Martin Parr’s final photos paint vivid portrait of life in Lacock

Vivid 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”.