Free display of fifteen photographs by Martin Parr from a Bodleian-commissioned project on a year in the life of the University of Oxford.
Martin Parr is on display at the Weston Library in Blackwell Hall, with fifteen photographs from a Bodleian-commissioned project that followed a year in the life of the University of Oxford. It's a small showing, but it covers a lot of ground: the ceremonial traditions that the university is so well known for, alongside the quieter, everyday academic life that happens in between. The Bodleian Libraries are organising it, and it's free to see.
For those who know his work, the project will feel familiar. Parr spent a year documenting the university, and the resulting book, Oxford, came out in 2017. These fifteen images are drawn from that commission, so they're a slice of a much larger body of work. If you've read the book, it's a chance to see some of those shots printed and on a wall; if you haven't, it's a good way to get a sense of how he looked at the place.
There's a bit of a double meaning to the display, too. It works as a small tribute to Parr's legacy as a photographer, collaborator and champion of the photographic book. He was one of the most influential photographers of the last fifty years, a figure who transformed the medium through his distinctive vision and became a passionate advocate for the photobook, producing close to 150 publications over his career. He lived from 1952 to 2025, and this display comes from a project he did for the very library that's showing it.
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It's in Blackwell Hall at the Weston Library on Broad Street, OX1 3BG. Entry is free.
