Dripping ice cream cones, lopsided hamburgers, snack wrappers preserved like pop relics. With Snack It!, Martin Parr turns the spotlight on food as image, symbol, and ritual at Yeast Photo Festival 2025 (September 25 – November 9, Matino and Salento). The exhibition, staged at Palazzo dei Marchesi del Tufo in Matino, brings together over sixty photographs spanning decades of Parr’s work, revealing how eating habits mirror culture, desire, and identity.
Food, in Parr’s view, is never just nourishment. It is a social code: a performance of taste, a display of status, a stage where irony often outshines appetite. From the intimate tensions of his iconic Bored Couples to the hyper-decorated cakes and fast-food meals of his later series, Parr captures both attraction and absurdity. His humor—acerbic but playful—makes the everyday unsettling, turning what seems ordinary into a collective portrait of excess.
Never Enough: the paradox of abundance
This year’s festival theme, “(N)ever Enough”, highlights the contradictions of contemporary consumption: abundance for some, scarcity for many. “We live in a world where any culinary desire can be fulfilled instantly, yet this very abundance hides enormous environmental and social costs,” says artistic director Edda Fahrenhorst. Parr’s work embodies this tension, balancing fascination with critique.
From Matino to Gallipoli and Lecce
Parr’s presence extends beyond Matino. In Gallipoli, nine large-scale prints transform the city’s old walls facing the Spiaggia della Purità into an open-air gallery, an introduction to Snack It! before entering the festival’s main venues. In Lecce, WOW!—curated by Jan von Holleben and Fahrenhorst for KidsLovePhotography—presents a playful selection designed for children and families at Palazzo Scarciglia, adapted from the book of the same name published by OTM Company. Here, Parr’s colorful images become visual riddles, asking simple questions—who, what, where, why?—that lead to more complex reflections.
A festival across the Salento
Now in its fourth edition, Yeast Photo Festival consolidates its identity as a “diffused” festival, expanding from its historic locations in Matino, Lecce, Castrignano de’ Greci, and Supersano to include Gallipoli and Galatina. The program spreads across historic palaces, deconsecrated churches, and repurposed spaces, with a curatorial vision that links local heritage to international photography. Partnerships with Fotofestival horizonte zingst (Germany) and Fotofestival Lenzburg (Switzerland) strengthen its European profile, positioning Yeast as a significant hub in the contemporary photography circuit.
Martin Parr: irony as a method
Born in 1952, Parr is one of Britain’s most influential photographers. A member of Magnum Photos since 1994 and founder of the Martin Parr Foundation, he has published over 120 books and curated major international exhibitions, including retrospectives at the Barbican and the National Portrait Gallery in London. His signature style—bright colors, frontal compositions, and satirical detail—has shaped a new way of looking at the everyday.
At Yeast, his work takes on the role of mirror and critique: food as icon of the fast, hyper-consumerist age. On September 26, Parr will also appear in conversation with journalist Riccardo Staglianò at the festival’s opening in Matino, discussing photography as language, irony as a critical tool, and the contradictions of contemporary abundance.
