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Walthamstow Housing Action & Class War at the Ripper Museum – 2015

Walthamstow Housing Action & Class War at the Ripper Museum: On Saturday 21st November 2015 I spent an hour covering a lunchtime rally and march about the housing problems in the London Borough of Waltham Forest before rushing to Whitechapel where Class War were holding another of their protests outside the sensational tourist attraction celebrating the horrific acts of ‘Jack the Ripper’.

Homes for All against social cleansing

Leyton & Walthamstow

Walthamstow Housing Action & Class War at the Ripper Museum

People met in Abbots Park Leyton for a rally organised by Waltham Forest Housing Action before they marched to a longer rally in the centre of Walthamstow. over the severe housing problems faced by those living in the borough of Waltham Forest.

The council has a housing waiting list of over 20,000 families, and although there is considerable home building taking place in the borough only 400 of 12,000 homes planned in Walthamstow in the next 5 years are for low earners.

As in most of London’s boroughs, mainly held by Labour councils, the ‘regeneration’ schemes begun under New Labour has led to the loss of social housing, pricing most local people in the many lower paid and middle-income jobs which are essential for the city to run. Regeneration has led to social cleansing with poorer residents being forced out to areas further from the centre.

The campaigners called for an end to housing evictions in the area – then taking place at twice the average rate for London, and the capping of private rents which are on average much higher than the maximum set by housing benefit, as well as a huge increase in social housing.

Housing benefit acts as a huge public subsidy for landlords, passing money to them. The public and those who live in rented accommodation would be much better served by money being spent of building social housing which would give a return to local councils from the rents.

Private rents allow landlords to get housing benefit and the excess rent paid by the tenants to pay off the loans they take out so they can buy property and get the benefit of increasing their capital – at our and the tenant’s expense.

Rising rents have increasingly made it impossible for many key workers – teachers, firefighters and others – to afford to live in the boroughs they serve.

*Press TV interviewed one of the campaigners who holds a placard ‘I have moved 4 times in 3 years! I want secure affordable housing’*

Although Press TV covered the event there was (as usual) no interest shown by mainstream UK media

Among the trade unions supporting the march were the National Union of Teachers and the Fire Brigades Union – who provided their fire engine as a platform for speakers and to lead the march.

Local politicians also came for the event along with Green Party Deputy Leader Dr Shahrar Ali. Among local groups with banners were residents of Residents of Fred Wigg and John Walsh towers on the edge of Wanstead Flats in Leytonstone., where the 234 social housing units are to be replaced by only 160 and new private flats were to be sold to raise £30 million.

I left as the march was on its way to Walthamstow to go to Whitechapel.

More on My London Diary at Homes for All against social cleansing.

Class War at the Ripper ‘Museum’

Cable St, Whitechapel

I met Class War as they arrived outside the Jack the Ripper tourist attraction in Cable St with their ‘Womens Death Brigade‘ banner for another in their series of protests against the ‘museum’ which celebrates the brutal and macabre killings of working class women in Whitechapel in 1888.

*Owner Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe’s partner Julian Pino and an employee in the shop*

The murderer was an insane serial killer who ripped open the bodies of his victims, removing the uterus and heart and a whole industry has arisen over trying to establish his identity, spurred on by the particularly gory details of his crimes.

*An officer tells Puno to stop phoning ‘999’ as the police are already here*

Although the police at the time were unable to solve the case, they appear to have given up after Montague Druitt drowned himself in the Thames shortly after the final one of these murders. But those aiming to profit from the whole series of articles, books and films have done their best to build up doubt and uncertainty, putting forward others, often very unlikely such as painter Walter Sickert, as the criminal.

The protest was noisy but peaceful with many of those taking part wearing masks of the shop’s owner – who had lied about the site becoming a museum to celebrate women’s history to gain support and planning permission.

It was enlivened by the arrival of activist singer/guitarist Cosmo who performed three appropriate songs which raised everyone’s spirits, and even the police obviously enjoyed the protest.

Shop owner Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe had left a shop worker and his partner Julian Pino inside the ‘museum’ to face the protesters and their was one spot of farce when a police officer went inside to tell him to stop continually phoning ‘999’ as the police were already there.

A man claiming to be a local resident and seemed to be a friend of the ‘museum’ came to complain to Class War against them protesting against a business that was bringing investment to an area that was so obviously in need of it. He was told that this kind of investmentglorified violence against women and was clearly detrimental to the area and offensive to many – including the living descendants of the victims.

It was hard to avoid the conclusion that his intervention had been prompted and possibly funded by the owner of this tacky tourist attraction, which noticeably attracted no customers while the protest was taking place.

More on My London Diary at Class War at the Ripper ‘Museum’.

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Tollington to Holloway – 1990

Tollington to Holloway continues my walk on Sunday February 11th 1990 which began at Kings Cross with the post Kings Cross and Pentonville 1990. The previous post was More from Tollington Park – 1990.

House, Tollington Way, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-56 — *House, 1A, Cornwallis Rd, Finsbury Park, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-56*

This 3 storey detached house on Cornwallis Road, just a few yards down from Tollington Way, attracted my attention for its unusual decoration above what seemed a very ordinary door and window. According to Streets With a Story the street was developed in three periods as Shadwell Road, Esher Villas and Cornwallis Road in 1863, 1879 and 1885. This house probably dates from the latter part of that development but I’ve found nothing about it on-line

*Royal Northern Hospital, Tollington Way, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-42*

The Royal Northern Hospital was founded in York Rd (York Way) in 1856 at his own expense by a surgeon who had been sacked from University College Hospital for smacking a patient’s bottom. The hospital provided free services for North London’s Poor as well as treating railway workers. But the railway bought the house and they had to move, using several properties in the area. Finally it got is own home and the Great Northern Central Hospital opened on Holloway Road in 1888, changing its name to the Royal Northern Hospital in 1921 and expanding to Tollington Way in the 1930s. It merged with the Whittington Hospital in 1963. The facade of the main building has been retained on Holloway Rd and the building is the Northern Medical Centre

*Holloway Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-43*

This picture was made from Tollington Way looking to the rather grand Italianate terraced villas on the opposite side of Holloway Road, Belgrave Terrace. They were locally listed in 1978. At left is The Cock Tavern at 596 Holloway Road. The pub was built in the 1880s and in the 2000s became a live music venue and bar, now Nambucca. Damaged by fire in December 2008 it reopened in 2010 and was refurbished in 2014 only to close in 2022 but unexpectedly reopen in 2024.

*VICTORY TO THE IRA, Landseer Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-46*

Holloway is one of the more densely populated areas of London with a very multicultural population including many Irish among its residents, and among them a significant number who supported the Irish struggle against the English occupiers in Northern Ireland. In 1990 we were in the middle of active attacks by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on targets in London – the following year they attacked Downing Street using mortar shells and in 1992 a powerful bomb at the Baltic Exchange destroyed it and other buildings in the City of London, following this in 1993 with another bomb in Bishopsgate.

The street was named after the animal painter and sculptor Sir Edwin Landseer, best known now for the lions at the base of Nelson’s column. He became a ‘national treasure‘ and his death in 1873 gave rise to mourning across the nation and large crowds lined the streets as his funeral cortège made its way to St Paul’s Cathedral. Probably the street dates from around then.

*W Wooley, Egg & Butter Merchant, 541, Holloway Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-31*

The building is still there on Holloway Road, but sadly is no longer an Egg & Butter Merchant and has a new shopfront – and a bus shelter on the pavement in front of it.

Tollington to Holloway - 1990 — *Lingerie, Stop Smoking, Royal Jelly & Ginseng, Holloway Rd, Holloway, Islington, 1990, 90-2d-32*

As I made my way to the station at the end of my walk I could not resist this shop window with a rather strange mix of products including those listed and some rather strange health supplements. I only stopped long enough to take a picture and wasn’t tempted to buy anything.

My next walk a week later was also in North London and will be the subject of a later post.

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Stop The War March, November 2001

Stop The War March: Although I’ve usually posted events from the past on the actual anniversary, this post comes a day late as by the time I remembered this I had already written a post for yesterday. So although I’m publishing this on 19th November, the march organised by Stop The War took place on November 18th 2001. It was a large one, although as I wrote the reports by police severely under-counted the numbers taking part.

The Stop the War Coalition had been founded in September 2001 in the weeks following 9/11 after George W. Bush had announced the “war on terror”. At first its protests were mainly directed against the war in Afghanistan, but later it opposed the the US-led military invasion of Iraq and since then has campaigned against other wars against Libya, in Syria and elsewhere.

In recent years it has been one of the groups involved in the many protests, small and large against the genocide taking place in Gaza along with CND and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

I had covered their first major march by Stop the War in October 2001 and have continue to photograph many of their events to the present day, though for medical reasons had to miss the largest public demonstration in British history on 15th February 2003 shortly before the invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003.

Back in 2003 the coalition was a huge one. Wikipedia states “Greenpeace, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party (SNP) were among the 450 organisations which had affiliated to the coalition, and the coalition’s website listed 321 peace groups.”

The Socialist Workers Party has always played a leading role in Stop the War and the Muslim community has been important from the start with the coalition recognising “a war against Afghanistan would be perceived as an attack on Islam and that Muslims, or those perceived as being Muslim, would face racist attacks in the United Kingdom if the government joined the war.” The Muslim Association of Britain was closely involve in organising this and other protests.

In 2001 I was still photographing using film, both black and white and colour, and all of the pictures I contributed to picture libraries were in black and white, as are those on My London Diary. Back then the demand from newspapers and magazines was still mainly for black and white and was still reproduced largely from prints.

Occasionally I would print images taken on colour negative as black and white prints to submit but mainly I had sufficient pictures taken as black and white. There are some people who now convert their colour digital images into black and white, feeling I think that it somehow makes them more ‘authentic’. It does occasionally make images stronger but mostly it simply makes them less descriptive and often confused.

Below is the post I wrote for My London Diary. It says nothing about why the protest was taking place, which would have been obvious to viewers at the time that it was against the war in Afghanistan.

“November 18 we were back again marching to stop the war. Two hours after the march started there were still marchers leaving Hyde Park, and we were getting messages that Trafalgar Square was full. The police estimate of 20,000 was pathetically low and even the organisers’ figure of 50,000 might have been on the low side. It’s always difficult to count such things (I usually give up counting around the one thousand mark when I’m covering demonstrations and make a guess above that, but this was certainly on a similar scale to the countryside march which is the largest event in recent years.

The march was more split up into factions than most, although the start was fairly mixed. There were large organised male and female sections of Muslims for Justice in the middle of the march and a big group of younger marchers, including anarchists, towards the end. Actually I didn’t manage to see the end of the march, and people were still arriving in Trafalgar Square when I left.”

A few more pictures on My London Diary

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Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 12 – 2017

Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 12: On Saturday 18th November 2017 I put my folding bike on three trains to take me to Bedford Station and rode the five or so miles to the closed main gates of Twinwoods Business Park on a former wartime aerodrome. Mostly it was an easy ride, but the last half-mile or so was up a rather steep hill and I was well out of breath by the time I arrived to meet the crowd of protesters already there but waiting for more coaches to arrive.

It was I think my 11th visit to photograph the protests organised by Movement for Justice at Yarls Wood Immigration Centre on the other side of the business park a little over a mile away which we could reach by a public footpath.

The numbers at the protest were down on the previous protest as the preparations for the event had been disrupted by a controversy about Movement for Justice, with one formerly very active member leaving feeling very angry about the group’s treatment of her. Although I sympathised with her I felt that much of what she claimed to reveal about the group was already well known and that she and her supporters were using her personal issue in a way that damaged the campaign to close Yarl’s Wood and other immigration prisons.

As I wrote in 2017:
“MfJ has never made any secret of its political background (you can read about it on Wikipedia), and has done far more than any other group to raise the issue of immigration detention, organising major protests at Harmondsworth, the Home Office and Yarl’s Wood and working practically with many former asylum seekers to stop deportations. And while much of the organisation of protests has clearly been carried out by a small and devoted core group, the activity and enthusiasm of those former asylum seekers is vital. MfJ would be impotent without their support, which it would not have unless it commanded their respect.”

The protesters held a noisy rally on the grassy area at the side of the road, with much chanting of slogans, practising them for when they would be outside the prison. They had brought large clear posters and banners that the women inside would latter be able to see, as well as a sound system and a ladder.

When all had arrived we set off marching a few hundred metres down the road to the start of the footpath, with me pushing my bike and stopping occasionally to take pictures. When we got closer to the site, one of the campaigners kindly offered to push my bike so I could take pictures of the marchers more easily.

We went through a gate into a field next to the detention centre where the protesters began to make a great deal of noise, particularly by kicking and banging on the lower solid metal section of the 20ft fence imprisoning the site.

The field slopes up steeply from the fence and others stood on the flat area at the top where they could see through the grid on the top 10 feet of the fence – and be seen by the women inside who were able to get to the upper floor windows. Some of the protesters had brought flowers and stood on the ladder to poke them into the grid.

We could see – if not clearly – the women inside who had come to greet the protesters, holding up messages: ‘SOS Plz’, ‘5 Months In No End in sight‘, ‘We Need Freedom‘, ‘We just no visa not criminal‘, ‘Release Us’. The windows can only be opened a few inches but some managed to hold out their messages. The photographs using a very long lens show them more clearly than we could see them.

The prison guards had put on a fashion show in another block of the centre to try to entice the women away from the windows, and guards were harassing them and telling them to leave the rooms facing the protest, event trying to pull them away, but they still manage to stay there to greet the protest. But some of the windows were pretty crowded.

Some held up mobile phone numbers in large print – the detainees are allowed phones to contact their lawyers and others over their immigration cases – and we were able to hear their voices which were relayed to the PA system. We could also hear them shouting, though it was hard to make out what they were saying.

Speakers standing on a ladder could see and be heard by the women inside, and most of those who spoke were former detainees at Yarl’s Wood or other detention centres. Mabel Gawanas who was held inside there for a day under 3 years was able to speak to her friends still inside.

*Between speeches there was more noise, and the samba band played.*

Also speaking was a woman released only a few days earlier who thanked MfJ and greeted her friends still inside.

I commented “‘China’ , ‘China’, ‘Release Us’, ‘We Need Freedom’ , ‘5 Months In No End In Sight’ , ‘Release’. None of these people should be locked up. There is no good reason to lock any of them up. Some need help and protection. All need to be treated as human beings, not pawns in a numbers game to satisfy the racist right.”

Other former detainees spoke, including some others recently release and this man who had been held in three different detention centres.

And on the hill people held their banners and the protest continued.

It was mid-November and the light was beginning to fall and the protest was to end shortly. I was getting cold and decided I had to leave, and pushed my bike back to the road for the ride back to Bedford station. Fortunately apart from one short steep hill it was mainly downhill.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at Shut Down Yarl’s Wood 12.

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Stanford-le-Hope, Corringham, Fobbing and Vange – 2005

Stanford-le-Hope, Corringham, Fobbing and Vange: On Thursday November 17th 2005 I took my Brompton folding bike on the train to Waterloo, cycled from there to Fenchurch Street station and then took another train to Stanford-le-Hope, a small town in Essex east of Tilbury. For some years I’d been photographing on both sides of the River Thames in Kent and Essex, but this was an area I’d yet to explore.

Much of the area is marsh and there are few roads, but it is also the site of Coryton and Thames Haven oil terminals.The building of London Gatway Port began there three years later and it opened in November 2013, “a fully integrated logistics facility” located 30 miles east of London, “able to handle some of the largest container ships in the world.”

I wasn’t able to access the oil terminals but could see them from a distance both on this ride and on other rides I made to Canvey Island.

Below is what I wrote about the ride in 2005:

We had some fine weather in the middle of the month, which got me out on my bike again to take a ride around the north side of the Thames estuary, from Stanford-le-Hope – where Joseph Conrad lived and wrote for a couple of years along to Corringham village, then on to Fobbing and past Vange marshes to Pitsea station.

The first miles were on low-lying farmland, with the skyline dominated by the oil tanks and refinery at Coryton (named for the Cory brothers who bought the site in 1923). The old village at Corringham is on a low hill, and parts remain very picturesque. Fobbing has some more serious hills, its main street falling sharply from the church down to the marshes. I took the bike a short way on the footpaths across the marsh, but it wasn’t a suitable surface for riding.

Large-scale development is expected in the area, as the former Shell Haven site, just to the west of Coryton, is to become a large container port, London Gateway.

In the recreation ground at Fobbing is a memorial arch. In May 1381, a tax collector, Thomas Bampton, came to the village to demand unpaid poll tax from the peasants of Fobbing, Stanford and Corringham; his demands were so unreasonable that this caused a riot and the villagers threw him out.

By the following day, three of Bampton’s men had been killed and the revolt was spreading through Essex and further afield. News doubtless travelled across the river to Kent, where John Ball had earlier been arrested for his radical views, and Kent peasants also revolted. The arch was erected for the 600 anniversary in 1981. [More about the 1381 Great Rising or Peasant’s Reevolt on Wikipedia]

*Fobbing churchyard and view towards Southend*

North of the village, Marsh Lane is a bridleway leading out onto the marshes. There had been rather too much rain recently to make cycling along it easy, with large puddles and tractor-churned mud. After around three quarters of a mile, the track became just a grassy footpath and I turned round and made my way back up to the main road on the higher ground overlooking the marsh. [My Brompton soon becomes unrideable on very muddy ground, with mud between the mudguards and tyre locking the wheels – and a difficult job to scrape out.]

Vange is now very cut-off from its marshes, both by the railway line and the A13 road. I’d hoped to explore the marsh a little more, but when my front tyre got a puncture decided to make directly for Pitsea station and the trains home.

More pictures from the ride on My London Diary.

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More City of London Panoramas – 1994

More City of London Panoramas: This is the final set of picturesI’ll post from those I made while working on a personal project on the City of London in July 1994. Of course I took many which I’ve not digitised, spending several days walking the City and making over 300 exposures. The camera I used makes negatives on standard 35mm film which are wider than normal and a ’36 exposure’ film only gets around 20 or 21 panoramic frames. Film loading is also trickier as the film has to go around a curve.

Each exposure took a few minutes to select a viewpoint, set up my tripod, level the camera, use a handheld lightmeter to check exposure and finally press the cable release. Most of those not uploaded are similar to those I have posted with just minor changes to the view.

*London Bridge Walk, Tooley St, Borough High St, Southwark, 1994, 94-711-52*

Not quite in the City, but made as I made my way from London Bridge Station to London Bridge along London Bridge Walk. The road in the background is Borough High Street which leads on to London Bridge and the City boundary is in the middle of the river. You can just see the pinnacles on the top of the tower of Southwark Cathedral.

After the operation of the Waterloo & City underground line from Network South East to London Underground in April 1994 I could no longer use my ‘London Terminals’ ticket on this route, and my cheapest journey became to go to London Bridge on this and walk across to the City.

This is one of a few pictures I had digitised but missed when I was uploading these images to Flickr.

*High Walk, Wood St, City, 1994, 94-713-42*

Another exposure from the highwalk at Wood Street, leading south along the east side of the street away from London Wall. In the centre of the picture is the City of London Police Headquarters, with two white police vans at bottom right. Steps lead down from the walkway to Wood Street but the highwalk also continued straight on at extreme left – though with more steps.

In the centre of Wood Street at right is the tower of St Alban Wood Street. The medieval church was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. The church was largely destroyed in the Blitz in 1940. The tower remained and was Grade II* listed in 1950 and is now a private house; the remains of the rest of the church were demolished in 1965.

*Lower Thames St, King William St, City, 1994, 94-711-12*

Again on my way from London Bridge Station to the centre of the City, this is made from where London Bridge joins to King William Street and goes across Lower Thames Street. You can see a highwalk bridge going across Lower Thames street a couple of hundred yards to the east, still there in 2025.

Until around 1970 Thames Street was a fairly narrow street, just wide enough to allow a single lane of traffic in both directions. It was then turned into a major road and divided at London Bridge into Lower and Upper Thames Street. At the left you can clearly see where older buildings were cut through to widen the road.

The heart of the City. I made the picture close to the corner of Mansion House Street and Princes Street with the Underground entrance on the corner. At left is a corner of the Bank of England and the main modern building towering above it is the Stock Exchange Tower, home to the Stock Exchange until 2004.

Towards the centre is the Royal Exchange, I think then still home to the International Financial Futures Exchange rather than just an upmarket shopping mall. Two buildings full of banks and insurance companies book-end Hawksmoor’s St Mary Woolnuth and at the extreme right is the edge of the Mansion House with a gilded lamp on its steps.

*Milton Court, Silk Street, City, 1994, 94-713-21*

Another section of highwalks ran from close to Moorgate Station to the Barbican Estate and these last four pictures show sections of this, which could also be accessed from Ropemaker Street. This northern section has now been lost.

Milton Court was designed by Chamberlin, Powell & Bon and built as a part of the Barbican development in 1959 for various City services – “a fire station, Coroner’s Court, mortuary, office of weights and measures and a civil defence school.”

It was arguably London’s most outstanding single post-war building and English Heritage wanted to list it in 2001, but the government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport objected and in 2007 Secretary of State James Purnell granted it immunity from listing. In a sad act of cultural vandalism this remarkable building was demolished in 2008.

*Milton Court, Silk Street, City, 1994, 94-713-12*

The building which replaced Milton Court was also given the same name but is a much more bland modern structure. The bridge which linked to the northern section of highwalk disappeared.

The new 115m tall Milton Court is described on its builders Sir Robert McAlpine web site: “Climbing to 36 storeys, Milton Court redefines luxury living in the Square Mile. In addition to a graceful residential tower, the development is home to a spectacular new annexe to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.” But to me it looks like just another tall city office block.

*Highwalk, Ropemaker St, City, 1994, 94-715-52*

This enclosed section of highwalk ran from Ropemaker Street to the bridge across Silk Street to the Speed Highwalk still there along the north side of Speed House.

*Ropemaker St, Islington, City, 1994, 94-715-32*

Remarkably I think none of the buildings in this picture looking east along Ropemaker Street has ssurvived. Even the building at left, Ropemaker Place, a 60m high block which I photographed while it was being built in 1986 and was completed in 1987 and which I thought was one of the more attractive modern buildings in (or rather a few feet outside) didn’t last long and was demolished only 18 years later in 2005.

Paris Photography – 2012

Paris Photography: 2012 was my final visit to Paris to see Paris Photo and some of the other photographic events across the city. Although I enjoyed my time in Paris, I was finding the actual dealer-led Paris Photo show hard to endure – you can read more of my thoughts on it in Paris Photo – Photograph as Commodity.

I’ve long thought that the art market has had a hugely negative impact on photography, a medium that – after the cul-de-sac of the Daguerreotype – has unlimited reproducibility at its centre. It really lives in print and on the web, in books and in prints that can be cheaply made and sold and not in expensive limited editions. Of course photographers need to live and some are benefitting hugely financially from photography being sold at high prices, but I feel it has resulted in the emphasis moving away for the core of photography.

I’d hoped to blog from Paris, but poor internet connections from my hotel and elsewhere made that impossible – but I made copious notes at the many events I visited – some with Linda and others including Paris Photo itself on my own.

In the six days I think I visited over 80 shows in galleries large and small across the city making notes on all that I saw, and after I returned home wrote up and posted my ‘Paris Photomonth Diary – the links are in reverse order of the week:

PARIS PHOTOMONTH DIARY
Monday Blues
Sunday Afternoon
Sunday morning at the MEP
A Photo-Off Guided Tour
Saturday Morning
Paris at Night
Menilmontant
Friday Morning
More Photo-Off Openings
Thursday Afternoon
Thursday Morning
Paris Photo Wednesday pm
Wednesday Morning
Openings – Tuesday
Paris Photo – Photograph as Commodity

I also posted these here on >Re:PHOTO, along with a few of my pictures at intervals in November and December 2012 completing the set of articles with Paris 2012 Complete which also has the links above. I think the whole series gives a fairly good impression of a rather busy six days.

I was surprised reading them again today to find how much I had covered and they include some thoughts about the work I saw that I still find interesting. I won’t included the material here as you can just click on the links above to access it. So here I’ll just post a few of the pictures of Paris I took on one day, Thursday 15th November 2012.

During the six days we also did quite a lot of walking round the city from show to show and sometimes just walking to enjoy the city, though we also bought a weekly season for the Metro – it seemed ridiculously cheap, only a little more than for a day in London.

I was carrying a Nikon D800E DSLR, a full-frame camera but I used it in DX mode and several Nikon lenses including an 18-105mm zoom, 20mm and 10.5mm fisheye. I’d left my heavy wide-angle zoom back in England to keep my bag small and light.

There are very few situations where a 7360 x 4912 pixel file is really needed and the only reason I had for moving to full-frame was for panoramic landscape images. For the rest of my work the 4,800×3200 pixel DX format was more than enough. There is no visible advantage until you make prints greater than A3 and even then the difference is hard to see. Nikon orginally said that DX was enough and they were right, but had to move to full-frame to keep up with the marketing.

On My London Diary you can see more picture from Thursday 15th November 2012, including quite a few of the shows we visited – as well as pictures I took on other days. I think I probably did better later in the week when I didn’t spend so much time in Photo Paris.

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Paris in November – 2007

Paris in November: My trip to Paris in November 2007 was the only time I had stayed there on my own – and it made my visit rather different. Every other time I’ve been with my wife who speaks French more or less like a native – her accent impeccable, her grammar better than most who live there but her vocabulary now rather out of date, and had relied on her and spent much of my time there in her company. My own ‘O level’ 45 years earlier was extremely rusty and never really taught me to speak the language though I can still read a little and understand some if people speak slowly and clearly – as few in Paris do.

I’d come to Paris by Eurostar on the final day that their trains ran out of Waterloo. The following day, Tuesday 14th November 2007, was the first full day of my visit and also the day on which Paris Photo 2007 opened.

Here I’ll post what I wrote about that day back in 2007 with a few of my pictures from the day and links to many more on My London Diary.

Paris 2e, 9e and 6e

Next morning I had nothing special to do. Although I was in Paris to see photographs, none of the shows I wanted to view opened until 1pm. Eating a leisurely breakfast at the bar of a café close to my hotel I picked up a French newspaper and found their was a ‘manif‘ with the strikers meeting at Montparnasse at 2.30pm, and decided I’d take my Leica M8 along for some pictures.

Before then I had a walk around the 9th arrondissement before returning to a salad bar near my hotel for a very tasty ‘formule‘ with salmon salad, yogurt with a sweet chestnut paste and orange juice, and making my way across the Pont du Carroussel and down through the 6th to Montparnasse.

More pictures from my walk on My London Diary

Paris Manif – Transport Workers on Strike

Perhaps everything seemed a little less organised than London demonstrations, and a big difference was the number of vehicles that appeared to be a part of it – in England such demonstrations are simply marches. The police tactics also seemed to be different, as there were none at all around where the march was massing, although there were plenty of them waiting around vans a few hundred metres along the road. And a number of those taking part in the ‘manif’ were wearing helmets and body padding in case of police attacks.

One difficulty was not being able to recognise the various union leaders. Rather than simply photographing them as usual I had to look for media scrums to identify who they were – and then get stuck in. At home I’m more often the guy who gets there first. But somehow it seemed easier to do here, perhaps because I was working with a smaller bag and the Leica. [I think all these pictures were with the Summilux 35mm f1.4, a ‘standard’ focal length on the M8.]

And then I saw an angel. Really. All in white, big wings, and walking through the crowd of demonstrators, and quickly took a couple of pictures. Later I photographed him again and gave him my card. It turns out he was © L’Ange Blanc, [also the name of one of France’s most famous wrestlers who died in 2006. The blog with more information about ‘Angel White’ and his “human action, highly social and spiritual to convey a message of universal love” that I linked to in 2007 no longer exists.]

The demonstration looked as if it was just starting to move around 4pm when I had to head off towards the Carrousel du Louvre and Paris Photo.

More pictures from the protest on My London Diary

Photographers in Paris for Paris Photo

*I took very few pictures inside the show*

Then it was on to Paris Photo, held in the bowels of the earth under the Louvre. It’s hard to contemplate a more depressing location, although relatively spacious outside the show. It would make a good location for some nasty shoot-em-up video game, sort of half-way between underground car park and shopping mall, a slightly cooler version of hell.

Friends in a bar near Chatelet – Conrad Hafenrichter and Mike Seaborne

Inside the show, its far more cramped and claustrophobic, but there really are a lot of photographs on display on the stalls of the 80 or so dealers and 20 publishers, as well as special shows – this year of Italian photography – and the BMW prize.

Frankly both the Italian stuff and the prize were disappointing, and much of the large colour images on many stands were prestigiously expensive head office decor with little interest. But inside the stands the walls were crammed with an incredible variety of photography, including some truly great work amid the dross, including many of the classic images of photography. And on many of the booths you could browse in more depth in boxes of images.

John Benton-Harris (1939-2023)

Its a great opportunity to see almost the whole history of photography in a few days, a collection with much more depth than even the richest of museums – although with some great gaps, as many photographers produced very few prints and their work seldom comes up for sale.

*On my way to my hotel from Stolly’s bar*

Several friends of mine had work on various stands, and they and many others were over there to see the show, meet people, go to the other exhibitions on in Paris, perhaps take some pictures and have a good time. I won’t bore you with a list of those I met, but it would be a good list of the best in British photography as well as a number of those I know from other countries. There were also quite a few others who I know were there that I didn’t manage to meet up with.

By around 6.30, the place was beginning to fill up with people coming for the opening at 7pm. Another of the problems of Paris Photo is that there is nowhere there to get anything decent to eat or drink, and half a dozen of us left for a considerably cheaper bar near the city hall, then on to a meal in a bistro, and finally to another bar, Stolly’s in the Marais.

It had been a long and interesting day – and rather different to those when I came together with Linda, and my the time I was walking back home from that last bar either my Leica was getting tired or its operator was pleasantly a little inebriated.

More pictures on My London Diary

I slept well and was up early the next morning to go out for breakfast and then explore more of Paris. You can read more about my next three days in the city – with many more pictures some taken by others on my Leica M8 including some rather unusual pictures of me – and my return to a rather disappointing St Pancras on the November 2007 page of My London Diary.

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Sudan & Hong Kong Protests – 8 Nov 2025

Sudan & Hong Kong Protests: Last Saturday, 8th November 2025 I photographed a London rally and march against the horrific killings in Sudan before going to the Chinese Embassy where people were protesting for freedom of expression in Hong Kong, where three pro-democracy advocates were to go on trial this Tuesday for “subversion”.

End the UK-Complicit Genocide in Sudan

Gloucester Road Station

Sudan has been a divided country more or less since it gained independence in 1956, suffering a long civil war which eventually led to independence for South Sudan in 2011 and a brutal 30 year military dictatorship under Omar al-Bashir which included an ethnic genocide in Darfur from 2003 -2020. Al-Bashir was finally ousted by a coup early in 2019 following huge protests. Since 2023 the country has been devastated by a civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The war is partly one over resources and access to the Red Sea, but also has a strong ethnic dimension with the RSF being “violently Arab supremacist or ethno-fascist“. They are backed financially by the United Arab Emirates who also supply them with arms. In return the RSF has taken control of Sudanese gold mines and illegally smuggles gold to Dubai.

The RSF also control the major gum arabic producing areas of the country. Sudan’s acacia trees produce around 80% of the world total of this vital ingredient used in many consumer products from Coca-cola to lipsticks and pet food. The RSF smuggles this out to be sold on world markets.

The war between the RSF and the SAF has resulted in more than 200,000 people being killed, mainly civilians with huge numbers – perhaps 14 million -being displaced and according to the UN, “2025 will see 30.4 million people in Sudan in need of humanitarian aid due to the military conflict in the country.“

Both the RSF and the SAF are reported as carrying out war crimes. The ‘London for Sudan’ leaflet states:

“The RSF are burning villages to the ground, recruiting child soldiers, poisoning water supplies, attacking hospitals & targetting journalists.

“The SAF are carpet bombing indiscriminately, wiping out markets and other vital infrastructure in their bid for control over the region.”

In the continuing El-Fasher massacre by the RSF, “an estimated 2,500 or more civilians have been executed or murdered since 26 October 2025.” though some analysts believe the actual numbers are in the tens of thousands. The RSF are known to use rape as a weapon and have have committed executions, torture, mass displacement and deliberate starvation, armed by weapons sold by the UK to the UAE. In May Sudan took the UAE to the International Court of Justice for complicity in genocide.

The protesters pointed out the British complicity in supporting the RSF by selling arms to the UAE which are then smuggled to the RSF. They demanded that the UK government designate the RSF a terrorist organisation and called on them to impose sanctions on the UAE for their support as well as ending arms sales to them.

After a short rally with several speeches and a moving poem in English by a Sudanese woman poet the march set off along the Cromwell Road heading for a final rally. I left them at South Kensington to go to a protest at the Chinese Embassy.

More pictures in the Facebook album End the UK-Complicit Genocide in Sudan

Free the Hong Kong Alliance Three

Chinese Embassy, Portland Place

Trade unionists protested outside the Chinese Embassy in solidarity with the three Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders charged with inciting subversion under Beijing’s National Security Law for organising protests and vigils whose trial begins on 11 Nov.

They called for Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho and all political prisoners to be released.

One man who continually tried to disrupt the event by shouting pro-China comments through a megaphone was finally pushed away across the road. Police argued with him and he was later arrested when he refused to obey police requests to stop.

More pictures in the Facebook Album Free the Hong Kong Alliance Three

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The Lord Mayor’s Show – 2005

The Lord Mayor’s Show. One of the largest ceremonial events in London every year is the Lord Mayor’s Show in November – in 2005 it was on Saturday 12th November. It is said to be the oldest civic procession in the world, first held after King John allowed the City of London to appoint its own Mayor in 1215.

I’d photographed the event in several earlier years, though in many ways for me it had often been more a social event than a serious part of my photography, meeting up with some of my photographer friends and after taking some pictures and finding a suitable pub. But as I wrote in 2005, that year I had decided to do it on my own and actually photograph it as if I were covering the event for a magazine rather than as a personal photographic project. Though to two things often overlapped considerably in my work.

The Lord Mayor's Show - 2005 Gog and Magog, — *Gog and Magog, legendary giants, with the Society of Young Freemen*

I have photographed it a few times since, mainly when other groups have decided to add their own input to the day. In 2011 Occupy SLX staged their ‘Not the Lord Mayors Show’ festival of entertainment and in 2021 Extinction Rebellion held a rival protest, Rise and Rebel XR at Lord Mayors Show.

The City of London is virtually its own country inside Britain, and has a unique position as a city, ceremonial county and local government district in England. And although it shares an MP with the City of Westminster, it also has the rather shadowy figure of the ‘City Remembrancer‘ who sits in the under-gallery of the House of Commons as a permanent lobbyist for the City and has the special privilege to see legislation as it is being drafted. Over the years this has led to the City being able to protect its interests in various ways, notably in the last century to prevent the reforms to the City’s status proposed by the postwar Attlee government.

‘Treasure Islands’ by Nicholas Shaxson, which includes a section on the City, often called ‘the money-laundering capital of the world‘ gives some insight as to how the lavish display of this event and much of the City’s activities are possible. The show does raise considerable amounts to support various charities.

This year, 2025, London had it’s first ‘Lady Mayor’s Show‘ though there have been two previous female Lord Mayors. The City calls it a ‘historic milestone’ but to me it seems not a blow for feminism but an anachronism in an age where we no longer have actresses or Chairladies. I had other things to do this year and didn’t go to see the show.

All the pictures in this post were taken by me in 2005 – there are many more on My London Diary – but below with the usual minor corrections is what I wrote then.

“Saturday I was back opposite Guildhall for the start of the annual Lord Mayor’s Parade. Although I’ve been to it on several occasions, I’ve never tried to photograph the actual event and people taking part in a straightforward way. Usually the things that happen before and after and on the fringes are of more interest to photographers (Cartier-Bresson photographing that guy sleeping it off on a pile of paper as the Coronation Procession moved by has a lot to answer for.)

After the end of the parade had passed the Guildhall, I took a short cut to St Paul’s to watch the Blessing Of The Lord Mayor and his lady, but unfortunately the crowd barriers holding back the public were too far away for a decent view, though I did take a few snaps.

It is a tightly policed event, very different from the Notting Hill Carnival parade, perhaps organised more with television in mind than letting those present actually take part – if you go to watch in the more crowded parts you often get a poor and distant view. Then I found a seat in the sun outside the new Stock Exchange and ate my sandwiches before photographing some of the fairground around the cathedral.

Then it was time to see the parade returning, and a short walk took me to opposite St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe. I’d meant to stay on for the fireworks later, but I’d been standing up too long for my injured knee and decided to go home.”

Many more pictures begin here on My London Diary

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