“Such a Thing as Society”: The dialogue between the photographs of Martin Parr’s The Last Resort and Margaret Thatcher’s neoliberal policy

Abstract

This study analyzes Martin Parr’s The Last Resort (1983–1985) from a historical perspective to examine the relationship between Thatcherite discourse and its visual representations, identifying how the foundations of neoliberalism affected British society, particularly the working class. The promises of Margaret Thatcher’s government are compared with the realities captured by documentary photography, referencing her 1987 statement in the magazine Woman’s Own (Thatcher, 1987), where she asserted that “there is no such thing as society”. The methodology combines critical discourse analysis, six-layered photographic analysis, and contextual content analysis. The sample comprises images selected by Magnum Photos as the most representative of the photographer’s work. The results demonstrate that Parr’s work successfully deconstructs neoliberal ideology by depicting the everyday suffering resulting from these policies, revealing the gap between propaganda and social reality and reaffirming the critical potential of documentary photography.