>Re:PHOTO Peter Marshall - Thoughts on Photography

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?

US Marching Band © 2009 Peter Marshall
US High School Bands still play a major part in the Parade

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.

Guardian Pics 2008

If you’ve not yet taken a look at the pick of pictures from 2008 by Guardian photographers David Levine, Dan Chung, Linda Nylind, Martin Argles and Sean Smith, then sit down for a while and treat yourself. It isn’t a bad interface either, and if you get fed up with listening to the commentary you can go through the pictures at your own rate.

Last month I went to see Smith, whose work I particularly enjoyed in the Guardian slide shows, showing his work to fellow photographers at the Photoforum meeting in London, and I hope to get to this month’s meeting this Thursday. If you are a photographer and you’re in London why not come along. On the web site it describes itself:

“Running monthly on the second Thursday of the month, Photo-Forum, kindly hosted by Jacobs, is a place for working photographers to bring images, ideas, photo stories, approaches and work in progress for supportive debate and criticism.”

Jacobs is a photo store, often with some interesting second hand equipment and some fairly competitive prices on New Oxford Street close to Tottenham Court Road Station – opposite another large photo store that once used to get a lot of my custom, Jessops, but which seldom seems to stock anything I want nowadays. Certainly Jacobs does seem to have a much greater interest in professional photographers, and Photoforum is a good place to meet other photographers, particularly photojournalists, who are based in London.

Back on the Guardian pages mentioned above, you can also see the picture editors’ choice of images which appeared in their daily gallery during 2008. In some ways I found this a disappointing selection, although there are some excellent and dramatic images. What seems to be lacking in what they find of interest is subtlety and magic, two very important qualities in images that delight me. I can’t help thinking they don’t really deserve the photographers they have.

Lost Masterpieces?

Almost certainly not. But lost pictures, the ones that got away, are always so much bigger than those you bring to land.

Around 700 pictures lost in a moment not of carelessness but by accident. Yesterday I was covering the protests in London against the Israeli attacks that are killing so many in Gaza. At first things were fairly sedate, with a march to Trafalgar Square and a rally addressed mainly by the usual suspects. Afterwards opposite the Israeli Embassy in Kensington things began to hot up, and noticing I was close to filling an 8Gb CF card I took it out of the camera and put an empty card in, slipping the full card as usual into my ‘secure’ trouser pocket – one with a zip where I also keep wallet and credit cards.

Things did get a bit heated and at one point I heard my trousers rip, and glanced down to see a tear a couple of inches long. What I didn’t realise was that it had also torn some of the stitching of that secure pocket, leaving a gap more than large enough for a CF card to fall through.

It was noisy outside the embassy, with a police helicopter overhead and a near-riot on the street, so I didn’t hear the card fall through and on to the ground, probably when I rushed out to follow the police who were beginning to get seriously to grips with the protesters.

It was only on my way home waiting for a bus three-quarters of a mile away from the disruption that I put my hand into my pocket to look for my travel pass and found a large hole – and no CF card. I suppose it was fortunate that I hadn’t lost credit cards, wallet or ticket home, but I was really despondent to find my pictures had gone.

Even more annoying as I hadn’t really needed to take the card out of the camera when I did, because although I was right to think that things were going to happen, the police – perhaps understandably in the circumstances – stopped me from going to where I could take decent pictures. Shortly after they cleared and sealed off the area where I probably lost the card, and there seemed no point in going back to look.

I didn’t even have my name and details on the card, which I do on some along with the message ‘Reward for return’ so I think short of some miracle I’m unlikely to see the pictures again.

Until now, I’ve relied on putting full cards in a safe place. Actually in what I thought was the safest place, that zipped pocket where I keep my cash and cards. It’s a system that’s worked without fail for seven years. But yesterday it let me down.

I’d put a lot of effort into those pictures. Heavy stewarding made parts of the march hard to photograph, and I think I’d done a good job. At several times I’d been in interesting positions and photographed some great people and until I discovered my loss was feeling pretty good about the event. Losing perhaps four or five hours of my work isn’t really the end of the world but it felt close. And it leaves me with at least one rather tricky e-mail apology to write to one of the people I photographed and can’t send a picture.

To avoid any chance of this again I think I’ll buy a large enough card to hold a full day’s work – perhaps 16 Gb so I never need to change a card when I’m working. It’s something I couldn’t do a few years ago. And I’ll be sure to put my name and address on it so there will be some small chance of getting it back should I somehow lose it.

Actually I was lucky that I’d put two full cards into that pocket with a hole, and surprisingly the 4Gb one had stayed inside, with pictures from the start of the march. So at least I have something to use for the event.

And there are just a few more I’ll put on My London Diary shortly. 2009 is starting rather late there.

A New Year

2008 wasn’t a good year for many of us, and certainly not for me. Personally there were several disasters, including the deaths of two family members, an older brother and a younger cousin. Photographically I had some minor disappointments, including the cancellation of a major show of my work which finally fell through after I thought all been agreed, and another invitation to show work at a major photo festival that came to nothing. And don’t let’s even think about money – financially I think most of the world had a bad year.

At the start of 2008 I made a list of things to do in the coming year and posted it, hoping it might encourage others to get themselves sorted out too. There were a total of ten points, and you can read more detail on them in the feature 2008 To Do List. Here are the bare headings:

1. Make better pictures
2. Get out more and take more pictures.
3. Check my camera settings more often when taking pictures
4. Always check for dirt on the lens
5. Edit my work more stringently
6. Sort out a proper back-up system
7. Make proper to-do lists
8. Really sort out my old street photography
9. Publish, at least on the Internet, my Docklands work from the 1980s
10.Get back to scanning my old work which is on deteriorating film negatives.
11. Rewrite as many as possible of my features and put them back on line.
12. make more money by selling photographs

My end of year report on these is a poor one. Even with some very liberal marking I can only claim around 3/10, and I don’t think I’ve quite completed even a single one, although I’ve made some progress on several.

Of course some – like ‘Make better pictures‘ – are things I hope I’ll never be satisfied with, and it would always be nice to make more money selling photographs, if only because it suggests a greater interest in the pictures. But there are a few I’d really like to be able to cross of the list. Still, I suppose there is an advantage in that I don’t need to bother with a new list for 2009.

I’m hoping for a better year than the past one, and send everyone my wishes for a happy and successful 2009.