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In the summer of 2024 Harry Styles was taking time out after a 22-month world tour. He had turned 30 earlier that year. Staying in a house outside Rome with his friend Alessandro Michele, the former creative director at Gucci, Styles invited Martin Parr, the British photographer and Sunday Times contributor, to capture him at home and off duty.

Parr died in December aged 73. This is the first time these photographs have been published.

Harry Styles in Italy, summer 2024, photographed by Martin Parr

MARTIN PARR / DMB

Harry Lambert: Let’s start by talking about your relationship with Martin Parr. How did these images come about?

Harry Styles: Martin is someone I’ve always wanted to work with. He’s a British icon and his photography has a sense of humour that is often lost in what is considered to be “high art”. I love his lens, the way he looks at the quieter side of British culture and sees something special. He’s the photographer that, while everyone else is doing fashion shoots, he’s taking pictures of what’s going on to the side — and he’s seeing something special in that.

The shoot came about when I spent the summer in Italy in 2024. It was a big, important, transitional moment for me — to stop working and be settled somewhere for a while. I was settling into that life and a new space. I was aware of how pivotal that time in my life was going to be and capturing it with someone like Martin felt like a fun opportunity.

The images and the shoot were never meant to be for any outside use. However, when Martin sent them I fell in love with them and he was keen to see them published. Before he passed we’d discussed offering them to The Sunday Times Magazine, a publication Martin loved.

Parr joins Styles and friends for dinner, summer 2024

COURTESY OF HARRY STYLES

When we started working together you weren’t comfortable allowing people to shoot in your private space, but you allowed Martin into your inner world, to meet your friend Alessandro. How did that feel for you?

This shoot happened at a time when I was really struggling with trying to be as private as possible. I felt like that was becoming increasingly difficult. I’m so glad that we did it. I found it really inspiring to watch Martin at work. There are a lot of people who aren’t lucky enough to enjoy what they do that much. I found how he works, his curiosity and explorative nature, really inspirational.

When I heard that Martin died I was sent a picture of him — he’d been in the mountains just three days before — and he was lying on a snowmobile with his camera, with his eyes closed. And I thought he was so in it until that very last moment. He really lived and walked the walk, doing what he loved.

Styles in Italy with Alessandro Michele, the former creative director at Gucci, now at Valentino

MARTIN PARR / DMB

I don’t think I’ve heard you say how we met. I’m intrigued to hear how you remember it.

When I moved to London I started meeting a lot of people — lots of different types of people — and it was such an eye-opening experience for me. I’d never seen people dress so differently. It blew my world up in a lot of ways. I was 19 and I realised there were parts of this that I wanted to discover for myself.

I learnt that getting dressed up can be fun, that I like wearing a suit and I like trying new looks. But I remember the first time I went back to where I grew up [Styles was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, before moving as a child to Holmes Chapel in Cheshire], wearing a pair of Chelsea boots. People were, like, “What the f*** are you wearing? They’re not football trainers.” I was ripped for wearing Chelsea boots! But from the first time we met at a pub [in 2014] and you showed me the clothes you’d brought with you, I felt like you didn’t take any of it too seriously — and that was refreshing to me.

Styles and Lambert on a photoshoot for Vogue in 2020

With Lambert at the Grammy awards in Los Angeles on February 1

STELLA BLACKMON

I remember when you went solo and I saw you at one of your first live performances. I felt you were scared, vulnerable and a bit nervous. It was the first time I’d seen you like that. Was it because of the pressure of that first performance? Did it feel like starting again?

Styles, left, with One Direction in 2011

ALAMY

Britney and the schoolgirl outfit, Elvis and his white jumpsuit, Madonna and her pointy bra… I wondered what you feel is that iconic image that you’d want people to remember you for?

Wearing a Gucci outfit on stage at Wembley Stadium as the heavens open, 2022

After Love on Tour [Styles’s world tour ran from September 2021 to July 2023] you chose to take time out — the first proper break you’d had in ten-plus years. What has life been like for you for the past two and a half years?

At the end of the tour the idea of taking time out felt insane. I didn’t know if I could do it. But it was the right time for me — we’d finished the tour in July and I was turning 30 in February. It was time for me to stop for a bit and pay some attention to other parts of my life.

Italy has become really special to me over the past few years. I drove from London to Rome during Covid, in that time when you could travel. I’d spent all my years before that touring — with little gaps in between — and if I had a week off I’d never have driven somewhere, I would have got there and back as fast as possible. Presented with this time, I drove there — and I thought, I’m going to enjoy doing this. When I was in Rome, the city just taught me how to slow down.

Italy became so important to me because I was so used to everything moving so quickly and being on the go, but then I remember going to a café and sitting and having a coffee and thinking, “I don’t remember the last time I sat down and had a coffee — if I’ve ever sat down and just had a coffee.” I was suddenly learning, through my friends, that eating a meal is more than just sitting down and refuelling. I realised the pleasure in just being in the moment of what you’re doing. The Romans are the best at that — that’s their speciality. The pace they’ve taught me has been so special.