Martin Parr loves his food!

Martin Parr's food seems to be flavour of the month right now. It's cropping up everywhere.

First sighting was in Kassel where Martin had a major food moment with his SAY CHEESE dinner time extravaganza. The meal was complete with a Parr photobook picture menu with dishes that looked liked one thing and tasted like something else. It was bizarre, funny and not to mention strangely tasty. And it was served with a running monologue from a look-alike Cockney waitress. Martin signed the menus with a threat and a promise that they would more than likely end up on ebay the next day.

To top that Martin offered a Kassel Menu produced exclusively for the Fotobookfestival. The Parr Menu Book comes with 46 pictures which the buyer can mix and match as they wish. Kassel Menu is limited to 350 copies, all numbered and signed by Martin Parr.

Next was the banana incident. I posted a piece on my blog back in 2009 about a recipe book, Be bold with Bananas. Freud said that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, to paraphrase these bananas were something else. I discovered the book here in NZ. it was printed in South Africa for NZ Fruit Distributors in Wellington. Either the good people at Fruit Distributors had a tremendous sense of humor or they were terribly naive. I suspect the later. Some of the pictures leave nothing to the imagination. I mean have you ever seen a banana that straight, or should I say bent. I passed the title on to Martin thinking it would look great as part of a recipe book section in his Photobook series. But it never made the cut.
Working with publisher Salon Verlag Martin has now made his own version of the book, it's a homage and Martin says this, I was immediately struck when I saw “Be bold with Bananas”
It had  some wonderful sexual undertones, and was just plain surreal. The title is also very ambivalent, so when invited to participate in this project, I had no hesitation in selecting this title.

Be Bold With Bananas - straight not bent

Last, and this is the clincher, Martin Parr now has his own food and other ephemera related clothing line. It's available from the House of Holland and it's called MARTIN FUCKING PARR. You can get yourself a T shirt or sweat shirt with sausages and chips, eggs, a cup of tea. Totally British, totally Parr. Get them while they are hot. Or not.

House of Holland - MARTIN FUCKING PARR

We are wondering what's next?