>Re:PHOTO Peter Marshall - Thoughts on Photography

Tilt-Shift?

Princess Diana fountain © 2008 Peter Marshall
Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, Hyde Park, London – more pictures

Tilt-Shift Maker have got it all wrong. What I never wanted when I used a tilt-shift lens or the movements on a 4×5 was never to reduce the area of sharp focus, but always to get a greater apparent depth of field by tilting the plane of focus to cover the subject.

After extreme processing by Tilt-Shift Maker

So I don’t want this. What I’d like to see is that foreground area made sharp. Software that could do that would really be clever. Almost every time I go out to take pictures in winter or at night when light it low I find pictures where I can’t get the depth of field I want – and often a tilt lens could help. It isn’t often I want less depth of field – and when I do it generally isn’t just in the simple way that this program offers.

But if you are really looking for a new way to really mess up your photos and get some glowing comments on flickr, this is perhaps the way to go.

Suit for Prince

It’s interesting to read, thanks to Cityfile that French photographer Patrick Cariou has filed a suit against Richard Prince and his gallery for using his photographs published in the 2000 book Yes Rasta in a series of paintings that were recently on show at Gagosian New York. Not least because the precendents suggest that Cariou is probably unlikely to win, despite a certain obvious justice in his case. Prince’s work clearly could not exist without his creative input, and to suggest otherwise seems to me to deny the creative input of Cariou’s work.

I rather suspect that if Prince’s work had been shown in Paris, the result of a case in the French courts would be rather different. I don’t have any time for the appropriation of photographs – but then I’m a photographer. I’d be happy if people wanted to use my work, so long as they were prepared both to acknowledge their indebtedness explicitly in both words and cash.

Odd moments

It takes me roughly 45 to 90 minutes to get to most places in London from home, with a train journey into Waterloo and then on by bus or tube. Over the years I’ve become pretty good at working out routes using public transport, though it can be tricky when engineering works sometimes close down half the tube at weekends, or events on the street (often those I’m photographing) disrupt bus services. The Transport for London Journey Planner is often helpful as a starting point,but can’t be relied on to suggest best routes or give an accurate estimate of journey times.

But often I want to photograph several events at different places, and these are seldom arranged at particularly convenient times. Even I can’t be in two places at one time! So it means prioritising, and perhaps leaving one event before it finishes and arriving at another late – or not at all. Other days I’ll have finished one thing and be waiting perhaps an hour or two for a second event to photograph, so what do I do in these odd moments.

Well, if there are other photographers I know about, we often go to a pub – or less often to a cafe, which can be very pleasant. But I’ve never liked sitting on my own in such places. Sometimes I’ll fit in some other photography, perhaps visiting an interesting or changing area.

I often used to try some street photography, but my current Nikon digital is rather large and clunky for this, and I’ve yet to find a good digital alternative for the Leica or Minolta CLE (no, the M8 doesn’t hack it.) Of course I could keep on shooting film, but the hundred or so rolls I’ve already go waiting for processing puts me off it. So for the moment I’ve given that up, though in good light there are compact digitals that are worth considering.

So what I often do if I’m on my own is visit galleries. Of course there are some photography shows, but I also like to visit art galleries – such as the Tate, Tate Modern, the National Gallery etc, but also sometimes the commercial galleries. It helps to be a member of The Art Fund because this gets me free into some places and shows where I’d otherwise have to pay – and if I’ve only got a short time it seems hardly worth it, though fortunately most of London’s major galleries are free.

So, having taken enough pictures of the Ashura procession in rather poor light (not helped by getting the exposure wrong by mistake on some of them – my usual trouble with pressing things when I don’t mean to) I turned into Hyde Park and started by taking some pictures of one of my many favourite places in London, the Italian garden.

Then I walked on in the direction of the Serpentine Gallery, walking past sign after sign pinting me towards the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain.

Princess Di never appealed to me and I kept away from all the popular outpouring following her death, and although I’d heard and read about the fountain I hadn’t bothered to go and see it, but since I wasn’t short of time I made the detour today.

Although many people had said some fairly rude things about the memorial when it was opened, I actually rather liked it. Perhaps the failing light on a dull cold day improves it, but I liked the feeling of a mountain stream when seen close too, and the overall view too was a pleasant surprise.

The show currently at the Serpentine Gallery, Indian Highway, (until 22 Feb) was also worth a visit, and for once some of the video, particularly Amar Kanwar’s eight-screen immersive video installation, The Lightning Testimonies, was really worth watching. But most of the work was enjoyable, if some of it perhaps a little too predictable, and I found the couple of photographic pieces of limited interest.

From there a short walk and a bus took me to Jubilee Place and the Michael Hoppen Gallery, which boasted a show, Secret City, by Robert Doisneau and Jason Langer (ending 20 Jan) along with another by Nobuyoshi Araki (ending 10 Jan.) Doisneau is one of my favourite photographers (I have quite a few) but there were only a couple of images by him I would have considered buying were I a rich man, and I’ve seen better prints of both. Langer’s work just seemed rather out of place in the company.

The Araki show I also found disappointing. Few of his ‘erotic’ images rise above the interest of dead meat and pairing them with giantly enlarged flowers does nothing to help. There has long been a market for ‘respectable’ pornography to decorate bourgeois walls but Fragonard did it rather better.

As often happens to me, by now I was running a little late and had to dash for the tube at South Kensington to take me up to my next event, the daily protest opposite the Israeli Embassy since the attack on Gaza began.

Clare Kendall and John D McHugh

Yesterday’s Photo Forum event in central London was well worth attending, with excellent presentations by both Clare Kendall and John D McHugh. I’ve only managed to get to four of the ten monthly sessions so far, and this was the best yet of those I’ve made, although I certainly did enjoy last month’s Christmas party.

You can see some of Kendall’s pictures from the Arctic tip of Canada along with other work on her Photoshelter site, and also read an article by her in The Ecologist. The area and Inuit people she shows are really experiencing the sharp end of global warming, with melting ice making travel difficult, igloos collapsing and more, and work like hers really brings it home to us.

Even though Kendall’s pictures show the area to be one of great natural beauty, I find it hard to understand why people choose to live there, and how they – and photographers – survive. London has been more than cold enough for me these last few days.

One point of minor technical interest was that she took two Nikon digital cameras, a ‘pro’ D2X and the ‘amateur’ D100, and it was the latter model that stood up to the extreme conditions when the pro camera came rapidly to a halt.

John D McHugh’s very impressive work from Afghanistan was I think made using a pair of Canon EOS 5D cameras, again not their truly professional model, although rather better suited in most respects to this kind of work. John first went to Afghanistan in 2006, financing himselg as a freelance for AFP (Agence France-Press.)

On returning to the UK he got a staff job covering routine press calls in London, but couldn’t stomach it. He resigned and went back to Afghanistan as a freelance, having been able to persuade the American forces to give him a “fighting season” embed. Five weeks into that, in May 2007, his unit was caught in an ambush in which eighteen Afghan and seven US soldiers were killed and four Afghan soliders, seven US soldiers and one Irish photographer were wounded.

McHugh, close to death, was from the start determined to overcome his serious injuries and get back to Afghanistan to continue his work, and amazingly he managed to return by November 2007.

In 2008 he returned there once more, this time working for The Guardian, who used his still pictures and video, as well as running some of his diary entries, which he had previously been posting on a personal blog.

McHugh’s pictures – all shown in black and white although many were used as colour images by The Guardian – are both dramatic and down to earth, showing very much the war as experienced by the soldiers whose lives he is sharing in the field. They show the tedium of waiting for things to happen as well as the usually organised chaos when things do – many as he says shot from a low angle for very practical kinetic reasons. His is coverage that is the next best thing to being there, but thankfully without us having to be there.

McHugh also made some interesting comments on being embedded, and how although he found a few of the rules a problem he was sometimes able to “wiggle” around these. As his work shows, the Americans gave him a tremendous degree of freedom, although apparently working with British forces is orders of magnitude more restrictive.

We also got a very good impression from his talk how limited the UK media reporting of Afghanistan is, and how many of those who are interviewed on TV and radio are either ill-informed or deliberately misleading. McHugh was also quite scathing of some of the military top-brass and the lack of proper coordination particularly when units are replaced that leads to a lack of a coherent approach by the US in the country. It was a talk and show that gave a real insight into the country which he so evidently is in love with.

McHugh’s work from Afghanistan in 2007 was recognised last year by the award in May 2008 of the inaugural 2007 Frontline Club Award.

Gaza Protest at Egyptian Embassy

One event this year that I haven’t got round to mentioning was a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy a week ago on Friday 2 January. It hasn’t had a mention because I didn’t lose any pictures, didn’t get the exposures wrong or otherwise screw things up.

Camp David Treaty in flames © 2009 Peter Marshall
A photograph of the Camp David Meeting is burnt

And although I left early, before the event was finished, I don’t think I missed anything that I would have wanted to photograph, though I was so cold I almost went home before some of the protesters set fire to some home-made Israeli flags and a picture of the leaders at the Camp David Treaty meeting.

I was even reasonably happy with the pictures – and got some positive feedback about them after I put some on line at Indymedia. Just a shame I haven’t yet sold any.

More pictures on line on My London Diary.

Ashura in London, 2009

Ashura © 2009 Peter Marshall
Ashura procession on Bayswater Rd, London Jan 7, 2009

Ashura is a major religious festival for Shia Muslims, who mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammed, at the battle of Karbala in 61 AH (680 AD.) The procession in London is a part of the commemoration and mourners, largely dressed in black, walk along accompanied by the beating of drums and the wailing of horns, with a rhythmic ritual beating of their chests and chanting “Ya Hussain“.

The procession, on the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram, is just a part of an extended period of mourning for Hussain. Shia see the battle and martyrdom of Hussain as part of a wider struggle of good against evil, with Hussain representing freedom against tyranny and injustice.

You can see pictures from previous Ashura processions on My London Diary:

Ashura © 2005 Peter Marshall
More from 2005,

Ashura © 2006 Peter Marshall
More from 2006,

Ashura © 2007 Peter Marshall
More from 2007,

Ashura 2008 © Peter Marshall
More from 2008.

Today it was cold and rather dark as the procession of several thousands of
men, women and children left Hyde Park on their way to the Islamic Centre
in Kensington, and it was hard to get good pictures. Of course you can see what I managed on My London Diary.

Police Continue Clamp Down on UK Photographers

At least two more stories about police targeting photographers in the London area have hit the papers in the last couple of days.

Artist Reuben Powell (story in the Independent, 6 Jan) was photographing the former HMSO print works in Amelia Street SE17, just south of the Elephant, off the Walworth Road, empty since 2000 and being converted into flats as part of a new Printworks development of over 160 flats. A police car screeched to a halt next to him and an officer jumped out, ran over and asked him what he was doing. When Powell told him he was taking photographs the officer said he was going to search him under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

It is hard if not impossible to see how this search complies with the law, which makes it clear that officers may not carry out such a search unless they suspect criminal or terrorist intent. There do have to be reasonable grounds for suspicion, and they seem totally absent in this case.

In the search, police found a knife that Powell uses to sharpen his drawing pencils, and he was handcuffed, had a DNA sample taken and spent five hours in police custody, only finally being released after the local MP intervened on his behalf.

The Mail Online has the story of another MP Andrew Pelling, Tory member for Central Croydon, who was stopped and searched while taking pictures of a neglected cycle path in his constituency. Police give as the excuse for this search that he “was taking pictures in the vicinity of a major transport hub.”

By this they don’t mean the cycle path, but the nearby East Croydon Station, together with its tram stops. In the current climate I expect police to knock on my front door in the middle of the night for naming it (and I note the Mail don’t!)

A major transport hub in East Croydon.
More pictures of the vital strategic Croydon Tramway Line 1 taken by me (without being arrested) in 2001.

I’m all for the police being vigilant against possible terrorist attacks, but this is no excuse for paranoia, and we need to see evidence that senior officers are giving sensible advice (and the occasional warning) to the loonier members of the police force. Unfortunately the opposite appears to be true, with such behaviour being encouraged by the kind of anti-photographer campaigns the police have organised.

What should be required reading for all police is the article written last June by security expert Bruce Schneier, The War on Photography. As he makes clear, the fear of photography isn’t related to real terrorism, but is the stuff of movies, a Movie Plot Threat.

And the real danger is this. If a huge proportion of police time and public money is taken up with dealing with movie-plot threats, although it may make the police feel good (and even keep some of the public happy) the chances are much higher that the real thing will go ahead unnoticed.

Ballen on Lensculture

I was pleased to meet Roger Ballen when I was in Paris in November but didn’t have a lot to say to him, not least because I was busy drinking champagne and taking pictures. But fortunately my host at that party, Jim Caspar of Lensculture, did manage to sit down with him one morning in a Paris cafe and talk to him seriously about his work.

The edited 18-minute audio interview makes interesting listening. Jim sums it up well in his introduction when he calls Ballen’s photographs “both beautiful and profoundly disturbing“, and there is a slide show of 25 recent images you can watch while listening to it.

Ballen somehow seems to inhabit a parallel universe to the rest of us, one that only occasionally intersects with life as we – or at least I – know it. His is an intriguing and unsettling view, with flash deliberately used to create a kind of dislocation. But you can hear him talk about how he sees it and why in this interview.

You can see more of Ballen’s work on his own web site.

New Year Same Old Thing?

I can’t remember when I first photographed the annual New Year Parade in Westminster, London, though I’m sure it was some time in the 1990s, though apparently it’s been going for 23 years. But for a long time it was an almost entirely USAmerican affair, all high school marching bands and pom-pom waving cheerleaders, and began in Berkeley Square, completely drowning out all nightingales.

Of course it’s changed since then, particularly with 9/11, the fall in value of the dollar and then the London bombings scaring off many from the USA – and the recent recovery of the dollar doesn’t seem to have helped much. Although there are still plenty of high school kids in their uniforms, the balance has shifted, with many London boroughs and other UK organisations now taking part, and although it is still in Westminster it has become a London event.

But for several years I’ve been dragging myself out of bed on 1 Jan and wondering what I’m doing and why. Not that it’s an event without some interest with occasional glimpses of the surreal, even though it has very much been organised into a formula, too stage-managed to really hold the attention.

Going there is in some ways a social thing, getting out and greeting some of my colleagues (also not quite sure why they are there) as well as some of the characters I’ve photographed many times before and wishing them a “Happy New Year.”

It’s also in part a kind of ritual to mark the start of a new photographic year and to put down a marker that I really do intend to keep covering events for another year. Somehow I feel that if I didn’t get up and get out to photograph this, perhaps I might not bother tomorrow to get to the Egyptian Embassy or to the big protest march on Saturday.

But even as I take pictures I find myself wondering that perhaps I should really be looking for something different to celebrate the start of a new year’s work.

LB Merton Winter Wonderland © 2009 Peter marshall
But this was part of the London Borough of Merton’s Winter Wonderland

More pictures now on My London Diary.

Facing New York – Online Photographer

Way back in 1992 I got Bruce Gilden‘s ‘Facing New York‘ to review. It was filled with powerful street images, taken close, often using flash. I can’t recall what I then wrote, but although I found the pictures amazing, they also appalled me, seeming at least in some cases to be going far beyond a line that respected the dignity of the subjects.

I’ve often taken pictures of people which have accidentally caught them looking idiotic, perhaps because of a particular gesture or momentary expression. I have a simple rule which is to try and think what I would feel if I saw a picture of me looking like that, and if I would be hurt.

It’s a rule I apply whether I’m taking pictures with actual or implied permission – for example of politicians speaking at public events – or photographing without the permission of those in the picture. Often there are good and entirely justifiable reasons to take pictures of people without permission, and I certainly don’t think that we have rights over our appearance, but I’ve always felt that as a photographer I have a responsibility to those whose pictures I take not to misrepresent them.

Perhaps its a difference in culture. Another New Yorker (Gilden actually comes from Brooklyn) often tells me that as a photographer I’m too nice, too soft, which is one of several reasons why my pictures aren’t as good as they should be!

I thought again about Gilden on reading The Online Photographer, which a few days ago carried a link to a video of him working on the streets of New York. It’s interesting to see the reactions of some of those that he photographs, which are fairly varied, with some clearly thinking it a great joke, while others look frightened or aggreived by the photographer’s actions.

The video also includes some of his stronger images from ‘Facing New York‘ and you can see more of his work on his Magnum pages. As is pointed out on the site, images on Magnum are published rather small and with intrusive visible watermarks that often make images almost impossible to view.

The discussion continues on The Online Photographer, which published a clearer version of one of his images on 1 Jan. A later related post there is entitled When A**holes Do Good Work.