The Last Resort: The Greyness of the British Working Class by Martin Parr

For a second, it may seem that this is footage from the Soviet Union, but these are pictures of the famous Martin Parr, showing the everyday life of the British working class. Martin Parr is one of the world's most famous photographers of our time. His works are distinguished by the ability to convey the unvarnished reality of society, its ordinariness and greyness. 

The documentary, titled The Last Resort — the first series of photographs that contributed to Parr's success-captures moments of British working-class recreation in the once-popular resort town of New Brighton in the 1980s, which has fallen into disrepair. The series was made in color, although black-and-white photography was more appreciated at the time.

New Brighton is a coastal resort town on the Wirral Peninsula, five kilometres from Liverpool. The peak of the resort's popularity came at the beginning of the last century, when wealthy Britons came there. However, in the 1960s, due to tidal changes in the River Mersey, almost all the sand disappeared, which in turn led to the closure of the ferry service to Liverpool in 1971 and the dismantling of the pier in 1978. The resort fell into disrepair. 

Martin Parr studied photography in 1970-1973 at the City University of Manchester.

In 1994, the photographer became a member of the Magnum Photos agency, although many opposed his candidacy, as they considered the style of his photos evil and mocking. 

Parr himself says: 

For the photo series The Last Resort, Parr began shooting with a flash even during the day, although the motives for creating this project were somewhat different.