Martin Parr: We ❤ Sports

CAMERA – Centro Italiano per la Fotografia announces Martin Parr: We ❤ Sports, the great autumn show that will feature an outright legend of contemporary photography. The exhibition will be staged in collaboration with Lavazza Group, institutional partner of CAMERA, and with Magnum Photos, on the occasion of the Nitto ATP Finals, and will be held in Turin from October 28, 2021 until February 13, 2022 in Via delle Rosine 18. 

Martin Parr: We ❤ Sports, curated by Walter Guadagnini with the support of Monica Poggi, will trace the career of the famous English artist (class of 1952), a member of Magnum Photos, through some 150 images dedicated to a range of sporting events, with a thematic focus revolving around the shots produced by Parr—and commissioned by Lavazza Group—on the occasion of the main tennis tournaments of recent years.

Starting with a selection of black-and-white works, less recognisable yet already symptomatic of Martin Parr’s ability to capture the contradictions of Thatcherite England, the exhibition focuses on the attitudes of people intent on observing and practising a wide range of disciplines, from horseracing on Irish beaches to Tai Chi on the streets of Shanghai. However, it is through the choice of colour as a distinctive element of his poetics—as used almost exclusively from the mid-1980s onwards—that Parr firmly embraces the amateur aesthetic in an ironic game of criticism, aware that he himself is part of the society he portrays with such ruthless cynicism. Appropriating the awkward attitudes and taste for kitsch that characterise the subjects photographed, the author rejects a detached and haughty gaze in favour of a language that is easily understood by everyone and, for this reason, more capable of recounting something of our present.

In these images, the athletes tend to be portrayed at moments of rest rather than during their actual performances, and thus become the pretext around which actions and situations with their own rules and established dynamics take place. What attracts Parr’s attention are mainly the fans, with their choreography, the flashy gadgets used to joyfully display their faith, as well as the grotesque disguises and ingenious contrivances of those who try to observe play from a privileged position. But also the elegant clothes and vaguely snobbish taste of those who attend the horseraces, told in the section entitled A Day at the Races, recalling the famous 1937 film by the Marx brothers set against the scene of one of the most popular pastimes of the English-speaking world. The section dedicated to football is also inspired by cinema, in particular Fever Pitch, based on the novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, the plot of which may be found in the shots of unbridled jubilation by fans who share the same irrepressible passion as the film’s protagonist, played by Colin Firth.

However, the sport to which greatest attention is devoted is tennis, with images taken by Parr starting in 2014 while attending the four Grand Slam tournaments. The 40 images that make up this section, together with the scenographic set-up that transports visitors into the heart of the competition, narrate the dynamics that animate both the stands and the courts, fully synthesising the various aspects of Parr’s research. These images, which are among the most recent in the exhibition, show Parr’s ability to adapt to the changes in amateur aesthetics, which have inevitably been transformed over the years by countless technological innovations.

Viewed through a filter of irony inspired by Parr’s poetics, the exhibition concludes with a section entirely devoted to beach life, where various hobbies mingle with a little well-earned rest.

To coincide with the opening of the exhibition, the volume Match Point, published by Phaidon, will also be released, consisting of over eighty photographs dedicated to the world of tennis.