February’s event are now completed on ‘My London Diary‘ thanks to a few days I’ve taken off going out to take more photographs. It’s getting harder for me to go out and take pictures at night or in bad weather and I’m also getting a little pickier about what I cover. This month’s list is around half as long as some others.
I’ve also been busy with some other things – getting a small show of work ready for next month (here’s the invite) and putting quite a few more of my old pictures at a decent size on Flickr.
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, please share on social media. And small donations via Paypal – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.
I’m not sure what to make of our Government’s response to the virus, but everyone else seems to be taking it more seriously and cancelling events which bring numbers of members of the public together.
Hilary Rosen and I have had to cancel the private view for our exhibition at The Street Gallery, UCLH, which was to have taken place next Thursday.
Unless the situation changes drastically the show will still go ahead and you can view it any time from 19th March -22nd April 2020 at University College Hospital, 235 Euston Road, London NW1 2BU – just opposite Warren St Underground.
It may be possible to hold a private view at the end of the show, but I rather think this is unlikely.
Lord Adonis has a lot to answer for, a rival to Failing Grayling who also served as Secretary of State for Transport – from 2016 to 2019. Adonis regards himself as “the architect of HS2” and published the original plan around ten years ago during the then new Labour government. It is down to him that we have the pigs ear which is HS2 rather than a modern railway that would be a great asset to our infrastructure.
Some protesters came with trees
HS2 as presently planned is crazy. It doesn’t connect with HS1, so we will eventually need to build a new connection there. It doesn’t run into Birmingham New Street, and the time saved by the faster transit into Curzon St will be lost for passengers requiring onward services there. And while the high-speed trains will be able to continue their journeys on existing track further north, they will actually be slower on these than the existing tilting stock.
One campaigner was dressed as a tree
There were alternative routes that would have worked better and certainly been more friendly to the environment, but these were dismissed under Adonis apparently without proper investigation. And it would have been better to have started by sorting out existing northern routes where the need is greater. We already have two working routes to Birmingham from London, from either Euston or Marylebone.
London-Birmingham is really too short a trip for the huge cost of a high-speed 300km/h connection to be worthwhile, they saving in time been too short. Currently the fastest services make the journey in 1 hr 22 mins, and that time could almost certainly be shortened by relatively small changes in to the existing route and signalling. The distance is 161km and the current average speed of the fastest services is only 118 km/h, using trains capable of over 200km/h.
Chris Packham gave me 3 acorns to plant but we have too many trees in our garden already
The protest at Euston led by Chris Packham and The Woodland Trust was over the environmental damage being caused by destruction of ancient woodlands on its route, taking place at a time when the whole HS2 project was still in doubt and was precipitated by the imminent destruction of South Cubbington Wood, due to be destroyed on 9th October. This is one of 30 classified ancient woodlands among a total of 108 woods to be wholly or partly lost to HS2. And the felling was put on hold.
Since then, the project has been given the go-ahead by Boris Johnson and is likely to be too far advanced by the time we get a new government to make some sensible changes. But I have a horrible feeling it may just end up as a huge white elephant.
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, please share on social media. And small donations via Paypal – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.
I hadn’t come up to London to photograph ‘Operation Zulu’, a protest against the prosecution of ‘Soldier F’ for the murder of civil rights protesters in Londonderry on ‘Bloody Sunday’ in 1972, but since I was in London I did take a brief walk through Parliament Square and Whitehall. And stopped to take a few photographs, mainly of a small group ‘mooning’ on the roof of an armoured vehicle. And to wonder why they called this ‘Operation Zulu’.
I remember going to see the film Zulu back in 1964, I thought at the Dominion Cinema in Hounslow, but memory is fallible as that apparently closed in 1961 (though this fine Art Deco building was only demolished after 45 years as a Bingo club in 2007), so perhaps it was the Regal. The film itself although based on history is incorrect in many aspects, and though the courage of the defenders of Rourke’s Drift is undeniable, the Zulu War it took place in was one of the worse aspects of our colonial past.
The man responsible for it has a statue I often walk past, in the Embankment gardens close to Northumberland Avenue, though I suspect few who walk past could tell you anything about Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere. He was sent to South Africa as High Commissioner for the British Empire to carry out a British plan to combine all of the south of the continent into a Canada-style federation. Frere took advantage of postal delays between South Africa and the UK to carry out his unauthorise policy, sending the King of Zululand a completely unacceptable ultimatum which amounted to a declaration of war, and then sent in the British Army.
Despite the Zulus being equipped largely with spears, clubs and hide shields against British firepower of breech-loading rifles and a couple of field guns, the first battle resulted in a great Zulu victory – as Wikipedia puts it, “The British Army had suffered its worst defeat against an indigenous foe with vastly inferior military technology“. The successful defence of Rourke’s Drift (the subject of the film) did much to restore British morale and a much stronger force was then dispatched to finally defeat the Zulus.
Frere was censured but allowed to stay on for long enough to cause several other wars across the area, including the disastrous First Boer War before being finally recalled to London, where he was eventually dismissed by Prime Minister Gladstone and censured by Whitehall for his disastrous actions in South Africa and policies he advocated over Afghanistan which had led to the Second Anglo-Afghan War.
Bloody Sunday in Londonderry in 1972, when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march against internment without trial, is a more recent shameful episode in British history. The Tory governent recently announced that soldiers would be granted protection against prosecution for any alleged historic offences, except for those in the Northern Ireland “troubles”. Although there have clearly been some cases where the allegations made against soldiers have been unfounded, where there is significant genuine evidence there should be no immunity from prosecution.
If anything I think there is more justification in providing protection against prosecution for crimes committed by both sides in Northern Ireland than for the crimes against civilians in Iraq and other overseas conflicts the army have been sent to. We need peace in NI, and there needs to be a reconciliation between the two communities . Post-Brexit I think that also means a united Ireland, though it may take some years for this to arrive.
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, please share on social media. And small donations via Paypal – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.
Climate Rally for the Imagination was organised for artists, designers, musicians, cultural workers and leaders to propose creative individual and collective responses to the climate emergency.
There were some heavy showers before the event began, with water on the paving giving reflections, which was good, but also getting on cameras and lenses which wasn’t.
But fortunately it stopped for a while as the event got going, as some of those taking part did look a little wet and bedraggled, probably including this photographer.
There were some interesting performances, including from folk singer Sam Lee, and some interesting presentations from people working with arts-based projects as well as at least one that seemed to me to be away with the fairies. But Extinction Rebellion has a very wide range of supporters.
Several people read from their contributions to the book ‘Letters to the Earth’ and perhaps the event became a little too much like a book promotion. But there were a number of contributions from others, about the protests over BP sponsorship of museums and culture, with a student involved speaking about the letter threatening a boycott of the Royal Shakespeare Company by school climate strikers which got the company to drop BP in days.
Another speaker had written to the Arts Council over its failure to recognise the vital importance of combating climate change through the activities it sponsors, while architect Michael Pawlyn gave a challenging analysis of current architectural practices and their contribution to climate change, spressing the newd for a new ‘regenerative architecture’.
Among those contributing to the book was environmental lawyer Farhana Yamin, arrested for protesting against Shell with Extinction Rebellion in April.
It was, she rightly said “a sexist and ageist quote“, which ignored the great contribution made by many women in the past in order to boost the achievements of NatGeo’s current crop of women photojournalists.
As some readers will know, I used to write for an online photography web site, and before that to teach photography to mainly young students, the majority of whom were female. I had a number of principles that underlie the articles that I wrote about photographers and the work that I showed students and among them were that I wanted to show the contribution that had been made to photography by women through the whole history of our medium and over many fields. Another was to show that not all photographers were American or even British or European – something that was probably a major factor in my contract eventually being terminated.
I tried hard to find women who would qualify for my list of notable photographers, but men still outnumbered them by around 5 to 1, at least in part because of the lack of published material (and particularly published material on the web) by or about them. But there were some truly great women photographers on that list and I think I wrote rather more about many of them than about most of the men.
Yunghi Kim has gone on from her critical article first to produce a list ‘The Silent Generation‘ of women photojournalists, and then to work with her team to produce a remarkable web site – Trailblazers of Light, highlighting the many, many women photojournalists of the film era, decades before the advent of digital cameras and photography.
Also referred to as the, “The Silent Generation,” it refers to a time when a few courageous women first entered the photojournalism work force and simply did the work without fanfare but with steely determination. They worked side by side with men on a daily basis at newspapers, magazines, wire services, and photo agencies. They reported from foreign war zones, the streets of our towns and cities across America, and everywhere in between.
It isn’t an exhaustive list and will doubtless grow in time. As the site says, “Most of the names here are American photojournalists or those who worked for American-based publications, photo agencies and news wires. There are some international photojournalists listed as well.”
Currently the site lists 517 photojournalists and 249 picture editors, and the site gives a short history of the contribution of women to photojournalism in the USA, beginning with “Frances Benjamin Johnston, who worked for Acme News Service. She was born in 1864 and had a career which lasted over 50 years” and continuing to the digital age.
It’s a remarkable history, only a fairly small part of which was familiar to me, and although there are plenty of names among the 517 that are familiar to me, there are rather more I’d not before heard of. Clicking on their names in the list of Photojournalists generally links to an article on a web site with some more details or an article about them. The site also has a historical timeline and some oral histories.
It’s looks a hugely valuable resource for students and educators, though I’ve only had a short time to investigate it. It would be good to see a similar resource to cover other areas of photography worldwide.
Unfortunately we have had to cancel the private view, but we still expect the show to take place as scheduled – and you can come along any time from 19th March to 22 April to view it.
Perhaps not the best time to be having an opening, as the whole country could well be in lock-down by then. But I hope there will be no problems in going ahead with this. The hospital main entrance is just across the top of Tottenham Court Road from Warren St station; turn right immediately you enter for the show, which you will have seen through the windows as you walk along to the entrance.
My contribution is 12 panoramic images taken on a number of walks along the Regent’s Canal over the past year as a small celebration of the 200th anniversary of its opening.
If you can come, please RSVP to help planning for snacks and wine etc. But anyone can just turn up at the event – or go and see the show any time until 22nd April.
If you would like to print out the invitation you can download a PDF.
The young get it, and inspired by the actions of Greta Thunberg as well as the words of David Attenborough and the overwhemlming conclusions of scientists, school students around the world are coming out on the streets to demand yhat governments take the necessary action to decrease carbon dioxide emissions and act in accordance with the Paris Agreement and the IPCC report, though many recognise that even these are insufficient to deal with the problems we face.
Fridays for Future London started out as a small group, but now together with Youth Climate Strike and other groups there has been an impressive turnout for protests taking place during a Friday in school terms. Some came with parents or grandparents and there were a few other older protesters, but the great majority were with others from their schools and school classes.
Notable by their almost complete absence were the mass-produced placards of so many protests, produced by left groups such as the Socialist Workers Party or Socialist Party. Clearly the climate catastrophe is now a major inspiration for the work of school art departments as well as many obviously home produced posters and placards.
The protesters are deadly serious about the existential crisis they face, with messages on some posters addressed to the older generations who run our country like ‘YOU will die from old age – WE will die from Climate Change’ but there are many more humorous though also deadly serious.
If the world was run by the youth it would have a future. But unfortunately it is largely run by the old and extremely rich. Billionaires who largely can’t see beyond their immediate short-term interests and are doing very well from business as usual. They’ll be OK in the short-term when the sea-level rises or we get more and more storms and floods, when millions (or even billions) die in the majority world and thousands in countries like ours.
Of course in the longer term even the filthy rich will suffer. They are huge hoggers of resources, particularly those made by the poor who mine the metals, grow the crops etc. The world doesn’t need the rich, but the rich do need the rest of the world to support them.
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, please share on social media. And small donations via Paypal – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.
Many UK photographers will remember Witold Krassowski who worked in London with Network Photographers from 1988-2005 and was also for the first five years here a freelance for The Independent.
On his web site you can read the story by Colin Jacobson of how he came to work for the Independent, having come to London to work as a house painter and you can also see some fine pictures from his work in Poland, Britain, India, Mongolia and Afghanistan as well as portraits and some commercial work.
Others will know him from his pictures in a couple of World Press Photo shows, and rather more awards in Poland, where I met him as vice-president of the Association of Polish Art Photographers. He’s led a Master Class for the WPP in Amsterdam, taught at Pathshala in Dhaka and been lecturer and deputy dean at the Faculty of Media Arts of the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw
But although his work has appeared in many publications and he has had a couple of books published in Poland, one on the social revolution at the end of communism in 1989 in that country and a second of portraits of much later of actors whose careers were dramatically changed by that political event, there has not yet been a book to present the breadth of his work over the years
Sackcloth and Ashes, Photographs by Witold Krassowski is described as “A lifetime of unstaged work on 35mm underlining human unity across borders and cultures.” With 119 black and white images, taken entirely on film, between 1985 and 2007 it represents his project to document “the commonality of human fate and the unity of mankind that stretches beyond culture and politics. “
But the book does not yet exist, and its publication depends on a Kickstarter campaign raising the £8,000 needed by April 1st. You can read much more about the book and why Krassowski feels it important that it should be published. By pledging £40 or more you can get a signed copy on publication, while for larger pledges there are further rewards.
Antanas Sutkus (b1939) from Lithuania was one of the photographers I met and saw his work for the first time when I went to Bielsko-Biala in 2005 for their first FotoArtFestival, though while I saw his show there, I unfortunately missed his presentation as I was getting ready for my own.
One of the better aspects of the countries on the other side of the Iron Curtain was their support for the arts, although it was not always entirely beneficial. There was a huge emphasis on cultural activities, with concert halls, large galleries and museum, but also censorship, and artists had to tread an often difficult line between their personal aspirations and interests and the state’s idea of what literature, music or the visual arts should be.
Sutkus it tell us in his brief biography at the RussianTeaRooms gallery “realized more than 120 works. Major works: Lithuanian People (1959); Lithuania from a Bird’s Eye (1973–1980); Meetings with Bulgaria (1972–1979); Lithuanians of the World (1991–1994); Nostalgia for Bare Feet (1959–1979); Pro Memoria: To the Living Martyrs of Kaunas’ Ghetto (1994–1997); Past Times (1999)” and from the various positions he held and awards he gained flourished both when his country was under Soviet control and after the end of Russian domination.
From his photography we can see that he was able to pursue a strong personal view despite censorship and restrictions. There are two sets of pictures on the RTR site, one of the visit to his country of Jean Paul Sartre and the second ‘Miscellaneous’. While the most striking of the Sartre images have a strong formal appeal, it is in the other set that his love for people stands out, particularly in an image of his Aunt Agota, running down the path towards his camera.
The Russiantearoom Gallery in Paris is now the Galerie LIZA FETISSOVA, and “Je t’aime” by Antanas Sutkus opens here on 6 March 2019 until March 29. The gallery page quotes Sutkus “To photograph people, you have to love them” and in their text for the show sums up his work well:
Antanas Sutkus (born 1939) captured love as a man, humanist, photographer, patriot. His native country, his Lithuania and its people, proud and resistant to the Soviet invasion, inspired him so much love, that every image breathes it, radiates it … Gives it away.
The same text with a slightly different set of pictures is on the Eye of Photography page which alerted me to this show. You can also see some of his work at the White Space Gallery. His official web site has a considerable amount of writing, some in English, but I could find no pictures.
