Martin Parr

“I pride myself in being an aficionado of the British seaside. Throughout my career, I have visited and worked in many of the famous British resorts, from Great Yarmouth to Largs.”

“When I fly British Airways, I can't help but read the free Daily Mail, which makes me glad I am leaving the country.”

“I am a big fan of Jim Jarmusch, and I do love big screen documentaries.”

“Of course, New Brighton is very shabby, very rundown, but people still go there because it's the place where you take kids out on a Sunday.”

“Personally, I don't take holidays; I go on trips. My idea of relaxing is taking a trip that isn't commissioned. I'll work just as hard, but without that nagging pressure of fulfilling a comm...”

“You can't shoot in sepia, so converting into black and white and then into brown makes everything feel less real.”

“Fashion pictures show people looking glamorous. Travel pictures show a place looking at its best, nothing to do with the reality. In the cookery pages, the food always looks amazing, right?...”

“My biggest television weakness is 'Dragons' Den.'”

“Photography is, by its nature, exploitative. It's whether you use this process with a sense of responsibility or not. I feel that I do so. My conscience is clear.”

“When someone says to you, 'Oh, I don't take a good picture,' what they mean is they haven't come to terms with how they look. They take a fine picture, it's just that their image of how they...”

“Filming is always a challenge because I'm not used to it. But I approach it head-on. I'm not technically brilliant, but it's the spirit that counts.”

“We live in a homogenized world, where it's hard to get excited when everything is slick and professional. The interesting things are the dull things.”

“If there is any jarring at all in my photographs, it's because we are so used to ingesting pictures of everywhere looking beautiful.”

“I avoid Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, and if I need to communicate with someone, I email direct.”

“I am away so much, so I rarely see live TV, but I use iPlayer to catch programmes.”

“Margaret Thatcher was very good for the arts in so far as it gave people a real focus for something to be against.”

“Modern technology has taken the angst out of achieving the perfect shot. For me, the only thing that counts is the idea behind the image: what you want to see and what you're trying to say....”

“I am not as cross about Thatcher now as I was in the '80s. Begrudgingly, I can see that some of her policies helped modernise Britain.”

“When I visited Vietnam for Oxfam, the thing that really struck me was how the local farmers had to prepare to evacuate or climb to their mezzanines with their valuable family possessions.”

“Part of the role of photography is to exaggerate, and that is an aspect that I have to puncture. I do that by showing the world as I really find it.”