Misan Harriman to Step Down From Southbank Centre

Photographer and activist Misan Harriman will step down as chair of London’s Southbank Centre this autumn, ending a tenure that began in 2021, according to a spokesperson who said succession planning will follow the institution’s annual general meeting in July. Harriman said in an Instagram video that he had already decided to serve only two terms before right-wing tabloids criticized his social media comments in May. The controversy followed an April 29 stabbing attack in Golders Green, north London, in which Essa Suleiman is accused of stabbing two Jewish men and also stabbing his friend Ishmail Hussein hours earlier; police described the incident as “terrorist.” More than 100,000 people complained to the UK Independent Press Standards Organisation in May about media reports characterizing Harriman’s comments as antisemitic, and Harriman said he received death threats after more than 20 articles scrutinized his posts; he is also known as the first Black photographer to shoot a Vogue cover (September 2020).

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