Political Issues | >Re-PHOTO

Royal Wedding

I’ve been busy for some weeks finishing off my book on Hull, or perhaps I should say my first book on Hull, as ‘Still Occupied: A view of Hull’ only covers my black and white work in that city from 1977-1985, and I continued to take pictures there at least occasionally until a few years ago. Like the other books I’ve produced in the last year this is a Blurb publication, and I’m now waiting for the first copy to come back to me for the inevitable tweaks and corrections – so I’ll write more about it when it becomes available. You can already see a few of the pictures that will be in it on the web on the Urban Landscapes site.

The book has taken much longer than I expected, originally planned to come out in time for a group exhibition last autumn, which perhaps fortunately got cancelled. It took so long largely because it was on film that now needs extensive retouching before it can be used to make prints. One of the two images on this page needed a couple of hours work and is still not perfect. But now it is on digital (and I’ve made a backup) I feel much happier about its future. Digital isn’t without its problems but film is truly an unstable medium. Good inkjet prints on fine paper will probably outlast both.

But I’ve recently been working with another photographer on his book of pictures of our last royal wedding, again an event that seemed to more or less paralyse the country into sycophantic fawning, that of Charles and Di. Down in central London where he was, people were sleeping on the streets and celebrating.

Up in Hull I came across a small shop in Church Street, in what was a fairly deserted area of town following the closure of the Victoria Dock, which was perhaps celebrating the event with something of the spirit one might expect from the city that kicked off the English Civil War in 1642 when Sir John Hotham refused entry to King CharlesI.

Royal Wedding Window Display

Later I recorded the normal window display of the same shop on several occasions – and here is one of them:

Normal Window Display

As you may guess, I didn’t get an invitation to this year’s wedding, although I have had several to demonstrations against it. Not that I have any real antipathy to the two people concerned – may their marriage have a rather better future than that previous one – but frankly the whole thing is of no interest to me.

I’m not entirely against royalty, though I do think we should have nationalised their assets – and the others stolen from the people by the rest of the aristocracy long ago. Do it now and we could pay off those debts and avoid the cuts. Let’s have a monarch that rides bikes and lives in a council house. I might even photograph them then.

So I’m not sure what I’ll be doing on the big wedding day, but it certainly won’t be watching the wedding – after all none of their family came to mine. Perhaps like most of today I’ll be struggling with my next book.

Arts Council Cuts Side Off

I’ve never been a great fan of the Arts Council (AC), at least not since the late 1970s, when after a few years where they seemed just about to be getting the idea about supporting photographers and photographic publications they changed their policy to support institutions and curators. Even then, photography has never rated high on their agenda, reflecting a UK establishment that has never understood or valued photography.

For my first thirty-something years as a photographer I was able to say that I’d got more support from the AC’s poetry budget than from the visual arts; it hadn’t been a large amount, but I’d been paid on several occasions for supplying photographs to a poetry magazine funded with AC money, and it came to rather more than the few small exhibition grants I’d received. Mostly I’d chosen to organise and show in group shows which didn’t qualify for any support. And of course I’ve always been happier working outside institutions and the establishment – very much a part of the reason why I put a great deal of effort into the web from 1995 on.

But the AC has over the years supported a number of photographic institutions, some fairly lavishly, and others rather less so. Some very much more generously than they deserve – I think one gallery was at one point being subsided to the tune of more than £100 per person who walked through the doors, and many of their decisions appear more based on political than artistic criteria.

As a photographer the gallery that would come top of my list as the most important for photography in the UK has for years been Side Gallery in Newcastle, the only gallery in the country dedicated to documentary photography. And until now it has done so with the help of the AC. The decision announced yesterday to axe the grant for Side is a real kick in the teeth for photography in the UK, something that every photographer here should feel as a deep insult to our medium.

The reasons given for the decision are frankly ridiculous. The first reason they give is about governance – Side is a collective. So the AC isn’t going to fund it because it is actually run by people who are creators.

Secondly that the gallery needs AC funding and therefore isnt sustainable. To me this is an illogicality that beggars belief. The whole point of the AC would seem to me to be that it should be funding projects and institutions that would not otherwise be sustainable. I doubt if any of the other photographic institutions still funded by the AC would keep running – and certainly not running at anything like the same level – without that money. And if any could manage without, surely when cash is short, the AC should be cutting the funding to them.

The third AC argument that there are too many galleries dedicated to humanist documentary photography in Sides geographical location is quite simply false. It can only be understood if the AC are arguing that one such gallery – Side itself – is one too many. Because as Side point out in their more detailed response to the decision, the AC itself in its assessment

acknowledges that Side is the only dedicated documentary photography space in the north east. There is in fact no other gallery in the country dedicated to the crucial narratives of humanist documentary. This uniqueness and cultural importance in Side Gallerys work was amply made in a powerful and moving set of testimonies from internationally renowned photographers, which was attached to the National Portfolio application.

I don’t have any personal connection with Side, a gallery which I think I have only visited once on a fleeting visit, as Newcastle is rather a long distance from where I live, and I think I have only ever made two short visits there. But Side has been important to me, through the many exhibitions it has produced over the years – including shows which have come to London, because of the books that I have bought or read, photographers I have met, and in more recent years particularly through its web site and the Side Photographic Collection, much of which is available on line.

It is a unique resource, and one that is more than simply one for the north-east, one that is nationally and globally significant. I can only think of two other photographic institutions of comparable significance in the UK, and Side is the only contemporary one, the others – the Fox Talbot Museum and the RPS Collection – being of historical significance.

You can read more about the AC funding decisions and about the campaign to support Side Gallery on the British Journal of Photography. It is important for the photography community to get behind Side and show its support.

Please sign the I LOVE SIDE GALLERY! Petition – http://to.ly/9Vjw

Libyans Say Thank You to Cameron

Last Thursday lunchtime around 500 or more Libyans came to demonstrate opposite Downing St, not like most demos to condemn the Con Dem alliance, but to thank them for their support of the ‘no-fly’ policy. They appreciate David Cameron’s efforts to persuade the UN to adopt the resolution that enabled French, British and US forces to take action against Gadaffi’s planes, tanks and heavy weapons.

The people of Benghazi feel that it was only this intervention that saved many of them from death, with Gadaffi’s threat to take action against them street by street and alley by alley being very close to being put into effect as his tanks were poised on the outskirts of their city.

Libyans supporting the revolution and the Interim Transitional National Council running Benghazi and other areas that have broken away from Gadaffi’s rule have little time for the opposition of the British left, although they seemed also clear that they wanted to set very definite limits on the foreign intervention, and that eventually they will have to liberate their country themselves.

So although they very much welcomed the efforts the British government has made so far, they have other demands, particularly for recognition of the ITNC as the legitimate government of Libya, but also to be able to import the arms and ammunition that they need to carry on the fight.

Perhaps the left instead of simply calling for an end to the UN resolution backed military intervention should now be pressing hard for the kind of policies that would enable Libyans to stand up against Gadaffi and defeat him. Without the bombing of the last week it seems almost certain the Libyan revolution would have been crushed by now, at least for the foreseeable future.

It was a lively event, and one where people were very keen for me to take pictures, although just a little daunting to look at the packed mass of men noisily protesting. But once I had jumped in, everything was fine. Getting under the giant flag did give some exposure problems, and most of the pictures I took using flash came out over-exposed (these systems either seem to work perfectly or really mess up, with little in between, and often it is very hard to determine why things go wrong when they do.) In the end all of those I’ve used were taken without flash. Bright sunlight in the background and the shadow under the flag were rather extreme and needed quite a lot of persuading to produce the picture shown. The background was more than 3 stops overexposed, the foreground probably a stop or two under. The result above was a quick fix, and could be improved. Theoretically digital may have less latitude than negative film, but usually post-processing can usually more than compensate and I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have managed this on film.

It was all very much heat of the moment – I was only there around 6 minutes in all, I had hoped to go back and do some more but they packed up and left before I could do so.

ESOL Day of Action

Just posted on My London Diary are my pictures from last Thursday’s ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Day of Action.
© 2011, Peter Marshall
ESOL students and lecturers at Downing St

It was a very fine day for the time of year, but started really slowly, and for some time I wondered if my journey into London had been worth it. But things soon livened up, particularly with one very vocal group of students, mainly fairly young women, arrived and began to shout the slogans that had been provided as one of several educational resources on the web site for the day of action.

At least one of the other photographers had left before they arrived, and certainly missed the rally where many of the students spoke about how essential the ESOL classes were for them, where I very much enjoyed photographing both speakers and audience.

The event seemed as if it was over by then, as although they were going to take a letter to Downing St, the police had advised that they go there in small groups rather than march as a body. So I’d actually left and gone to photograph another event taking place opposite Downing St when I saw the bulk of the ESOL students coming down the road and rushed across to take more pictures, including the one at the top of this piece.

There was a very dense crush outside the gates to Downing St, making it rather difficult to move – hard to get far enough away to photograph these outstretched arms, even with the 16mm on the D700.

It’s in really crowded situations like this that I like to use the 10.5mm fisheye with the D300 (perhaps one day I’ll get the 15mm which does a similar job on the D700.) I took a number of pictures, but I think the one at the top of this piece is the best. Fortunately I’ve managed to get Lightroom to stop automatically correcting the fisheye effect while still correcting for the vignetting and chromatic aberration (of which there is plenty.) The example here benefits from the way the fisheye curves in the placard at left and particularly the tree at right, although for some images a small amount of distortion correction or an appropriate filter does help. All of those that are in ESOL Day of Action on My London Diary are uncorrected.

I hope the government can be persuaded to see sense over ESOL and realise the real value these courses provide, both to the individuals who take them and also to the country that benefits from the contribution that they enable these people to make. But unfortunately they seem bent on appeasing the racists and taking a very negative line on anything concerned with asylum seekers and refugees in particular and immigrants in general.

March 26

I don’t usually write here about the posts that I make on Demotix, preferring to wait until I have had time to take a longer look at the pictures I took and to sort out more of them for My London Diary. But it may be a little while before I get those from Saturdays events in London on-line here, while I spent most of Saturday night and Sunday writing stories and uploading images to Demotix.

Saturday was a long day for me, and not without its problems. Everything started fine and I arrived at Camberwell Green in time to watch the final preparations of the ‘Armed Wing of the TUC‘ who then proceeded to march to Kennington with their Trojan Horse, tank, Spitfire, the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, armed Lollipop Ladies and the large ‘Capitalism Isn’t Working’ banner.

We walked to the South London Feeder March for the TUC demonstration (though for reasons best known to itself the TUC disowned all of the feeder marches) at Kennington Park, a location of some importance in the history of the labour movement, where there was a short rally before the couple of thousand or so there marched off to join the main march.

I left them after a few hundred yards to take the tube from Kennington into Charing Cross and went to Trafalgar Square. I should have been there before the TUC march according to the published timetable, but they had started early and were already streaming past when I arrived. So I spent an hour or so taking pictures of the marchers and the other things happening around Trafalgar Square then – and also took some more pictures of the march which was still passing around four hours later when I was at Piccadilly Circus. But both times included I probably saw fewer than a quarter of the approaching half a million on the march, so I called my Demotix feature Glimpses of the TUC March.

Then I saw the black bloc of anarchists taking a different route and followed them for the next 45 minutes or so. They were not really doing a great deal most of the time I was with them, and the police seemed largely to be ignoring them. I read a newspaper report that they “broke through” a line of police at the bottom of Regent St, but most of them simply walked by on the pavement which the police were not blocking, and the police made little or no attempt to stop the few who kept on the road.

Many of the protesters walked round police line on the pavement

A couple of police followed the group up into Regent St, and then down Conduit St. One anarchist account says they took this route as police were about to kettle them on Regent St, but there was really no sign of this happening, with just a few police in the distance. They let off a few fireworks and flares, and on Bond St a few made a rush towards a branch of the RBS, but the dozen or so police standing outside soon pushed them away. A few light sticks from placards were thrown and some paint sprayed, but little else.

On Oxford St they made a more deliberate attempt to rush into Topshop, but there were quite a few police as well as security men inside the shop. A lot of paint was thrown and there were scuffles as the police arrested one young man. I took a number of pictures of police holding him on the ground and then moved slightly back. Suddenly I felt a thump on my chest and found I had been hit by a ball of yellow paint, probably aimed at the police just behind me (although later some photographers were certainly deliberately targeted.)

I kept taking pictures for a few minutes – although both cameras were splattered with paint, there was none on the lenses and they were still working fine. Most of the photographers around seemed to be taking pictures of me now, and I’ve seen one on Flickr that gives a good idea of what I looked like. before retiring to a nearby public convenience and wiping and washing off as much paint as I could. You can see my pictures of the black bloc in Anarchists March on Oxford St, although events with them did get a little more interesting after I had left them.

Though I’m not sure why so much media attention is directed towards this very small group – really just a few hundred – and their activities. Though I would like it if the BBC and others actually took the trouble to find out who was who and what things were about, having just watched a video in which the BBC presenter refers to them as anarchists, Socialist Workers Party and UK Uncut. Or is it a deliberate policy to misunderstand and mislead?

A ball of emulsion goes a very long way, and although I wiped as much as I could off my jacket, the surface of my jumper, both cameras and elsewhere I gave up with a great deal of paint still on me, and feeling rather uncomfortable with a a slab of wet paint in my vest, shirt and jumper soaking my chest.

I spent the next hour or so with the very different UK Uncut who were holding peaceful protests, an outdoor comedy show and a party in and around Oxford St. Being covered in yellow paint is quite a good ice-breaker, but I hope to avoid it in future. There are a few pictures and some text at UK Uncut Party and Protest on Oxford St.

The I left with one of the groups that was making its way to a protest at an undisclosed location (following the red umbrellas) which turned out to be Fortnum & Mason’s, although I didn’t get there. At Piccadilly Circus I was feeling a bit fed up and decided it was time to go home and clean up, though I did hang around for a bit and take pictures of the TUC marchers still passing by.

Despite some of the stories in the press and broadcast on radio and TV, the UK Uncut action at Fortnum & Mason remained non-violent and the protesters were very careful to avoid any damage inside the store. Outside was apparently a different story, with other protesters having what several people have described as a riot, with some injuries to both protesters and police.

But when, by arrangement with the police, the UK Uncut protesters filed quietly out of the store, they were all photographed, handcuffed and arrested, and most at least were held in custody for around 24 hours before being released.

These peaceful and restrained protesters against tax avoidance and evasion made up the majority of arrests by police over the whole day. Few if any of those rioting on the streets were picket up, and I think most of the other arrests followed an unprovoked attack by police on people partying in Trafalgar Square later in the evening. I wasn’t there but have read the tweets and comments of friends who were, as well as what appears to be the most reliable account of the day’s events yet to have appeared in a major publication, by Laurie Penny in her New Statesman blog. Here she comments:

“With the handful of real, random agitators easy to identify as they tear through the streets of Mayfair, the met has chosen instead to concentrate its energies on UK Uncut – the most successful, high-profile and democratic anti-cuts group in Britain. “

This is a piece that has clearly hit a number of nerves among those who weren’t there and show little or no understanding of what is actually happening on the streets of Britain today, but although I may not always like her style, most of what she writes rings true.

I was I suppose lucky that I was only hit by paint. One of my colleagues was hit by a brick, needing nine stitches – and was lucky that it just missed his eye – and another had his camera smashed.

I’m not sure I’ll ever get all the paint off of my gear, but it still seems to be working fine. Given that they were already pretty worn it isn’t a great problem. I did have some anxious hours when the D700 stopped working after I’d been scrubbing it a bit too much and some water had penetrated, but it recovered after I’d dried it for a few hourse3 in front of my computer fan. Most of the clothes I was wearing are ruined, although I’ll perhaps keep the paint stained jacket and trousers for covering protests where similar things might occur.

Stewards – March For the Alternative

I’m pleased to see that the NUJ London Photographers Branch has issued a ‘Statement To March 26 TUC Stewards‘ which will be read out at the stewards meeting before the ‘March For The Alternative‘, reminding them that “stewards have no legal power to push, move or obstruct journalists recording the event” and that reporters “should not be corralled or directed as part of the demonstration.”

It is perhaps surprising to read the TUC web site for stewards, which for many of the lower level Travel and Route Stewards is the only training they will have had, and find no mention there of photographers and journalists, when the TUC should be making clear to them all that we are fellow union members with a job to do.

Stewards should be given guidelines perhaps similar to those agreed between the police and journalists in the published ACPO Police-Media Guidelines although they of course rightly enjoy much less power than the police.

Stewards at some other large marches have been less than cooperative with the media. Like many other photographers I’ve on several occasions been assaulted by Stop The War stewards and at one march was among a large group of photographers who felt so aggrieved at the way we were being kept away that we sat down on Park Lane and stopped the march until we were allowed to do our job.

From the various reports it would seem that the TUC are determined to try to control the march as much as possible, although it seems very unlikely they they will manage to do so given the various other groups who will be taking part in the protest on the day. The march is after all billed as the ‘March For The Alternative: Jobs – Growth – Justice‘ and it is only to be expected that the alternative groups will demonstrate some of their views of the alternative on the day. I think it is likely to me rather more alternative than many in the TUC would like.

Since the unfortunate displays by police at the student protests in November and early December the police do appear to have been making an effort to police demonstrations in a calmer and more balanced manner – and to have taken seriously the comments that I and many others made about their failure to communicate with protesters. So I’m hoping that this will continue tomorrow.

What does not give me great confidence is the appointment of Commander Broadhurst as Media Liaison Officer – you can see a video of him talking about the press and demonstrations made by Jason N Parkinson at the 2009 NUJ Photographers Conference. I was standing just a couple of feet to his side photographing him while he spoke (I needed to get rather closer than I might have liked because the only lens I’d taken with me was the 20mm – having agreed to photograph the event I’d forgotten to add a longer zoom to my bag when I had to leave home rather early that morning!)

His performance there was I think a low point in police-press relations, and I think he realised it. You can read my thoughts at the time – and see more of the pictures in Can Anyone Apply for an NUJ Card who has a Camera ?

About Turn on Stop and Search

I learn from the British Journal of Photography that Home Secretary Theresa May has brought back the police powers of stop and search, which the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) threw out in their ruling last June – and with a vengeance.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 became infamous because of its use by police to harass photographers and journalists going about their legitimate business in reporting protest. The new section 47A, brought in under the The Terrorism Act 2000 (Remedial) Order 2011, replaces the discredited sections 44-46 and not only allows the same abuses of power by police but removes the need for police to gain prior permission from the Home Office to employ them. Now any “senior police officer” – an assistant chief constable or above – can decide these powers are necessary and put them in place, with no requirement to gain any permission, only a requirement to inform the Home Office that this has been done “as soon as reasonably practicable.” In fact it will only be necessary to do so if the powers are to remain in action for more than 48 hours, and it seems it might be possible simply to repeat the order at 48 hour intervals to keep it in force without event letting the Home Office know.

Prior to the ECHR ruling, some photographers faced ridiculous obstacles in carrying out their work. One was stopped and searched three times in one morning covering a protest, another I think well over a hundred times in one year. So far as I am aware there has been not a single case in which any of the thousands of searches of photographers carrying UK Press cards has ever yielded any evidence relating to the reason used to justify them.

The authorisation of stop and search in a particular area is only justified if the officer doing so “reasonably suspects that an act of terrorism will take place; and considers that the authorisation is necessary to prevent such an act.” But as before, the main use that will be made of them will be in circumstances where terrorism – as this term is normally understood – is not in any way at issue.

The Orwellian-named “Protection of Freedoms Bill” once it becomes law will replace this temporary legislation, probably with some equally draconian abuse of our rights, nodded through by our political machine, though possibly with a little coughing against it by the peers. The reason for this hasty emergency measure is obvious. March 26 promises to see one of the largest demonstrations ever in London, against the government’s cuts.

Photographers can expect a further round of harassment from police, which comes as a particular disappointment as following the demise of Section 44 and other events over the past year or so there has generally been some improvement. Since the obvious mishandling of the student demonstrations in November and December there does also seem to have been an attempt by police to improve both tactics and communication with protesters too. But this Order suggests that their political masters at least want them to play a tougher game.

Mothers March

The Mothers March For Everyones Survival & Welfare which called for an end to cuts, poverty and discrimination was the final event I photographed around International Women’s Day this year, and the one that I enjoyed most. Not because it was the most radical or the event that to me most reflected the spirit and history of International Women’s Day – though it was. Not because of the diversity of those taking part and the individual nature of all the placards – hardly two the same – and banners, although this does perhaps make photography easier.

It was certainly the most friendly and welcoming of the three IWD related events I covered this year, and one that involved women, children and men working together, although it was an event organised by women’s organisations.

But perhaps most importantly, although it was organised it had a feeling or freedom and a little chaos that I think is truly liberating.

Of course there were plenty of serious political issues around – and some, such as rape and asylum issues that women on the march have experienced first-hand, but I rather liked the placard that said ‘Don’t take the fun out of being a mum’ and there are serious issues behind this as well. Another placard stated ‘Mothers Want to Care. Only 6% want full time jobs’ and there were others around the same issue. Caring really is central to any civilised society and another said ‘Invest in caring not killing! Good for Mothers Good for Soldiers.’

For once there were no real photographic problems, except a little carelessness on my part that led to me working for some time with the D300 set on ISO 1600 – but that isn’t a great problem so long as you get the exposure correct. The light was good, there were few police around, just a few friendly stewards, and even my foot with which I’ve had problems for some months had shifted down a notch or two from agony towards discomfort. And for once it was a dry day too. More pictures and text at Mothers March for Survival on My London Diary.

I was sorry to have to rush away and catch a bus after the march reached SOAS, as I would have liked to hear the address by Selma James (on International Womens Day) and the report from Winconsin, but there was another protest I wanted to photograph.

Ten Years of London Protest at 6 Billion Ways

6 Billion Ways is an free event next Saturday in Bethnal Green that explores through “discussion, ideas, action and the arts” the resistance around the world to climate change, financial crisis, and other problems that have as their basis the greed of the rich.

As their web site says:

“people are fighting back. From the grassroots to the global, communities and movements are imagining and creating a world where people and planet come before profit, and democracy trumps corporate power.”

I was delighted to be invited to show my work documenting some of that fight-back over the years through events in London, many of which reach out across the world, through my pictures on My London Diary.

At the moment it’s a rush to try and select the pictures, with so much to choose from – more than 50,000 pictures from something around a thousand events over the years that My London Diary covers.

The pictures on it start in 1999, and among the events I photographed that year were several, mainly organised by Jubilee 2000, calling for debt relief, as well as Kurds calling for the release of their national leader, Abdullah Öcalan, a solidarity protest with the people of East Timor and a protest calling for NATO to get out of the Balkans.

Over the years I’ve photographed the big national protests in London, but also many smaller events, some about local issues – for example against the closure of Queens Market in Upton Park, local protests about what are really national issues, including recent anti-cuts protests and many also protests about events in other countries.

Walking around London the various blue and other plaques on many of our buildings reveal the long tradition of this country upholding political freedom and giving refuge to those who would lead the liberation of their own countries across the world. It is a record somewhat tarnished in recent years, but it still seems true that protests take place in London about events around the world, and that many people from around the world who have had to flee their own countries protest here.

In a post that should appear shortly on the 6 Billion Ways blog I wrote:

So far in 2011 as well as local marches against the cuts in Islington and Hackney, UK Uncut actions, students protesting the loss of EMA, protests against unfair testing for disabled benefits, against privatisation of Royal Mail, calling for the release of Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo, I’ve also covered protests calling for freedom for Kashmir and Khalistan, opposing cuts in the BBC World Service, solidarity with the Libyan, Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions and more – including a pillow fight against unsuitable high-rise development in Walthamstow.

Of course only a relatively small number – perhaps around 50 – of my pictures will be shown on the projection loop at Rich Mix during 6 Billion Ways and you can see so much more on the web.

Khalifa For Egypt?

on Saturday 5 Feb, unlike the previous week, Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain were really demonstrating at the Egyptian Embassy rather than around the corner and there were rather more of them than before, more or less filling South Street between Park Lane and the embassy.

At the front of their demonstration was a low stage with a speaker and set out for the press to photograph was the scene above, with orange clad ‘detainees’ wearing masks that were the faces of Arab Muslim rulers who Hizb ut-Tahrir see as traitors. Around the necks of these men were orange placards with their names and a short epithet regarding their crimes – Mubarak was described as ‘Israel’s most loyal bodyguard’- and the message ‘The Umma demands Khilafah – Not just a change of face‘.

It was a nicely done piece of theatre, and all of us photographers snapped it up, despite the fast fading light. But it was the kind of thing where we would all get very similar pictures, and I certainly could find little to do to make my pictures different.

These bright orange suits are rather a pain to photograph, at least on Nikon cameras, as the orange colour comes out too intense and too red, as in the image close to the top of this post.

The best way that I’ve found to deal with this is by using a different camera calibration profiles to those supplied with Lightroom . There is something about the theory behind these things on Sandy McGuffog’s Chromasoft blog, and recently Nik Player has posted a zip file with sets of both ‘invariant’ and ‘untwisted’ profiles for the D3/D300/D700 based on the latest ‘Beta 3’ camera profiles for selected Nikon bodies released by Adobe Engineer Eric Chan. I’ve not yet had time to try out these newer profiles, which should do an even better job than the old ‘untwisted’ profiles I wrote about some time ago and which I used for the above image.

More about the demonstration at Hizb ut-Tahrir at Egyptian Embassy on My London Diary.