Although there were no real problems photographing the ‘Armed Wing of the TUC’, and certainly no hassles with military security, it wasn’t too easy to get good pictures. One problem was that tall banner stating ‘Capitalism Isn’t Working’, great on its own but so good at hiding the five horses behind it, breaking the whole parade along the street very much into two parts.
Of course I could photograph the horses separately, and I did, and there was a short period when the banner was lowered when it needed fixing and I had a few seconds to try and take a picture.
After we reached Kennington Park, it took me a while to find anything to photograph, as very little was happening. There was also the problem that while I like to photograph things as they are with a little chaos, perhaps like this:
as soon as people saw me taking pictures they wanted to pose with their banner. So of course I take their picture doing so, though I’m unlikely to use it. Things were a little easier once the speeches started as instead of standing around in small closed groups people turn round in the direction of the speakers, and if they are concentrating on what is being said take little notice of the photographers.
Again, once people actually start marching, photography becomes easier too, though I often find myself telling people not to stop, to keep walking while I take their picture.
It was a dull day, and most of the time I had been mainly working without flash, although I needed it with a few pictures, mainly where otherwise faces would have been in deep shadow, as when people wear hats with large brims. As you can see, I chose to use it on the picture above, and some of the others on the march, really just to bring people out from the background a little, although often in post-processing I then have to burn them back down.
You can now see rather more of the pictures I took in Camberwell and Kennington last Saturday in 26March: Armed Wing of the TUC and 26March: South London Feeder March on My London Diary.