RENOWNED snapper Martin Parr was due to put in an appearance at Merry Hill this afternoon (Thursday September 17) as part of a final showcase of his four-year project documenting people in the Black Country.

A wall filled with photographs of people who live and work in Dudley, taken by the award winning Magnum photographer, is currently on display at the intu shopping centre, featuring people and places from different walks of life – from Teddy Gray’s sweet factory to Dudley Zoo, shop and factory workers.

And the photographer himself was due to stop off to see the display and meet members of the public at 3pm today (Thursday).

Shoppers have been invited along to see if they can see themselves or their friends or family in Martin's eye-catching images which were taken across Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Walsall for the Black Country Stories project - commissioned by West Bromwich community arts charity Multistory.

The images, installed on a large hoarding by the central event area near M&S on the upper mall, can be seen until Sunday September 27.

Katie Mulvaney, marketing co-ordinator, at intu Merry Hill, said: “Martin Parr is an internationally acclaimed documentary photographer so to have his work here and for that work to be about local people is a real coup. We hope shoppers will come to have a look to see if an image of themselves or anyone they know is on display.”

Martin, who has worked all over the world chronicling every day people and the way they live, started the Black Country Stories project in 2010, and it has taken him across the region.

He has created a photographic portrait and archive about the many aspects of traditional and modern life in the Black Country and visited churches, football matches, Diamond Jubilee parties, dances, shops, factories and horticultural shows and many more.

He said: "I am looking forward to presenting a selection of my Dudley images and that the sense of community and diversity and the spirit of the place rubs off on the viewer.”