Martin Parr’s holiday snaps … with added water damage – in pictures

‘I initially panicked when I realised my box of prints had got damaged by a leak in my office,’ says Parr. ‘However, I got the prints out to dry and suddenly I thought, these look interesting. In fact, to be brutally honest, they were better than the originals. I then put them away in a dry box and forgot about them’

The images in Acropolis Now were taken in the early 90s when Parr was shooting Small World, a project where he captured the classic sights of Europe, such as the leaning tower of Pisa and Notre Dame, Paris.

He was exploring the difference between the realism and mythology of a ‘tourist honey pot’, visiting the most iconic and crowded hot spots. Often they were so frequently visited that they had become eroded or destroyed, impossible to enjoy

The photographs were taken in the blazing sun in Athens. After being captured, they were stored in a box for years. When Parr discovered the images years later, they were damp, revealing colours and shapes that transformed them into something more interesting, turning the subjects into antiquities themselves

Technically, the images were rejects for Small World. But after their accidental, serendipitous transformation, they deserved to be shown in their own right

Martin Parr’s unmistakable eye for the quirks of ordinary life has made him a distinctive voice in visual culture for more than 40 years

Known for his use of garish colours and esoteric composition, Parr has studied cultural peculiarities around the world

‘With photography, I like to create fiction out of reality,’ says Parr. ‘I try to do this by taking society’s natural prejudice and giving [it] a twist’

The themes of leisure, consumption and communication have occupied Parr for much of his career, all of which are explored with a penetrating irony