I first discovered Parr's work a couple of years ago on a trip to Paris. There was a mini installation of his photos in the Tuileries, at the end where it meets up with Place de la Concorde. I loved his pictures of tourists, and identified with his point of view so much. His images are beautiful, often funny, sometimes depressing, and always very real.
Looking through my own vacation snapshots, I found that I had taken several photos with a similar theme. It seems like people always try to get the perfect "postcard picture" when they travel, which I think creates something of a false memory. I had always liked the notion of including imperfections and quirks in my travel photography (people, cars, graffiti and construction are all fair game), and felt that Martin Parr was a kindred spirit. Case in point: I took my photo-of-a-photo-of-the-Mona-Lisa before I had seen Parr's image below.
This year I was lucky enough to see a small exhibition of Parr's work at the Maison Europeene de la Photographie in the Marais. Some of my favorites from the exhibit are in the slideshow below.
If you want to see more of Martin Parr's work, I highly recommend his book Small World. A book that corresponds with the MEP exhibit called Grand Paris will be released next month.