Turning the lens back on the master documentarian of human absurdity, a new exhibition at Saint Laurent Montaigne unpacks decades of tongue-in-cheek self-interrogation.
For decades, legendary British photographer Martin Parr defined his career by training a hyper-saturated, unsparing lens on the comedic absurdities, mass tourism, and eccentricities of contemporary society. But in Autoportrait—a striking new exhibition curated by Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent Montaigne in Paris—the chronicler becomes the subject. Spanning self-portraits captured between 1996 and 2015 across global travels, the showcase pulls back the curtain on an eccentric, lesser-known body of work where Parr routinely turned the camera on himself.
Collaborating with local photo studios, street portraitists, and automated photobooths around the world, Parr weaponized the kitschy tropes of tourist photography—garish backdrops, exaggerated digital retouching, and ironic disguises—to interrogate the mechanics of modern self-image.
Running until January 13, 2027, at 37 Avenue Montaigne, the exhibition deepens the enduring creative dialogue between the iconic photographer and Saint Laurent following their 2025 An Ordinary Day campaign.
PHOTO CREDIT: Saint Laurent