There were a lot of photographers in Parliament Square waiting for the student “Die-In” and I know that some were disappointed that the event was not more theatrical. One said to me “I was expecting blood and bandages” and there were none of these.
It was in it’s way a nice demonstration, doing what it set out to do and flouting some of our over-restrictive laws that limit the freedom to protest. And although the police at the end did tell those taking part they had been breaking the law in protesting outside Downing St and in using megaphones, so far as I’m aware there were no arrests.
But how do you take interesting pictures of an event such as this? I think all of us look for something a little out of the ordinary, perhaps an interesting placard. But all except one young woman carried the same standard design – so of course she features rather a lot in my pictures, not least because I liked the little bit of humour in ‘Pick fruit not wars.‘ But rather annoyingly all the best pictures I took of her showed the other side that read ‘War is just Terrorism with a Bigger Budget.’
The punk girl with the pink spiky hair obviously felt very much under siege by photographers – and it probably didn’t help that some of her friends tried to shield her with placards. I tried not to be too obtrusive, but she did stand out and make some interest.
Often the police actions at demonstrations create a certain tension (and sometimes rather more) but on this occasion they simply stood back and watched most of the time.
Perhaps a very simple approach was the best:
but it seemed every time I tired something like this other photographers or TV crews would walk into shot.
There are just some occasions where it’s hard to come up with really interesting pictures, though I think those I took – and you can see and read more on My London Diary – do tell the story of the event.