Re-photo

Police talks to a woman they have decided is in charge of the protest

The British legal system isn’t perfect, but in many ways is the best in the world, despite its faults. There are plenty of miscarriages of justice, some of which eventually are recognised, though many of these arise not from the legal system, but from corrupt policing, something that has been getting much public attention recently over a high profile and very minor cases such as ‘Plebgate’, but also over far more serious cases such as the inquests into the killing of Sean Rigg, Ian Tomlinson and Mark Duggan.

Of course many of us have been aware for a long time that our police at times embroidered the truth, planted evidence or simply told lies. It happened to some of my mates when I was still at school, to my friends at university and, years later a pair of officers threatened to fit me up when I argued with them over taking photographs.

One of the cornerstones of our legal system is legal aid. Again it isn’t perfect, but it goes some way to levelling the playing field, making it possible for those without means to fight their case. The law is still unequal, still ‘One law for the rich, and another for the poor‘ or even those on moderate incomes, but Legal Aid at least does something too redress that imbalance.

One banner on the protest read ‘Without Legal Aid, Institutional Racism would still be a Conspiracy Theory‘ and it is true that Legal Aid has done much to help challenge various inequalities. Which is perhaps why our current coalition government has set out to largely destroy the current system, wanting to replace it with a cut-price provision which will put many of the current providers out of business. It’s one of a whole batch of measures designed to reduce the possibilities of justice and of opposition to government plans being pushed through.

The details of the protest, organised by DPAC and UK Uncut were not made public in advance, with just a meeting place specified for the protest. That meeting place was the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey in the City of London. On a Saturday morning this is a largely deserted area, and it was clear that the protest was not going to take place there where it would affect and be seen by no one.

When I arrived it was also clear to me that few of the DPAC activists who I knew would be involved were present. I decided to look for them and thought of likely places in the vicinity and took a walk around, guessing that little would happen for at least half an hour.

At first I followed a protester in a wheelchair who was heading east, but it turned out they were just lost, and soon turned back towards the Old Bailey. Perhaps because it was fairly early on a Saturday morning I wasn’t thinking too clearly, and I was also misled again when one of the UK Uncut activists I know cycled past heading north.

The march from the Old Bailey included a judge and a samba band

So I returned to the Old Bailey and joined the others waiting there, and before long we set off, going south, and then west. I took some pictures and then rushed ahead to the next point where I thought a protest was possible – but again there was no one there.

As the march started to go up Fleet St, my mind finally clicked back into gear, and having taken one or two pictures, I started to walk fast. One other photographer who had noticed me looking around earlier was with me, and we arrived just in time (well, 30 seconds earlier would have been a little better, but I didn’t want to run) to photograph the protesters bringing their wheelchairs onto the pedestrian crossing in front of the Royal Courts of Justice.

Wheelchairs move to block the road at the Royal Courts of Justice

The Strand isn’t the busiest of roads in London on a Saturday lunchtime, but has a significant amount of traffic both in cars and on foot, so the protest would be noticed, but it was obviously a very significant location for a protest about Legal Aid – and one that I kicked myself for not having realised earlier. But the two of us were still there well over a minute before the other photographers with the march realised what was happening. Thinking ahead really does give you and advantage.

An able-bodied supporter gets locked on to one of the wheelchairs in the road block

I’d met the judge earlier at the Old Bailey, and outside the RCJ the rest of the legal team for the trial of ‘Ian Duncan Smith’ arrived, together with the defendant with the dock tied around his waist. He was duly tried with all those present being invited to be members of the jury. There was a break for a little entertainment before the trial ended with the unsurprising verdict and he was taken away, though only to the pub and not the prison he richly deserves.

A protester replies to police who are trying to bring the protest to an end

Thinking ahead helped again later, when a police officer came to talk to a woman who he felt was in charge of the protest (though I’m not sure why he thought that, but police seem unable to think in non-heirarchical terms, perhaps because of the nature of their own organisation.)

Though this time it was only a matter of seconds, and as I saw him coming over and knew that something was likely to occur, I moved into the right place for when it did. I was just a little closer than I would have preferred, but in the middle of a crowd like this you don’t have any choice.

I don’t always get things right when I try to think ahead and anticipate what will happen next, but it often works out. It’s all too easy to get completely absorbed in what is happening now, and miss the start of the next phase of an event.

An officer reads his script to the wheelchair protesters

The police had been getting increasingly restive. Disabled protesters present them with something of a challenge, at least while the press are around, getting physical with them would certainly hit the front pages and be very bad publicity. And many police certainly sympathise with protests such as this, and are concerned to uphold the right to protest. They tried hard to persuade people who were sitting on the road to move, telling them they were breaking the law by obstructing the highway, and making threats of arrest. Eventually they came and read the same script to those in wheelchairs, and, after a short further protest and discussion, the disabled protesters came to the decision that they had made their point and it was time to go.

The protesters celebrate their success before leaving the road

After a final short celebration everyone left the road together after just over an hour and a half. You can see the rest of my images from the protest at UK Uncut Road Block for Legal Aid.

(more…)

Romanians protest in Trafalgar Square against cyanide mining that would destroy heritage site Rosia Montana and threaten massive cyanide pollution of the Danube and Black Sea.

I seem to be getting further and further behind in posting my work on My London Diary, and further still in posting about it here.  There are various reasons, for this, some personal which I won’t bore you with, but mainly because there have simply been so many events for me to cover in the last couple of months.  The pace of protest seems too have ratcheted up and I’ve had many more messages inviting me to cover events. Of course I can’t be everywhere, but I do my best to cover the things I have a particular interest in,  and the 30 or so events listed here for September kept me busy.

I work differently from the typical press photographer, as readers of some of my posts will know. Often when I’m covering an protest I’ll be there as the protesters arrive and set up, and will stay as long as I can while things are still happening, telling the story of the event through a series of images – which you can see in my edited version (sometimes too loosely edited) on My London Diary. Eventually.

Of course a newspaper or magazine generally only wants a single image, seldom the text about the story and never the story in a set of pictures.  At an event where I spend several hours taking pictures, it isn’t unusual for a press photographer to arrive, spend five minutes arranging a group picture, and leave, or sit down in a corner, get out a notebook and file his or her pictures.  I try to get my pictures to the agency – selected and properly adjusted where necessary, captioned and key-worded – along with the story, by the end of the day. Though sometimes the day ends around 1 or 2am, and the story follows the pictures the following morning.

Their way of working reflects a different kind of interest, and one that is far more closely geared to the market.  I don’t mean it as a criticism when I talk about the difference, and in some respects I admire their professionalism, but we have different motives. At times they take pictures that I look and and think that I wish I had thought to approach the subject in that way, though more often I find them rather formulaic. Some of my pictures are like that too, and I often find that the images in a set that to me are least interesting are those that my editors at Demotix like to promote, and which are used by the press.

I like to write here more about the photography of many of the events, which delays me more.  Some events go entirely smoothly, with no photographic or other issues and unless I have something particular to say about them I don’t write about them on >Re:PHOTO, but quite often there is a story to tell – if only about how I messed things up.

There are other photographic items of photographic news and opinion that I like to share with my friends – around 3000 visitors a day – on this site;  the occasional review, links to photography in the press, in galleries and on the web and my own thoughts and prejudices. Thanks for your interest.

September 2013

Save Rosia Montana – No Cyanide Mining

Sudanese Call for Regime Change
10,000 Cuts – Deaths After Atos Tests

Express Stop Sponging Off Migrants
Hizb ut-Tahrir Women March for Syria
Paddington Basin
Druids Celebrate Autumn Equinox
World Peace Day
Save Whipps Cross Hospital
National Gallery Human Chain over Arts Cuts
Iran ‘Release Sunnis, Don’t Hang Them’
Aurora tells Shell – Stop Arctic Drilling
Malta Day Procession
Secular Europe Protest
Lewisham Hospital Victory Parade
Arms Trade Die-In at Parliament
9/11 Protest at US Embassy

Occupation at DSEi Arms Fair Continues
Wreath for Victims of London Arms Fair
Occupy vs the Arms Fair
Silvertown

Musical Protest against Arms Fair
Tower Hamlets United Against the EDL

Anti-Fascists Oppose EDL
EDL March returns to Tower Hamlets
DPAC take Pants to IDS
End UK Caste Discrimination Now
DPAC Picket Ministries

Hands off Syria
Love Russia, Hate Homophobia
DPAC at BBC – Tell The Truth

(more…)

I’ve several times photographed the ceremonies of the Druid Order at both Spring and Autumn Equinoxes, and I think my work has produced a good record of what they do, and a few images of particular interest.

The processions they make before and after with a long line of Druids in their white cloaks are striking, and on Primrose Hill in particular the stand out against the grass of the hill or in front of the view of London.

I thought I had set out in plenty of time to photograph at Primrose Hill on September 22nd, but had reckoned without the difficulties of travel on a Sunday. Of course I’d looked up the journey on the Transport for London journey planner, which had told me that my train to Waterloo would be going by a roundabout route, and that the tube line to the closest station, Chalk Farm was closed for essential maintenance, and allowed the extra time needed. What the journey planner didn’t know was that my train would suffer from signalling problems, stopping somewhere on the outskirts of London for around 20 minutes before limping slowly towards Vauxhall, adding over half an hour to the journey.

I ran down to the tube, rushed through Green Park to change to the Jubilee Line, then hurried up the escalator and steps at Swiss Cottage to jump on a bus, finally walking and running up to the top of Primrose Hill to see as I was getting there the line of white-clad figures just breasting the top of the hill. I think there was a good picture there, but I was just to puffed to capture it, and it was really another 20 seconds or so before I was really working coherently.

As with all events, and particularly those of a religious nature, a suitable degree of respect is necessary, and in this case it means standing outside the circle and certainly not getting the the way or distracting those taking part.

The first ten minutes or so of the event has various actions to record which largely take place within the circle of druids. To photograph them means moving around the outside and taking pictures with a longish lens. So most of the time at this event I was working not with my favourite 16-35mm but with the 70-300mm on the D700, along in this first period with the 18-105mm on the D800E. For most pictures the 18-105 was long enough – as in the example above, taken at 66mm (99mm equiv.)

2009

After these initial activities, the ceremony becomes more static, with readings and a sermon, and there is little action to photograph. In previous years both here and at Tower Hill in the Spring I’ve made some images I like of the circle of white-clad figures, particularly using the 10.5mm fisheye. But holding the camera up at arm’s length above my head didn’t really get quite enough height.

So today I brought along a monopod and fixed the camera on top of this, with a cable release plugged in. At first I’d thought of using a remote release, but the lead on the cable release turned out to be exactly long enough. I lifted up the camera and took a picture, then brought it down to check the result, finding I needed to move back a foot or two to get everyone in. The tricky part was getting the camera exactly level and pointing in the right direction when I was unable to see through the viewfinder. Live view wouldn’t really have helped greatly as the rear screen was too far away and reflecting the sky nicely, so I just had to take quite a few exposures trying to get it right, then bring the camera down to look at them.

This was the best – as usual with a little help from the Fisheye-Hemi plugin. There were a few others taken with the aid of the monopod that I liked too. The extra height would be useful at some protests – and there are photographers who use a similar rig, but I’ve never got around to doing so. The problem for me is simply that the monopod is yet another thing to carry, and my bag is too heavy already even if it wasn’t too long to fit.

I’ve never managed to find a monopod that I really warm too, though I can see that they can be useful. But I think they could be much lighter and telescope to a smaller size and still be useful.

The ceremony on the hill top over, the Druids then process down the hill, giving a further opportunity for pictures (including one where I missed seeing the cranes in the background growing out of the Druids’ heads – a real beginner’s mistake.)  You can see more from the whole event at Druids Celebrate Autumn Equinox.

(more…)

There was no sign of Aurora where the #Iceride protesters were gathering in the Victoria Tower Gardens, and the Greenpeace media people weren’t over helpful, though they did tell us to expect her coming over Lambeth Bridge. We went there and waited. And waited.

Paw marks but no bear

We found a group of #Iceride cyclists on the Albert Embankment, but they seemed equally in the dark. Then at last we saw a few Greenpeace stewards making their way across the bridge and finally they admitted they were on their way to the polar bear, and we followed them down the Lambeth Rd.

If I’d stayed on the train to Waterloo I would probably have spotted the giant bear in a yard next to the railway bridge, but on Sundays my trains call at Vauxhall, from where a bus took me directly to the advertised meeting point. But despite all the waiting we still got there before Aurora with its teams of pullers and crew left the yard for her slow journey to the Shell Centre.

It isn’t easy to navigate a 3-ton polar bear the size of a double-decker bus crewed by a team of twenty and powered by another 20 or so on ropes, and for a while it seemed touch and go whether Aurora would make it out of her lair and on to the A3203 or not. But eventually she was making her way down the Lambeth Rd to the roundabout by Lambeth Palace.

The plan had been for her to go over Lambeth Bridge and past Parliament, returning to the South Bank and the Shell Centre over Westminster Bridge. I’d already decided a key image would be on the bridge, with the Houses of Parliament behind – as had probably every other photographer out that day.

But the weather had robbed us of our cliché. High winds and a forecast of heavy rain meant the team had decided it was unsafe to cross the bridges, where strong winds blow unchecked down the river, and Aurora was to take a shorter direct route on the south bank.

By the roundabout at the ‘south’ end of Lambeth Bridge (the Thames actually runs roughly west to east, so this is a kind of liturgical south, being on that side of the river which is flowing roughly north here) on the is a large and I think rather ugly block of flats (what estate agents term a prestigious development) called Parliament View. For £3000 per calendar month you can rent a flat there with a perfect trajectory to the Houses of Parliament only around 650 yards away, though I suspect would be renters get a fairly strict vetting from the nearby MI5 in Thames House just across the river. But I went for the cheaper option of trespassing on the steps and garden area around its front.

Which was fine except for a little street furniture when Aurora came down the Lambeth Road, and I moved into position for a picture as, together now with a large crowd of followers who had swarmed across Lambeth Bridge she turned the corner to go in front of the river frontage of the HoP.

She was coming up to the right position and I took a few pictures. But at the critical moment, Aurora disappeared behind a No 3 double-decker bus, waiting to get on to the roundabout. And waiting, while I tried running back and forth to get a better view. It almost happened but not quite. It wouldn’t quite have worked event without the bus, as the bear had turned around just a little too much before coming in front to the building.

It was time to photograph some of the people who were following Aurora, some in bear costumes and other fancy dress, as well as the team of three dancers who were in front of the bear. At the Westminster Bridge roundabout we got another glimpse of Big Ben in the distance, but it didn’t make a great picture for me. There was a little too much harassment by police and stewards to make it easy.

But finally on York Road, close to the end, I made an image that satisfied me. This was an event with very few placards, but I saw rather a good circular one, and an idea for a picture.

It wasn’t easy to get and keep in the right position in the crowd, as both bear and placard were moving, the placard rather more erratically. It was easy for people to get in the way too, and they did. But the main problem was the difference in size so I had to keep the two at very different distances and zoom to frame.

I took 21 frames working at the idea – the best was frame 16. The focal length needed varied from 39 to 99mm (equivalent) with the 18-105mm on the D800 and was 93mm equiv on the image above. Working at ISO800 I had closed down the aperture to f14, giving me a usable shutter speed of 1/200 but not quite enough depth of field. The placard is sharp, but the bear is just out of focus. I decided it was sharp enough for the image to work (with just a little help from Lightroom ‘Clarity’.)

There were some interesting moments at the rally at the Shell Centre, with some chances to use both the 10.5mm fisheye and the 70-300 at up to full stretch (45omm equiv) and you can see these at Aurora tells Shell – Stop Arctic Drilling.

(more…)