Bristol Pride x Martin Parr
Legendary photographer Martin Parr teams up with Bristol Pride and Bristol Museums to showcase a retrospective of his photos of the city’s annual Pride festival.
The world-famous documentary photographer stages a return to Bristol Museum & Art Gallery with a showcase of the city’s colourful Parade March. Images in the exhibition capture all the different walks of life that come to celebrate and protest at Bristol Pride.
Parr’s work is characterised by a fly-on-the-wall and candid documentary style, famous for provoking a wide range of reactions. His work has been collected by many of the world’s leading museums, including the Tate, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He established the Bristol-based Martin Parr Foundation in 2017.
Bristol Pride has been the centrepiece of the city’s LGBTQ+ calendar since the current team revived the event in 2010. It has grown over the years, and now hosts a huge line up of events across the city which all build up to the Parade March through the city centre and Pride Day festival on the Downs.
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery has hosted multiple Martin Parr exhibitions in the past, and is delighted to welcome this new, joyous celebration of the city’s diversity and community spirit.
Daryn Carter MBE, Pride Director, said: “It’s been such a pleasure and so exciting to work with the Martin Parr Foundation and Bristol Museum to display this unique retrospective. Martin’s work captures Pride’s themes of celebration, protest, and visibility in a brilliantly honest way. Having these photos showcased in Bristol Museum is also very special as throughout history, LGBT+ visibility often goes undocumented and forgotten. We’re really proud to have teamed up as a trio of Bristol Institutions to deliver this exhibition”.
Martin Parr explains that: “I have photographed over four Prides and it is always one of the best days for shooting in the Bristol calendar. I like shooting when people are assembling for the march; it gives me a chance to shoot some great homemade placards and to isolate these, to give them more presence. It is fantastic how Pride marches are now enjoyed by so many people. This would not have been the case when these marches started”.
Access information
• Every floor of the building, besides the Sea Dragons mezzanine gallery, can be
accessed via our main passenger lift. There is also an accessible lift from the
foyer to the ground floor. Both lifts have tactile buttons.
• There is level access throughout all of our galleries and an accessible toilet is
available on the ground floor. This exhibition is on the upper second floor.
• This exhibition will not contain flashing lights, audio, or moving images.
• Two adult-sized wheelchairs are available to borrow; please email or call to
book.
• An induction loop is available at the Welcome Desk.
• Assistance dogs are welcome at all of our sites.
• Gallery staff will be on hand if you have any questions or concerns during your
visit.
Getting here
Bus numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 9 and 72 all travel past the museum up Park Street and from the
Clifton Triangle. Find more information on getting here.