The Great British seaside resort, English eccentricities, crap food, Brits on tour; whatever the subject Martin Parr turns his lens toward, our peculiarities and quirks as a nation are often the underlying narrative. Parr is a British photographer like no other, his long and storied career an inspiration to countless artists, his satirical eye for the intimate revered the world over.

As the City of London’s photographer-in-residence since 2013, Parr has had unprecedented access to a series of high-profile events that are more British, more queer than any beachside café could be. The Lord Mayor’s Show, St Matthew’s Day Parade, stuff you see early morning on BBC before frantically searching for the remote control. Pomp, and ceremony, and downright weirdness.

The oddballs who wait for hours in the rain to see it all, the oddballs behind-the-scenes, the oddballs at the heart of it all, they all star in a new exhibition just opened at Guildhall Art Gallery; Unseen City: Photos by Martin Parr is a culmination of the photographer’s time at the centre of these unmistakably British traditions, a document of dignitaries, ceremonies, banquets, captured in the way that only Parr can.

Unseen City: Photos by Martin Parr continues until 31 July.

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Lord Mayor’s Show, Guildhall, City of London, 2014.
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos

Silent Ceremony, swearing in of new Lord Mayor, Fiona Woolf,
Guildhall, City of London, 2013. © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos