By Daryl Lang

Bruce Livingstone, founder and CEO of iStockphoto, is resigning from his posts at iStock and the site’s parent company, Getty Images.

Kelly Thompson, chief operating officer for iStock and a longtime friend of Livingstone’s, will now lead the microstock agency. Thompson, who joined iStock in 2004, will report to Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein.

Livingstone founded iStockphoto in Calgary, Alberta in 2000. The site’s runaway success in harnessing crowd-powered online technology made Livingstone a minor celebrity in the Web 2.0 community. Livingstone’s work helped thousands of amateur photographers profit from their work – and the site’s low prices helped plunge the stock photography industry into pricing chaos from which it has not recovered.

Getty Images acquired iStockphoto for $50 million in 2006. In 2007 Livingstone was named senior vice president, consumer markets for Getty Images, an officer-level position. He has been working at Getty’s headquarters in Seattle.

iStock tries to foster community with online message boards and events, and the site’s contributing artists know Livingstone by his online forum handle, “bitter.” Livingstone spoke at iStockalypse events – iStock’s conferences – and he has an iStock tattoo covering most of his arm, with a smaller Getty Images logo inked below it.

In an interview Monday, Thompson said Livingstone’s last day is April 1 and his resignation has been planned for several months. In the spirit of iStock, the company intended to announce Livingstone’s resignation on April Fool’s Day. Worried the news would leak, Livingstone posted a resignation letter on the iStockphoto.com site Monday. He also addressed staff at iStock headquarters in Calgary via video conference from Seattle.

Livingstone’s letter said the decision to resign was difficult, and he gave credit to iStock members and colleagues at Getty Images.

“I need more time with my family, and time to figure out what I'm going to do next. Anybody who knows me, knows I'm a bit of a workaholic. So I'm finally going to make some time for myself and the people in my life,” the letter says.

IStock spokesperson Kara Udziela said Livingstone’s departure was not a decision caused by Getty Images, which announced last week it was laying off 110 people, or about 5 percent of its global staff.

Even as the economic slowdown cuts into traditional stock agencies, iStockphoto’s business is growing. Thompson said Tuesday was the site’s all-time best day, measured in terms of sales.