{"id":1676,"date":"2012-07-15T09:33:51","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T09:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2012-07-17T11:23:48","modified_gmt":"2012-07-17T11:23:48","slug":"no-to-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=1676","title":{"rendered":"No To Torture"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a good idea as a way to mark the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment<\/em> coming into force\u00a0 on 26 June 1987 with a line of protesters in Trafalgar Square carrying placards saying ‘NO TO TORTURE’ in as many different languages as possible, but perhaps – as is so often the case – not one that leads itself to making memorable photographs.<\/p>\n

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Somewhere around around eight people standing in line is around the limit that will easily fit the frame, although of course you can work from one side of a longer line.<\/p>\n

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I could have set up something rather more interesting, but that isn’t the way I like to work, though another photographer did do a little arranging the results were still far too sterile for my taste. It would perhaps have been nice to use the wide set of steps coming down from the North Terrace where these pictures were taken to the square itself, but the square’s private police force (so-called ‘Heritage Wardens) tend to strictly enforce the Mayor’s by-laws against protests in the square. It is one of these apparently public areas that is in private hands, and even if those private hands are actually ours, still results in laws that restrict our freedoms. Even in a square that is a traditional home to dissent we are told we cannot protest without prior permission.<\/p>\n

There were around 40 different languages on the placards – including English, which had been forgotten and was hastily written at the last minute – which is why it is rather weaker than the rest in the top picture. It wasn’t meant as some kind of political comment on the rather shaky record of the British and US governments over recent years, though there were protesters present to remind us of Guantanamo and call for the release of British resident Shaker Aamer, still held there because his release would embarrass both our governments, and others about the attempts of the US government to extradite a number of British citizens who face locking up for life in solitary confinement in US prisons – several of whom have already been held in prison here without trial for longer times than a UK court would have thought appropriate for any crimes they are alleged to have committed. And there were certainly well-written signs in the languages of countries with an even shakier human rights record.<\/p>\n

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But the better pictures that I made on this occasion were not of those signs in the different languages, or only partly so. In the end it is always people I’d drawn to rather than anything else. And although it was an evening I took no particularly memorable images, there are a few I was reasonably happy with – including these two.<\/p>\n

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You can see more in\u00a0 No to Torture Vigil<\/a> on My London Diary<\/em>.\u00a0 This was also the first time I took out my new camera, a Nikon D800E, which I’ll write more about in a later piece. It felt instantly familiar.<\/p>\n

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My London Diary<\/a> : Buildings of London<\/a> : River Lea\/Lee Valley<\/a> : London’s Industrial Heritage<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated are by Peter Marshall and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.<\/small><\/p>\n

To order prints or reproduce images<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

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