Martin Parr’s Real Food: everyday eats in all their grim glory

Poignant and one-eyed, this vision of Mr Blobby in pink meringue, complete with sugar icing nose, surely stole some child’s heart in Taunton, Somerset. From Common Sense, 1998. Photograph: Martin Parr/Magnum Photos

Ah, real food. A loaded phrase, turned on its head by photographer Martin Parr’s collected shots of everyday cuisine. It is now accepted wisdom among the food set that the British diet has transformed beyond recognition. We’ve undergone a revolution! Food has always been an indicator of social identity, never more than for today’s flawlessly filtered Instagram generation. If you live on the internet, you’d think the whole country was milking its own goats, churning its own cashew butter and brunching on smashed avo toast in daily shards of sunshine.

Abergavenny, 2003. Au contraire, Mr Shopkeeper, the British Jammie Dodger never goes out of date. Photograph: Martin Parr/Magnum Photos

Typically, Parr offers a different narrative, a more lurid tale of processed food, eaten with gusto in all its grim glory. And it’s welcome, for there is still a silent majority in this country who favour a Jammie Dodger (“just out of date, but 100% perfect!”) over a chia seed pudding, thanks very much.

This simple image of cheap white bread, slathered in margarine, shot against a gingham backdrop is as familiar, honest and unfiltered as it comes. From British Food, 1995. Photograph: Martin Parr/Magnum Photos

• Real Food by Martin Parr (Phaidon), £14.95, phaidon.com/realfood