The Fiesp Cultural Center is hosting the exhibition 'Small World' by photographer Martin Parr, which returns to Brazil ten years after his last visit. The exhibition will open to the public on October 15th in the institution's Photo Gallery and will feature 45 images taken by the Briton over the last forty years.
These shots demonstrate comical scenes of tourism around the world, including crowds of mobile phones in front of the Mona Lisa or amusing poses of travelers in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The exhibition also includes a decorative beach on Avenida Paulista, where visitors can pose like characters from Parr's photographs or create their own unusual scenes amidst the urban environment. Images taken in this beach setting or in other parts of São Paulo can be shared on social media with the hashtag #parrmundopequeno. Selected images chosen by the organizers will be shown on a special day yet to be announced on the gallery's television.
The exhibition is curated by João Culsar, a colleague of the photographer who was responsible for organizing the show in Brazil following his 30-year world tour. The book 'Small World,' published in 1995, was presented as an exhibition the following year, debuting in London and visiting various capitals, including Edinburgh, where Culsar met Parr in 1996.
After the photographer's death in December 2025, the curator had to suspend the project he was creating with the Briton; this exhibition now serves as a tribute. This is not the first time Parr's work has been shown in Brazil: in 2015, it was presented at the Lumen Gallery in São Paulo with 22 photographs, and the following year at the Museum of Image and Sound (MIS) with 244 images.
Martin Parr is considered one of the greatest figures in 20th-century photography. Born in Epsom, England, in 1952, he studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic College from 1970 to 1973. From his earliest works, he focused on social documentary, acting almost as a chronicler writing through his pictures.
His recognition came in 1994 when he became a member of Magnum, one of the most authoritative photo agencies in the world, founded by masters such as Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rogers, and David 'Chim' Seymour in 1947. Parr headed this organization in 2013 and held that position until 2017. The British photographer taught at the University of Wales Newport from 2004 to 2012, curated the New York Photo Festival in 2008, and the Brighton Photo Biennale, which took place in October 2010. In 2018, he was invited to Artists Room at Tate Modern in London, where his works are on permanent display. He published over 70 books and edited more than 30 exhibitions. He died in December 2025 at his home in Bristol.
The exhibition will take place at Centro Cultural Fiesp at Av. Paulista, 1313, from October 15th to April 4th, 2027. Visits are possible from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM, admission is free.