>Re:PHOTO Peter Marshall - Thoughts on Photography

In Memory of Ian Tomlinson

While I was writing this piece I took a look at the Sky News web site, which carried a short report of this march from Bethnal Green Police Station to lay flowers at the scene of his death. It wasn’t a bad report of the actual event, with a fairly indifferent photo and some of the short address by Ian Tomlinson’s stepson on video, but what really stunned me were some of the ignorant and vituperative comments made on the site.

For those of us who were there – and went to the vigil at the Bank later – it was clear that the organisers of the G20 Meltdown and this march had been shaken by the killing. The police too I felt showed it had shocked them. And Paul King made it clear on the video that the family appreciated the support they had been shown by the marchers.

Whoever posted the report on Sky couldn’t restrain themselves from feeding the flames of ignorance in the final paragraphs where they use a quotation from the G20 meltdown site to suggest that this event would somehow end in riot. Nobody who was there would have thought there was any chance of that. Anyway, here’s my account and some opinion. More pictures and less text on My London Diary.

Several hundred marchers, some carrying flowers, and almost as many photographers and videographers turned up at Bethnal Green Police Station for the start of a memorial march for newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson. The march was called by G20 Meltdown, whose organisers including Chris Knight and Marina Pepper were among those who led the march. They had intended to hold a carnival party in protest at the Bank of England on April 1, but police turned it into something far more sinister, which ended with many demonstrators being attacked by police and Tomlinson’s death.

At the Tomlinson family’s request, the march was peaceful, silent and respectful. Although they did not take part in the march, stepson Paul King spoke briefly at the start from the steps of the police station, surrounded by a five-deep semicircle of cameras. He described the family’s pain from the tragic death of a “much-loved and warm-hearted man” and at seeing the video of the assault, and hoped that the invstigation would be full and that “action will be taken against any police officer who contributed to Ian’s death through his conduct.” He ended by saying that he hoped he could continue to rely on the support of the demonstrators in the future.

Paul King

Short speeches from the march organisers called for a properly independent enquiry into police violence surrounding the G20 protests and for criminal charges to be brought against those responsible.

Leaflets were distributed for a new campaign to end violent police tactics at peaceful demonstrations. There is a No to Police Violence web-site and also a blog, Once Upon A Time in Hackney.

The police were solicitous, on their best behaviour, clearly wanting to avoid any friction, and the officer in charge was I think one of those who had been in charge at Bank on the day the incident happened.

Some marchers carried flowers to lay close to where Ian Tomlinson was the victim of an unprovoked police attack from behind on the corner of Royal Exchange Buildings. Here there were more speeches, which I missed, having left to photograph the Tamil march.

Among those marching were some of Sean Rigg‘s family, and I’m told his sister spoke eloquently about his case at Bank. Sean died after being taken ill in police custody in Brixton Police Station on Thursday 21 August 2008, and his family also took part in last year’s annual United Friends and Families march along Whitehall in October and at the Justice 4 Ricky Bishop march in south London in November.

Chris Knight had announced he would be making a vigil at Royal Exchange Buildings in memory of Paul Tomlinson over the Easter weekend, and invited people to come at any time, but in particular to join a candlelit vigil at 8pm. I couldn’t make that but I did call in the afternoon and photograph him and the flowers at the scene.

Tragic though it was, and we must all feel a great sympathy with his family, the death of Ian Tomlinson following an attack (or possibly more than one attack) by police during the demonstration at Bank where he was a bystander is not the real story. I almost fell into same trap as the media by describing him as an “innocent bystander“; he was, but then at least 99% of the demonstrators were “innocent demonstrators” and somehow that isn’t a cliché you see much.

And of course it isn’t a story about a few coppers who went berserk, although there were quite a number whose conduct clearly went beyond the acceptable and as well as the one or two who may face criminal charges unless the CPS wriggles them out of it, if justice is to be served there would be hundreds of disciplinary cases with many of those concerned being drummed out of the force.

Its a story that sticks not to the bobby on the beat but to the politicians in and out of uniform who run them, who appeared on the media promising riots and Armageddon, who instilled their officers with fear and hate and trained them to efficiently beat innocent protesters with batons. Labour ministers, a Tory mayor, police chiefs have all conspired to make demonstrators – to borrow a term from the Scientologists – “fair game.” Its a way of looking at people that justifies almost any action – such as planting catapults as evidence (it happened at Speakers’ Corner on March 28), destroying their property and riot police marching in squads into unarmed crowds of people who are holding their hands up in the air, intent on bludgeoning everyone to the ground. It’s a policy which can also cover misusing laws, issuing misleading (or false) statements to the press, and more.

The media of course don’t come out of this at all well. The BBC in particular I think let us down; they simply do not have enough first-hand reporters and far too many people with their seats firmly on office chairs. Like the press they compete in the stoking of public fear and the stigmatising of democratic protest. Of course it isn’t largely the journalists who are responsible – with a few exceptions (mainly among ‘columnists’) they do their job as best they can, often, particularly for photographers and videographers, at some personal risk. But it isn’t the guys on the job who produce the programmes and papers, who decide on what has “news value” and dictate the values behind that decision.

To find the real stories behind the news you need to look elsewhere, to blogs and web sites, where you see eye-witness reports, pictures and video. The media are too busy resenting the presence of such things to have worked out how to make effective use of these sources – and of course like any other sources you need to read them with a critical and often cynical eye on where they come from. But it certainly isn’t a coincidence that the two stories which have dominated British news over the past week came from the mobile phone of a “citizen journalist” and blogs.

And if you want to know the real story behind the arrests of over a hundred activists suspected of conspiring to commit aggravated trespass at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station you won’t be looking at the press but to the blogs.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station

Hunger Strike

I didn’t stay long in Parliament Square, where a couple of hundred Tamils were sitting quietly around the quilts covering two Tamil men who are on hunger strike, calling for an end to the killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Good Friday

Christians in the UK sometimes seem not to keen to be photographed when they do, but the various Good Friday ‘Processions of Witness‘ are an exception. Of course I have been made welcome at many other events – as you can see from ‘My London Diary‘.

One of the largest of such events takes place in the centre of Westminster, along Victoria Street, involving Methodist Central Hall, Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. There are always quite a few photographers taking pictures during the services outside the first two churches and the procession between them, but photography is not allowed when the procession goes in to Westminster Abbey.

I started by photographing a service in the concourse of Waterloo Station, where around a hundred people from North Lambeth had ended their two processions around the area. Photography ‘for personal use’ is generally allowed in railway stations, so long as you don’t “take photographs of security related equipment such as CCTV cameras.”

It would of course be almost impossible not to coincidentally include CCTV cameras in most general shots of stations, and in practice it is unlikely to be a problem unless you appear to be concentrating on such things. It seems unlikely that even so you would be committing an offence, but people have been stopped and questioned for doing so.

It didn’t actually occur to the Secretary of State for Transport that photographing CCTV cameras was a problem worth mentioning; in a written answer in Jan 2007, Tom Harris said that the Department “would not normally expect operators to object to photography at stations unless it was being carried on in such a way as to pose an unacceptable risk to the photographer or others.”

Commercial photography at stations does of course require a licence, and if you want to use equipment such as tripods and lights you will need one. But so long as you stick to hand-holding and available light (flash is also allowed except on platforms) and don’t annoy people you are unlikely to have problems. I’m an editorial photographer not a commercial photographer; but as usual when working (except at highly policed demonstrations) I keep my press card in my pocket.

The ‘Crucifixion on Victoria Street‘ has a much higher profile, with the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Louise Hyams and the Archbishop of Westminster in attendance along with lots of other clergy. As Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor’s retirement has been announced this is the last of these events he will attend.

The Lea Navigation

Ford’s Enfield plant – known as Visteon for the last few years – backs on to the Lea Navigation, one of many factories in what was, at least until recent times, one of Britain’s major industrial areas.

Industry came to the Lea at first partly because of environmental legislation which banished highly polluting industries from London itself; the River Lea was the border between London (in Middlesex) and Essex, where anything went. But the area also became the centre for developments in transport (road, rail, air, sea) and later electrical industries. And although most of the major factories south of Tottenham have long gone, there is still a sizeable strip of industry to the north, although much is now warehousing, supermarkets and leisure facilities.

Having photographed the Visteon workers coming out from their factory occupation I decided to take a look at the works from the towpath on the opposite side of the canal, and, since I had a couple of hours before my next appointment in a Fleet St pub, to walk back beside the canal to Tottenham Hale.

This is the Ford (Visteon) factory seen from a bridge over the Lea Navigation to the north. You can just see the private bridge over the canal from the Ford workers car park on the east side of the canal to the works.

A few hundred yards away, this is what I saw:

The green bank in the background is one of the many reservoirs in the Lea Valley that supply London with a considerable fraction of its water (though more comes from the River Thames.) Pylons carry power from the national grid to the city (the power stations once in the valley have closed.) Although the power lines in the Olympic area have now been put into underground tunnels – it isn’t clear quite why the athletes should be so sensitive about their presence – members of the Pylon Appreciation Society (founded in 2005) can still have a field day further north.

You can see more of the pictures I took in my rather damp walk on My London Diary.

Visteon Occupation Ends

The factory occupation by workers sacked at a few minutes notice by the administrators for Visteon ended on Thursday, and I was there to photograph as they came out of the building.

They were obeying a court order which had named their convenor, Kevin Nolan and demanded that they vacate the premises by noon. Their action and the publicity it gave had certainly lent urgency to the talks between union officials and the bosses of both Visteon and The Ford Motor Company about a proper settlement for the men, and hopes are still high for some kind of acceptable settlement.

Covering an event like this isn’t just a matter of being there and taking pictures, you need to think about how to show the story and find the pictures to do so. I don’t as a matter of principle set up pictures, but that doesn’t mean I don’t try to use a little intelligence.

How do you show the support by students for the workers?

Your thoughts about the company’s position?

The man leading the action?

Admittedly this picture was to an extent posed – I was standing there as another photographer talked to him and asked if I could take his picture – but that was all.

Then there were key moments as the workers came out, as for example when one was holding the certificate for 35 years of good service (over 25 of which were as a direct employee of The Ford Motor Company before they set up Visteon as a part of their enterprise.)

What doesn’t show in pictures like this last one is that I was only one of perhaps 20 press photographers and videographers all trying to get pictures, and at moments like this, all trying to get more or less the same picture. To be successful you need to have thought in advance and got in the right place – and it sometimes takes a little bit of assertive behaviour to stay there, though most photographers do try to avoid getting in the way of others.

On My London Diary you can see more of how I tried to tell the story through my pictures. One of the great things about putting work on the web is that I can do it at some length, while it’s very unusual to get more than a single picture in print.

The action at Visteon isn’t over yet. Although they have come out of the factory, the sacked workers are still picketing the two gates of the plant in an effort to prevent the removal and sale of the valuable machinery on site and to get the ‘Ford Terms’ they were promised when they were transferred to Visteon.

Great Advice, Fine Eyes

Seen on the 100 Eyes blog, a post Great Advice for Photographers, written by Dawoud Bey and originally published on his own blog, What’s Going On.

It’s worth looking at and reading, even if much of it is things we already know (Bey originally posted it as ‘Advice to a Young Artist‘) and some of it at least we have already taken to heart and put into practice. I’ve also given and written similar advice myself many times over the years, but it’s still good to see it pulled together so well.

Bey’s second point is ‘Put in 10,000 hours’, which may not appeal to those hoping for instant success, but hard work is needed to develop your ideas and to keep on growing. But five years of full-time work (less if, like many artists you are a workaholic) is a good basis for success, though not of course a guarantee.

Another sentence that stood out for me in the piece was this:

Your work should be something that you would be doing regardless of whether the larger market ever responds or not. Making art has to be your own particular obsession.

But what I think comes out time and again in the piece is the importance of working in a community, and taking a part in that community, sharing your work with other people and also sharing your ideas. It’s something that applies not just to the ’emerging artists’ Bey is writing for, but also to the author himself.

When I started in photography, there was very little advice available, and most of us floundered, while a few, often through just happening to meet the right people at the right time, made great strides.

If you’ve not yet seen 100 Eyes, the ‘beta issue’ of a “new web publication aimed at bringing compelling photography to the web” founded by Andy Levin a former Contributing Photographer at Life Magazine who lives in New Orleans, do take a look. Most if not all of the work in this issue is from photographers in his area, and I particularly liked the grittily abused HP5 of Kevin Dotson, not least because the soundtrack to his slide-show is for once both appropriate to the subject matter and also one of my favourites, Petite Fleur by the incomparable soprano of the great Sidney Bechet. And I’m pleased that we get the full track, although the pictures begin a reprise before it ends.

Stephen Shore Video

Just watched this on ‘A Photo Editor‘ – nine and a half minutes with much of the time Stephen Shore talking about how he works and well worth watching.

Shore of course has long been a favourite photographer of mine, particularly for the work he published in 1982 in ‘Uncommon Places‘ of which I have a well-thumbed copy. But I enjoyed seeing him and listening to him talk about the medium. And it made me go and find the book and look through it again.

William Eggleston is another of my favourites, but the video of him featured on the same site made by his son Winston I found far less interesting. It’s a bit too much Gee I like my dad and I think his pictures are great for my taste, and one or two pictures where I’d hoped he tell me a bit about them he simply passes without comment. Better to look at the books for yourself I think.

Hounslow revisited

Forty-three years ago I stood more or less exactly on this same spot working on a mildly novel process to produce the dye for the blue-rinse vital to the elderly ladies of Tory persuasion, along with running tests on Kipper Brown, the kind of chemical nightmare that put me off those fish for many years (and according to Wikipedia, is banned in the European Union – except for the UK – Australia, Austria, Canada, United States, Finland, Japan, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Norway.)

Among the workers on the factory floor were quite a few Sikhs, and in the packing department in particular they could be found stained every colour under the sun depending on which particular product they were handling. I don’t know if it was Health and Safety laws or simple economics that led to the closing of the factory – I returned rapidly to twentieth century chemistry elsewhere, though there had been a certain fascination in handling dyestuff samples in bottles signed personally by Sir William Henry Perkin, the founder of the modern chemical industry with his synthesis of mauveine, the first synthetic dyestuff, in a crude laboratory at his home Cable Street in 1856 when he was only 18 – though our samples were from his later works at Greenford on the sometimes curiously coloured Grand Union Canal.

For whatever reason, the dyestuffs factory is long gone, and in its place is the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, and I was there to photograph their Vaisakhi celebrations. I walked in, took off my shoes, put on a saffron rumāl (headscarf – something extra for my camera bag at this time of year) and went to the Gurdwara office and told them I would like to take photographs in the Gurdwara. Of course, they said, that’s fine. You can photograph anything you like, anywhere. If only everywhere was like that.

And it was true, I could, and everyone seemed to like being photographed. You can see the results on My London Diary in Vaisakhi in Hounslow.

It was hard to refuse all the food I was offered and by the time I’d finished taking pictures I was rather full, and I hate to think what my blood sugar was, although I did refuse most of the sweets. Working with the SB80DX was a little tricky too, and not all the flash exposures were exactly what I expected. The last time I was without an i-TTL flash unit I managed to work out a fairly reliable method to do it, and I really should have revised from my Using Your Existing Flash with a Nikon before leaving home!

Oxford St Fashion

Well, not really a fashion show. I haven’t sunk that low yet!

Just War on Want and No Sweat! pointing out to shoppers that chains like Primark rely on workers in chains – or at least on starvation wages working 80 hour weeks – in Bangladesh to sell cheap fashion clothes in Britain.

Primark’s prize Oxford St store opened two years ago when War on Want did its first Fashion Victims report on the shocking conditions for workers at suppliers for it and other high street shops. Primark’s reply appears to have been to have put a notice in its shop window claiming that it took an ethically responsible attitude towards the working conditions of its suppliers – while continuing to ignore the evidence. War on Want’s new report, Fashion Victims II, shows that conditions have actually worsened since the first report.

More on the protest, more pictures and links to the report on My London Diary.

Incidentally it wasn’t easy to produce a good picture despite some attractive models in chains. This one is I think the best, not only because of the model’s pose, but also because it shows everything – the models, the War on Want poster, the No Sweat! banner and the shop window with the Primark title. And no, it wasn’t posed. Shot with the 20mm on the D700 (so a real 20mm) and just a little touch of fill from the built-in flash. Perhaps I would have felt happier with something just a smidgen wider and the SB800 I lost earlier in the week. Actually I’d feel a lot happier if I hadn’t lost that flash!

Visteon Occupation

The sign on the Visteon factory at Ponders End still proudly reads “An Enterprise of Ford Motor Company, Limited” but in fact they sold it and the workers out some years ago. When Visteon was set up, workers were given new contracts, along with promises that they would continue to enjoy the same conditions they had with Ford. Now Visteon has abandoned its UK plants to adminstrators KPMG and those promises appear worthless. Workers were told in a six minute meeting that they no longer had a job and given an hour to take their personal possessions from their lockers and leave.

Later, on hearing that their fellow workers in Belfast had occupied the factory, they returned, found the back gate open and followed their example. On Saturday I turned up with a couple of hundred others at the factory to offer support in their attempt to get a fair settlement from their former employers, in which they have the backing of their union, Unite.

Many of those who used to work there have given 30 or 40 years of their life to Ford/Visteon, and although of course they have been paid for their labour, it really represents an investment by people that our labour laws don’t properly recognise. I’ve been through “transfer of undertakings” and felt some of the pain and the inadequacy of our laws, though I was fortunate and retained a job, while some colleagues were – and deeply felt – discarded.

More about the occupation and more pictures on My London Diary