Art / Photography
New exhibition of Martin Parr photos focuses on Bristol Pride
A selection of Martin Parr’s photos of Bristol Pride will be displayed in Bristol Museum this summer.
Bristol Pride x Martin Parr features images that capture the celebration and protest of the city’s Pride over the last decade.
Capturing the parade in a candid documentary style, the exhibition also includes isolated pictures of homemade placards which Parr says “gives them more presence”.
A selection of Martin Parr’s photos of Bristol Pride will be displayed in Bristol Museum this summer – photo: Cerys Larsen
Speaking at the exhibition, Parr told Bristol 24/7 that photography is “a great vehicle for communication”.
Parr said: “It’s a great way of showing what things are like.
“I think Pride now is quite normalised, and rather 30 or 40 years ago if you were gay it could be problematic, but now people are very accepting, you see the march and you see up on the Downs people of all class, denomination, age, they are all there, all enjoying it.”
Photographer Martin Parr – here with one of his subjects, former lord mayor Jos Clark, says that photography is “a great vehicle for communication” – photo: Cerys Larsen
Parr, whose foundation and exhibition space is at the Paintworks, has only recently started to focus more on his home town.
“It wasn’t until maybe six years ago I decided I must now start taking more pictures in Bristol.
“I will eventually do a book about my Bristol photographs.”
Martin Parr has photographed several Bristol Pride events, including on the Downs in 2019 – photo: Martin Parr
Bristol Pride director Daryn Carter told Bristol 24/7 that the exhibition is “a real reflection of the make-up of Bristol and the fact that LGBT+ people exist across every community”.
Carter said: “It’s all done through a very candid lens.
“All of these pictures show different moments of joy, celebration and protest, and that’s what Pride is about.
“As you look at history, often LGBT+ people have been erased from history.
“Pride is the opportunity to combat that and to have the visibility for the community, and photographers are able to share those images and showcase that we exist.”
Director of Bristol Pride Daryn Carter MBE says that the exhibition is “done through a very candid lens” – Photo: Cerys Larsen
Carter hopes the exhibition will promote visibility “to tackle what we’re now seeing as a pushback on the hard-fought rights that we’ve achieved over the last couple of years”.
“I think you can come and you can just enjoy the colour and the joy that’s in every photo, but I think also you can take away those messages.”
Bristol Pride x Martin Parr is at Bristol Museum from 27 May 27 to November 23. For more information, visit www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/bristol-pride-x-martin-parr
Main photo: Cerys Larsen
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