While you’re in East London, The Wick suggests you head on to Martin Parr’s thirteenth exhibition at
Rocket Gallery on Sheep Lane, open on Saturdays to the public until May (and at other times by appointment).
No Smoking centres around Parr’s ongoing interest in cigarettes (the show includes photographs from as early as 1970 and as recently as 2019) and the changing culture and attitudes towards smoking in Britain during the time Parr has been documenting it.
The exhibition is timed to coincide with the publication of Parr’s latest photo book of the same name by The Rocket Press, a survey of the way Parr has photographed smoking culture, why, and how we look at smoking has evolved as part of a wider wellbeing shift in society. Parr is also the subject of a new documentary film by Lee Shulman, I am Martin Parr – an unprecedented look at the revolutionary photographer’s life and work.