Vivid portrait of village life in Parr's final photos

Vivid portrait of village life in Parr's final photosImage source, Martin Parr/MagnumImage caption, Documentary photographer Martin Parr was renowned for capturing Britain's quiet rituals and absurditiesPublished28 June 2026, 07:39 BSTVivid portraits of village life taken by documentary photographer Martin Parr months before his death are now on display.Parr, renowned for capturing the quiet rituals and absurdities of British life, was commissioned by the National Trust to capture life in Lacock, Wiltshire, during the spring and summer of 2025.The resulting exhibition, which was his last major commission before his death in December at the age of 73, is at Lacock Abbey until June 2027.Susie Parr said looking at her husband's photos of the village's flower show, VE Day events, annual scarecrow festival and Women's Institute meetings had been a "bittersweet experience".Parr, who lived in Bristol up until his death, rose to prominence in the mid-1980s, with his study of working class people on holiday in New Brighton in Merseyside.In 2017, he was commissioned by the BBC to create new idents for the broadcaster to "capture an evolving portrait of modern Britain in all its diversity".More from WiltshireMeet the villagers who share a flock of sheepPublished3 days ago'Some of the rarest records in the world' being soldPublished3 days agoChildren talk about fears for life in the futurePublished3 days agoAnd last year, four decades after first documenting life in Lacock, he again turned his flat but amused and sympathetic eye on the picturesque village to capture the smallest details of everyday life.Susie said there were "so many echoes" from her husband's work "throughout his long career" in the collection."It's a credit to Martin that he made this work, so full of the life he loved, when his health was failing so dramatically," she said.Lacock is known as Britain's birthpla...