Martin Parr Quits as Director of Bristol Photo Festival over Racism Row

Image: Martin Parr apologised for not picking up on the spread and said stepping away from his festival role was best for everyone. Photograph: Alfonso Jimenez/Rex/Shutterstock

The photographer Martin Parr has stepped down from his position as artistic director of a new high-profile arts festival in Bristol amid a racism row.

Parr left his role at the Bristol photo festival after being criticised for his association with a book titled London, by the Italian photographer Gian Butturini.

Images in the book, which was first published in 1969, include a shot of a black woman, placed opposite a photograph of a gorilla in a cage at London zoo. Parr wrote an introduction for a republished 2017 version.

Martin Parr apologised for not picking up on the spread and said stepping away from his festival role was best for everyone. Photograph: Alfonso Jimenez/Rex/Shutterstock

Parr has apologised for not picking up on the spread and on Tuesday said stepping away from his role at the festival was best for everyone. He said he would donate the fee he received for writing the book’s introduction to charity and had asked for copies to be removed from sale and destroyed.

Parr said: “I am deeply embarrassed having overlooked a racist juxtaposition of images in my foreword to the reprint of the book. Throughout my long career I have supported under-represented and emerging photographers. The Martin Parr Foundation (MPF) is a charity that was set up to shine a light on photography, to give young and emerging photographers a platform, and to champion the work of artists from all backgrounds. Photography should be a place for everyone. These values matter greatly to me.”

Last year a London student, Mercedes Baptiste Halliday, picketed Parr’s exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery over his link to the book.

On Tuesday Baptiste Halliday welcomed the fact Parr would no longer head the festival. “It shows campaigning and criticising can actually dismantle the system,” she said.

She began her campaign when her father bought the Butturini book for her 18th birthday without knowing about the offensive image. “I was totally disgusted and outraged by it,” she said.

Benjamin Chesterton, a filmmaker who backed her campaign, said: “Bristol is the city where [Edward] Colston’s statue was dragged from its plinth and dumped in the docks.” He said it was right that Parr had stepped down.

“I believe the future of the festival depended on it,” he said. “The question remains why is it down to a black teenager to confront one of the UK’s leading photographers and curators?”

It also emerged on Tuesday that photography students from the University of the West of England, Bristol, cancelled an end-of-year exhibition at Parr’s foundation.

A UWE Bristol spokesperson said: “In light of recent events, UWE Bristol MA photography students decided to cancel their planned end-of-year exhibition which was due to start at the Martin Parr Foundation last week. The university is fully committed to diversity, equality and inclusion and supports the students’ decision.”