To celebrate the release of Lee Shulman’s new documentary, I Am Martin Parr, the renowned photographer set a brief for Dazed Club members. Martin Parr’s call to action, titled Long Live Cinema, was to document a cinema experience. Accordingly, Club members from the UK and beyond responded, each bringing their unique perspective to the task. From homages to Parr’s unique sensibility and aesthetic to photos that seek to capture the cinematic aspects of daily life, here are five of our favourite entries...

JOELY MAE GREALLY

“Martin Parr is one of the first photographers I was introduced to as an artist and I found his work both fascinating and comical. Parr also has many links to Manchester, which is where I’m from. My approach to Long Live Cinema was a soft look through my photographic archive where images may resemble film stills as well as carrying potentially ambiguous messages about the figures within them, of loss, of gain, of yearning.

“I employ a DIY way of working, encompassing language, moving image, performance, print, sound and video. My work encompasses language, moving image, performance, print, sound and video, and inspects the capacity for queered utopias drawing on influences from pop culture and underground scenes. I approached this brief by searching through my archive of images from various artist residencies, live performances conducted and portraits in hotel rooms, searching for work that felt cinematic and ambiguous. The guiding principle was the idea of absence in these images and where an audience might find presence in this gap.” – Joely Mae Greally

MOLLY BONIFACE

“I genuinely think seeing Martin Parr’s work for the first time was one of the earliest realisations I had that I wanted to pursue photography. When I was in my early teens, my parents took me to an exhibition of his seaside series. I loved the colours, it was funny and nostalgic and it all felt so familiar and like a perfect use of the medium. When I went on to study art at college and I specialised in photography and video art, Parr remained one of my key inspirations. 

“This series felt like the perfect concoction of friendship, cinema, and Martin Parr. When I saw the call out, I enlisted my friend Anna – a model, actor, and comedian. Preparing for the shoot, I became obsessed with the ritual of going to the cinema. A friend of ours works in a cinema and he let us in to shoot before the screenings began. Food is a theme in Parr’s work, often shot in garish colour and very close up. From the start, I knew I wanted to get a close-up of Anna eating popcorn. I also knew I wanted to pay homage to Parr’s style with a flat flash to make for high-contrast, saturated photos. This was also an opportunity to showcase the colourful beauty of a cinema screening room, an element of the cinema-going experience that is easy to miss if you arrive after the lights go down.” – Molly Boniface

CHARLOTTE STONE

“My name is Charlotte Stone and I’m an artist in NYC. These are photographs of my friends. I want to express how much I love the people I love, and this is the best way that I can. [In my photographs] I want to capture the moments between the moments.

“The rawness and intimacy of Martin Parr’s work is incredibly inspiring to me. I don’t want to shy away from the parts of life that have dirt on them, I want to capture universal experiences.” – Charlotte Stone

FIONA TORRES MOINO

“What I appreciate most about Martin Parr’s work is his eye for compositions. His photographs are filled with information and interesting characters that all work together. I’m a photographer, filmmaker, and actress: my work explores identity, femininity, bodies and our symbiotic relationship with technology. Blending documentary realism with a cinematic point of view, I practice street photography every day, carrying my camera everywhere I go.

“The pictures I submitted are stills from my first short film, Florhood. Inspired by real stories of young women finding their way in New York City, it captures the emotional highs and lows of personal growth, friendship, and resilience. Rooted in my personal experiences, the film follows Amelia as she encounters memorable individuals — each reflecting different paths and decisions in life. From chance meetings to shared moments of vulnerability, these characters help shape Amelia’s journey as she learns to embrace her inner strength amidst the city’s chaos.” – Fiona Torres Moino

BETHAN COOKE & SARA CARPENTIERI

“I’m a Manchester-based art director, stylist and all-round creative. My work brings to life the narratives that ignite my passion and that I deeply connect with on an emotional level, woven together through fashion storytelling. Nostalgia and my inner child are always at the heart of my visual style, shaped by my curiosity for eras beyond my memory and a desire to recapture the vibrancy of my early 00s childhood.” – Bethan Cooke

“This project is shot in south Manchester, Bethan’s hometown. Having driven past these buildings her entire life and watching them take shape as bingo halls, nightclubs, gyms, and then ultimately be abandoned completely, Bethan always felt a deep connection to the buildings and often romanticised what they used to mean to people.

“Colour and light come into play a lot in my work, I love to capture people who bring that vibrancy and energy to the imagery. Being able to spot a moment and immortalising it in such a vivid way is something I admire the most about Martin Parr. I love delving into an era and feeling like I’m looking into it from the sidelines – it’s comforting to be an onlooker of the chaos.” – Sara Carpentieri 

If you’d like to find out about future Dazed Club open calls, see all the submissions and post your own work, download the app HERE.