A wide selection of the work Martin Parr has made on the beaches of his own country, Great Britain, but also in more exotic places such as China, Argentina, Thailand, India and Japan, and in ones closer to home like the coasts of Italy. Whatever the latitude where it is recorded, beach life seems to be a world apart, where everyone gives full rein to their oddities and their whims and where unusual dealings and trades take place, from the services of an ear cleaner in Goa to grilled fish for sale in Chile and pre-cooked spaghetti offered in China. His pictures document every aspect of this custom, with close views of bathers busy tanning, plunging into the sea or at the inevitable picnic. In the United Kingdom it is impossible to be more than a hundred and twenty kilometres from the sea, and with a coastline of that extent it is no surprise that beach pictures are a well-rooted tradition there — which is why he has always looked at beach life as a formidable way of understanding the tics and the habits of the middle class of his country.