western world, about the dysfunctions of our Western world," curator Quentin Bajac said.

"He was very keen not to come across as a whistleblower, or an activist photographer," he added. "But at the same time, he was pleased that we might adopt a more concerned, slightly more anxious reading of these images."