I’m always a little worried about photographing the MI6 building. Architecturally I think at least in visual terms it’s rather a mess; not quite ‘Legoland’ (apparently one of names its agents use for it, though another, Babylon is in several ways more appropriate), but more one of those silly children’s toys, ‘Transformers’, but unlike the Hasbro/Takara Tomy versions it just sits there and doesn’t change into anything else. But I suppose I’m also worried that someone is going to run out and arrest me for breaking the Official Secrets Act, though I know it isn’t likely to happen. Though I probably would get questioned if I started to photograph people entering and leaving the building.
Of course, if we really wanted to keep the existence and location of MI6 a secret, we wouldn’t have put it in such a distinctive building and location, overlooking the River Thames (it’s also on top of the Effra.) It is a real sore thumb, and London is certainly not short of faceless office buildings that could have housed it equally well (and it does have one such just a few yards away in Kennington Lane.) Though it is perhaps not co-incidental that the existence of MI6 was only officially acknowledged in 1994, the year before it moved into its flashy new HQ.
The Free Shaker Aamer Campaign had also been worried that there might be problems with protesting outside the building, but they checked with the police and found them pretty relaxed about it, and this is the second protest the group have staged there.
This time it was gloomy and wet, with steady rain as I arrived and the protesters were getting changed into the orange jumpsuits and going out to protest at the roadside. Vauxhall Cross certainly has no shortage of passing traffic, and from that point of view is a very good place to protest. It’s also very convenient to get to, with a large bus station, overground and underground rail stations just across the road.
‘End the torture and abuse’
So I went and took the obvious pictures, particularly those with the MI6 (officially called the Secret Intelligence Service) building in the background, with several variations. The protesters had also brought a couple of different sets of slogans
’12 years Shaker unjustly held in Gitmo’ – he was illegally rendered there on 14 Feb 2002
I took these trying to keep the verticals of the building upright in the background, but it’s certainly good to be able to tidy them up a little in Lightroom where necessary, though I hadn’t always quite left enough space around the essential parts of the image to do so. I don’t always try for correct verticals in images, but here I felt that convergence would detract attention from the protesters – the vertical building seems to provide a more neutral background.
I’ve generally also stopped using distortion correction on the images from the 16-35mm, as when you crop precisely in the viewfinder you can find the image correction actually removes whatever you very carefully placed at the extreme edge. But it sometimes shows at the wide end as here where the building has a distinct curve at the left. But probably you wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t told you. Correcting it would lose a little of the figure at the edge who I wanted to keep.
The rain was a problem for me as well as the protesters, and there are a few areas in some of the images where a little post-processing was needed to reduce the effects of rain drops on the filter. But it also meant that I was unable to take as long as I would have liked photographing the Valentine Card for the head of MI6, Sir John Sawer, as it was starting to get wet.
When the rain turned from heavy to torrential, the protesters (and photographers) were able to retreat into one of the long tunnels under the main line to Waterloo, where they had earlier set up their base and there they held a rally. The lighting there was by now almost as bright as outside and working at ISO 3200 wasn’t a problem.
For the first time after over an hour of protest the police turned up and took and interest in what what going on, perhaps because the tunnel was rather congested, especially when some of the walkers and cyclists passing through stopped to find out what the protest was about.
By the time the speeches were over the rain had slackened off just a little, and the protesters came out mainly in single file as the organisers had requested and made their way across the road in a procession to the entrance of the MI6 building to try to deliver the Valentine card. The rain really was too much to work easily, and quite a few images were ruined, but I was able to get some. The man on the gate refused to take the card, citing security reasons, but the protesters persevered, and eventually just pushed it through the wide gap between the gate and the wall before leaving.
While I appreciate the need for security, there is also a good place for common sense, and no real risk would have been involved in taking the card.
By now I – and the protesters – was cold and wet, and I was very pleased to make the short walk to the station for my train home.
The protest was taking place at MI6, because they are thought to have secretly lobbied for Shaker Aamer not to be allowed back into the UK as his evidence about their collusion in torture would be extremely embarrassing. You can read more about this and see the other pictures from the event in ‘Justice Demands the Truth’ Vigil.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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