Charged with racism, the corrosive British photographer Martin Parr has resigned his post as artistic director of the brand new Bristol Photo Festival. At the heart of the controversy, the preface he signs for the reissue of an album by Italian photographer Gian Butturini, who died in 2006. Entitled London , this unvarnished stroll through the English capital was originally published in 1969. "Butturini's London portrays the poor and the working class who failed to make do in the 1960s, far from a tourist point of view ," Martin Parr considers in his foreword .
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However, among the black and white photographs, a double page shows the portrait of a black woman and that, opposite, of a gorilla in a cage at the London Zoo. The juxtaposition angered Mercedes Baptiste Halliday, a student to whom her father had given the book for her 18th birthday: "I was totally disgusted and scandalized, " she told the Guardian.
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The young woman embarked on a long campaign against this "appallingly racist" book and against Martin Parr who by his signature endorsed its publication. “He is representative of this generation of white, middle-aged men who do whatever they want without ever fearing the consequences. He represents the institution and we are only beginning to dismantle it, ” she told The Art Newspaper . An exchange was initiated a few months ago between the young student and the photographer, an exchange in which Martin Parr explained that he regretted not having measured the problem earlier.
But the controversy continued to swell. On Monday, the photographer issued a " public apology " on his website. “I am aware that I have a position of influence in the world of photography and I have reflected on what my responsibilities are, not only in my own work or in the message it conveys, but also in the way which I advise, promote and write about the work of other people, he explains. I have definitely made mistakes and I am so sorry. ”
Martin Parr later announced that he was stepping down from the Bristol festival to avoid tainting the event: “ Getting out of the festival is better for everyone. I believe his future depended on it, ”he told The Guardian .
A decision deemed appropriate by Benjamin Chesterton, a filmmaker who supported the offensive of Mercedes Baptiste Halliday, recalling that " Bristol is the city where the statue of Edward Colston ( slave and merchant of the eighteenth century, Editor's note) was unbolted and thrown in the docks. "
Apart from the flat apologies, Martin Parr said he would donate the fees collected for writing the preface to a charity. He also called for the copies to be withdrawn from sale and their destruction.
