Martin Parr: The Non-Conformists Book and Print Set

The Non­-Conformists box set features Martin Parr’s first major body of work from the mid­-1970s, published here for the first time in book form. This box set consists of a beautifully designed slipcase to hold the book and a signed and numbered gelatin silver print, titled Anniversary tea, Boulderclough Methodist Chapel, 1975, an iconic image from the series.

In 1975, fresh out of art school, Parr moved to the picturesque Yorkshire Pennine mill town of Hebden Bridge. For five years, he documented the town in photographs, showing, in particular, the aspects of traditional life that were beginning to decline. Susan Mitchell, whom he had met in Manchester and later married, joined Parr in documenting a year in the life of a small Methodist chapel, together with its farming community. Such chapels seemed to encapsulate the region’s disappearing way of life. Here, Parr found his photographic voice, and he and Susie assembled a remarkable and touching historical document.

The book takes its title from the Methodist and Baptist chapels that then characterized this area of Yorkshire and defined the fiercely independent character of the town. Non-Conformist Methodists reject the tenets of state Anglicism, and the Non-Conformist chapel of Hebden Bridge is central to the town and its community. In words and pictures, the Parrs vividly and affectionately document cobbled streets, flat-capped mill workers, hardy gamekeepers, henpecked husbands, and jovial shop owners. The best Parr photographs are interwoven with Susie Parr’s detailed background descriptions of their observed society.

Each limited-edition print is hand-packed with great care and ships from New York within 3–5 days.