It’s sometimes hard to know what is acceptable and what isn’t in terms of obscenity (and nudity) on the web and in print. I’m seldom if ever myself worried by such things, though the kind of repetitive language I sometimes hear gets rather boring – and nudity isn’t always aesthetically desirable – though what upsets me most is not the human body but the kind of retouching that makes it into something inhuman. Nice to see someone retouching the other way for a change in Celebrities Photoshopped to Look Like Ordinary People by Danny Evans.
But people actually kept their shirts on at the Let’s Get Shirty Over Bedroom Tax protest at the end of March, though some had brought spares with messages to leave with David Cameron. There were a few that were fairly inflammatory and others that were a little rude.
And in those cases where I think it might be a problem for some people I usually try to make sure I have an alternative view, as in this case.
I’m sure we will see many more protests against the Bedroom Tax, as although the amounts involved may seem chicken-feed to the cabinet millionaires that dreamed it up, it looms very large in the budgets of those who will have to pay it. Think of it terms of that man left with £53 a week after his essential bills have been paid – the average £14 a week for a single ‘extra’ bedroom is over 25% of his income.
Politicians think in terms of percentages when it suits them, but not when it doesn’t. It might help them to judge the fairness of their policy to apply a similar percentage cut to the kind of figures that they live on – which would mean someone with an income of £1 million losing around £265,000 of it. But of course, thanks to that nice Mr Osborne, they will actually be getting a little gift of an extra £40,000. We certainly are not all in it together, and I’m pleased to be one of the 467,420 who have signed the petition urging Ian Duncan Smith to prove he could – as I heard him say on Radio 4 – live on £53 a week if he had to.
The anger was clear on the faces of some of the protesters, and I predict it will get worse.
I can’t think of much to say in terms of the photography. I wasn’t feeling at my best, and it was still too cold, and there were too many people trying to take pictures. Particularly too many of the sort who are completely unaware of others taking photographs and who simply walk between you and the people you are photographing, holding a camera or phone out in front of them and seeing nothing but that small screen.
Of course when it gets really crowded there isn’t room for them, and having a very wide lens can let you work when the amateurs can’t. When things get crowded the 10.5mm really comes into its own, but for some reason I didn’t get round to using it – always a sign with me that I’m not really quite on the ball, even when my best pictures don’t come from it.
The 16-35mm is pretty useful at close-quarters too.
More at Let’s Get Shirty Over Bedroom Tax.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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