Author: Peter Marshall

Last night I dreamed I was presenting a show of my work to my wife and grown-up son in a curiously expanded version of my front room. These were a set of pictures that had been put in the corner and forgotten for a long time, several large prints mounted on polystyrene that was beginning to fall to pieces. But the most curious piece was a large black cloth-bound bible, which, when you opened it, it kind of folded out to give not a book, but a small prospectus of the show, four prints.

The only picture I remember well was a landscape image. From the cathedral tower visible in the distance we worked out that it was taken near Chichester. A metal fence ran across the foreground, but on closer inspection you could see that only part of it was an actual fence, and the rest was a shadow of a fence. The posts (and shadows) divided the space into a number of vertical strips, and if your eye continued up the print, across the fairly flat scrubby landscape, you could see that various features in the distance echoed this division, fitting neatly into the strips across the image. It was a subtle but powerful image, taken in such an ordinary place. Another image was more striking, I don’t remember its details, but it reminded me of Giacomelli or Fontana, some kind of more clearly graphic – and perhaps Italian – landscape. (I showed work in the same festival as Giacomelli in Poland in 2005 – five years after his death; two years later I was back speaking at the same festival and Fontana’s work was showing – but he didn’t come. I’m not a great fan of either man’s landscape work, so why should I dream of having done something like it?)

Several of the pictures had been bent or folded, or otherwise damaged, partly by attempts to push a vacuum cleaner into the (non-existent) corner where they were stored. The overall title of the show, as the ‘bible’ stated was something like ‘Photographs Around the World‘.

I woke up and gradually realised that it was all a dream, and that I hadn’t actually taken these pictures, and I felt distinctly disappointed. I did go to Chichester last year, but the scene didn’t resemble anything I remember as we walked around the area there.

Well, I’ve no idea what this dream meant (if dreams mean anything) but there was perhaps a slight connection with part of the work I’d been doing the previous day, which included preparing some images of rather untidy artists studios for use in the final issue of the magazine ‘Art and Cities‘, due out shortly. But the title of the ‘show’ rather interested me, as I have a well-deserved reputation for seldom photographing anything beyond the reach of a Travelcard.

A corner of David Hepher’s studio in Camberwell

I’ve long felt that living in London you don’t have to travel, because the world comes to you. So, as yesterday’s post here showed, on Saturday I started by photographing a demo about Tibet. I left that as it passed Trafalgar Square to catch the Rally for Dignity and Democracy in Zimbabwe organised by ACTSA as a part of their Dignity! Period campaign to provide sanitary pads for the women and girls of Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s madness has destroyed the economy and caused unbelievable levels of inflation, making such essential supplies unobtainable.

For various reasons the rally, held on International Womens Day, was very badly attended, despite high level trade union support – with the TUC General Secretary coming to speak. Probably many who might otherwise have attended were instead at Hyde Park for the start of the Million Women Rise march in London.

Brendan Barber speaking in Trafalgar Square

Later that afternoon I also called in at the regular weekly Zimbabwe Vigil, started in 2002 and continuing to protest at human rights violations in Zimbabwe. As usual there was drumming and dancing as well as handing out of leaflets.

Peter Marshall

I first met Jason Parkinson when he was illegally detained by police while covering a demonstration at the Harmondsworth and Colnbrook detention centres in west London in April 2006. Police were refusing to accept that he was a journalist and denied that his press card, issued by the UK Press Card Authority was a real press card. On the back of the card it says “The Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland recognise the holder of this card as a bona-fide newsgatherer”, but while this may be so, it often doesn’t seem to be good enough for the officers on the street.

Jason shows his press card to no avail at Harmonsdworth

Jason called out to the three of us standing on an earth bank a few yards away taking pictures, asking us to show our press cards and confirm his was genuine. This left me in a little of a quandary, as when getting things ready for the day I’d noticed that mine had expired at the end of the previous month, which had meant I’d had to hold it with a strategically placed thumb when I waved it at police earlier. Fortunately another colleague jumped forward with a valid card and confirmed that Jason’s was genuine, although even then he was not immediately allowed to exit the police bubble.

It’s typical of Jason that he was in there with the demonstrators covering events, as the strapline from his blog has it, “from an uncompromising angle.” Since then I’ve met him covering many events, and also suffered similar treatment from police who’ve refused to accept my press card as genuine – some officers appear to react rather negatively to the fact that it says ‘NUJ’ prominently on it.

Of course we shouldn’t need a press card. Citizens in a democratic countries enjoy various freedoms, including the right to photograph in public places, freedom of assembly and so on. But no longer so in England in areas designated under SOCPA or indeed most places where a political demonstration is taking place, where our police often assume arbitrary powers and misuse provisions intended by Parliament to prevent terrorism.

But having a press card doesn’t solve problems, nor does the existence of agreed guidelines. In his blog post on the police pay demonstration, Jason writes ‘This officer, CO35, then decided to ignore Metropolitan Police guidelines and halted photojournalists from doing their job. Not just once, but twice. When asked if he knew he was restricting freedom of press CO35 answered by saying, “go away”.’ The only thing that surprises me is the mild language of his response – but of course he knew that Jason was recording every word on video, and that the footage would almost certainly be published.

Its always interesting to me to see how other photographers have covered events that I’ve attended, and on Jason’s blog there are several recent examples of events that you will also find on ‘My London Diary’, including my view of the Anonymous protest against Scientology, Police Pay and Freedom of Protest events. But Jason also gets to places and stories that are harder to reach, and February’s entries include a lengthy report on the ‘Beyond Slavery‘ conference and an interesting feature on Football for Change Iraq.