I had a lot of different ideas down in my notebook for what my idea was going to be for my self directed project, but a lot of them didn't have enough substance behind them. I want to focus on documentary photography, because that is what my passion for photography involves. After deciding that it was under a documentary theme my project would lie, I had to decide what it was going to cover/ respond to. I wanted my documentary project to take include both candid images as well as portrait, because I felt that I began to get really good at taking portraits in my last project which focused on Cultural Diversity in Manchester. I began looking at current world affairs, which I could then base my project on in response to this specific affair. I noticed house prices were still rising in London, which would result in more people becoming homeless, this gave me the idea of basing my project on homelessness, the only problem with this is that so many people have photographed this before so I wanted to do something different. There were also other stories which were about Ebola, this would be something in the future I would think about going and photographing but obviously for this project the legistics to photographing this theme are far to expensive and difficult. I hope to in the future photograph current foreign affairs, that are effecting different areas.
One story that was bigger than anything else in the news the last couple of weeks was the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks that happened in Paris between the 7-9 January. Because this story was so big, especially with the constant movement of 'isis' (the islamic state), I decided that I wanted to base my project around this event but I just need to figure out what my angle is in responding to this event.
Charlie Hebdo Attack
On the 8th January, as police continued their search for the Charlie Hebdo attackers, a lone gunman armed with a machine-gun and pistol, shot dead a policewoman and injured a man before fleeing. A second attack happened on the 8th of July as the two Hebdo suspects robbed a service station armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-propelled grenade launchers. They fired shots as they stole petrol and food from the service station. They then led police on a chase around north-eastern France, before seeking refuge in a printworks in Dammartin-en-goele, after one of the two had been hit in the neck from a police bullet. Police surrounded the building with snipers, helicopters and special force officers.
Then on Friday 9th January, the two after telling local news papers that they would die "martys" deaths, ran out of the bulding shooting at the police. Both suspects were killed and two police officers were injured. Meanwhile in Paris another siege was underway, from the lone suspect who killed the policewoman and injured a man. The gunman took several people hostage at a kosher supermarket in the east of paris. The man was threatening to kill people unless the 'charlie hebdo' attackers were allowed to go free (who were still in the printworks). Special forces burst into the supermarket, shooting the gunman dead and freeing 15 hostages from the store. But they also found the bodies of four hostages.
But why did the terrorists pick Charlie Hebdo?
Charlie Hebdo is a French weekly newspaper that features cartoon, reports, polemics and jokes. They use a non-conformist tone, is stronlgly secularist, antireligious and left-wing. They also publish articles that mock far-right politics, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Israel, politics, culture, and various other groups as local and world news unfolds. Basically Charlie Hebdo, uses comedy to highlight and sometimes mock different news stories from around the world that are happening at that time. The company has a history of attracting controversy. In 2006, Islamic organisations under French hate speech laws unsuccessfully sued over the newspapers re-publication of a cartoon that featured a cartoon of Muhammed. In 2011the cover featured another cartoon of Muhammad, whose depiction is forbidden in some interpretations of Islam. Later that year the the office was fire-bombed and its website hacked. Cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier who was the editor-in-chief of Charlie Hebdo from 2009, found himself along with three other staff members on te al-Qaeda most wanted list. This was also the reason why Charbonnier had a police bodyguard present with him on the day of the attack. Numerous other failed attacks happened to Charlie Hebdo before the fatal shooting on 7th January 2015. It seems as if Islamic extremists had Charlie Hebdo in their crosshares for a number of years before this attack, which was down to them publishing cartoons of Prophit Mohammed, and in their minds making a joke of Islam.
In the whole I feel this attack was an attack on freedom of speech, and fascist organisations trying to control it for their benefit. I feel that I'm going to base my project on the idea of 'freedom of speech', although at the moment I'm not sure how im going to represent this in a photographic medium.
Tiananmen Square protests and Jeff Widener
Following on from the Charlie Hebdo event post which looked at how fascist extremists tried to control freedom of speech I began looking at other past events that had been heavily photographed which had something to do with freedom of speech, which was when I remembered about Tiananmen Square and Jeff Widener's photograph 'tankman'.
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, were student-led demonstrations in Beijing which took place in the spring of 1989. The demonstrations gathered wide spread support from city residents, exposing vast scandles within China's political leadership. These demonstrations were forcibly suppressed by leaders who ordered the military to enforce martial law in the capital. On June 3-4 troops with assault rifles and tanks inflicted causalities on unarmed civilians trying to block the military's advance on Tiananmen square. The square was where students and other demonstrators had occupied for seven weeks, until the army came in and used deadly force to remove everyone. The goals the demonstrators wanted to achieve were, social equality, a "communist party without corruption", freedom of the press, freedom of speech and democracy. The result of the protest was thousands killed, and more injured with no reform, to this day the Chinese government has condemned the protest as a "counter-revolutionary riot" and has prohibited all forms of discussion or remembrance of the event what so ever. Because of this lack of information, many details such as death tolls for the event are still unknown.
The students were demonstrating for freedom of press and speech, and now the Chinese government has not just refused these two acts but also used them against the event by basically erasing all evidence of it even happening.
Jeff Widener who is an American photographer captured one of the best known images of the massacre and arguably one of the most remembered images of all time. Widener has covered many events in over 100 countries involving civil unrest and wars to social issues, and is a well known photojournalist. He majored in photojournalism before starting as a newspaper photographer in California, later he accepted a job in Belgium as a staff photographer with United Press International.
The famous 'tank man' photograph show a man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 5, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests. There are a number of different versions of tankman taken by different photographers who were also in the same hotel balcony as Widener, the photographers all had to smuggle their film out of China as the military were destroying all film/ footage of the event, but luckily they successfully got it out and into the public eye. The captured moment of the photograph is why its such a famous image, because who in there right mind would stare down five tanks. The images itself is quite well composed, as the viewers eye moves through the whole of the image from the bottom left where the subject is and follows the line of tanks diagonally upwards throughout the image. There is a set of lights which is in the way of a perfect shot, but due to the photographers being confined to the balcony its not surprising this got in the way.
Like Charlie Hebdo, this event was about free speech. But in this case, through the medium of photography Widener managed to highlight the attempted suppression of this event, and get it into the public eye. This wonderfully captured moment lives on as one of the most famous captured images, and thus in itself fights China's goal to mute freedom of speech. The photograph shown below is another one of Widener's photographing the same event but from a different point of view.
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, were student-led demonstrations in Beijing which took place in the spring of 1989. The demonstrations gathered wide spread support from city residents, exposing vast scandles within China's political leadership. These demonstrations were forcibly suppressed by leaders who ordered the military to enforce martial law in the capital. On June 3-4 troops with assault rifles and tanks inflicted causalities on unarmed civilians trying to block the military's advance on Tiananmen square. The square was where students and other demonstrators had occupied for seven weeks, until the army came in and used deadly force to remove everyone. The goals the demonstrators wanted to achieve were, social equality, a "communist party without corruption", freedom of the press, freedom of speech and democracy. The result of the protest was thousands killed, and more injured with no reform, to this day the Chinese government has condemned the protest as a "counter-revolutionary riot" and has prohibited all forms of discussion or remembrance of the event what so ever. Because of this lack of information, many details such as death tolls for the event are still unknown.
The students were demonstrating for freedom of press and speech, and now the Chinese government has not just refused these two acts but also used them against the event by basically erasing all evidence of it even happening.
Jeff Widener who is an American photographer captured one of the best known images of the massacre and arguably one of the most remembered images of all time. Widener has covered many events in over 100 countries involving civil unrest and wars to social issues, and is a well known photojournalist. He majored in photojournalism before starting as a newspaper photographer in California, later he accepted a job in Belgium as a staff photographer with United Press International.
The famous 'tank man' photograph show a man who stood in front of a column of tanks on June 5, the morning after the Chinese military had suppressed the Tiananmen Square protests. There are a number of different versions of tankman taken by different photographers who were also in the same hotel balcony as Widener, the photographers all had to smuggle their film out of China as the military were destroying all film/ footage of the event, but luckily they successfully got it out and into the public eye. The captured moment of the photograph is why its such a famous image, because who in there right mind would stare down five tanks. The images itself is quite well composed, as the viewers eye moves through the whole of the image from the bottom left where the subject is and follows the line of tanks diagonally upwards throughout the image. There is a set of lights which is in the way of a perfect shot, but due to the photographers being confined to the balcony its not surprising this got in the way.Like Charlie Hebdo, this event was about free speech. But in this case, through the medium of photography Widener managed to highlight the attempted suppression of this event, and get it into the public eye. This wonderfully captured moment lives on as one of the most famous captured images, and thus in itself fights China's goal to mute freedom of speech. The photograph shown below is another one of Widener's photographing the same event but from a different point of view.
Freedom of Speech
After deciding my project is going to be based on freedom of speech, I looked into an event which was famously photographed and also related to the oppression of freedom of speech, which was Tiananmen square. I feel that if I'm going down this path, I need to know what the definition is and also look into more events that have been photographed which relate to it.
Freedom of speech taken from wikipedia:
Freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment. "Speech" is not limited to public speaking and is generally taken to include other forms of expression.
I'm now gonna look at iconic documentary photographs. All of these events happened the way they did for a group or individual to get their point across in a big way to hopefully create change for their cause:
Burning Monk- Malcolm Browne
This image was taken by Malcolm Browne on June 11, 1963. Buddhist leaders warned Browne that a major protest would take place in Saigon. The monks were protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government.
After so many protests nothing had been done to change this persecution by the government so the Monks decided to do something that would definitely get the worlds attention.
The self immolation that was photographed by Browne has such an impact on the world even Kennedy commented "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one". Browne also won a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph. After the image got out and circulated around the world, harsh pressure was put on the Vietnamese government and it finally toppled. This image shows how famous documentary photographs can help change the world, because without the world seeing the footage of the event its unlikely they know whats going on there. Also a photograph has a much quicker impact than text, which is why photographs are so good at getting people attention.
The Black Power Salute- John Dominis
This image shows Gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos raise black gloved fists during the American national anthem at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the image was captured by John Dominis. The two got their medals taken away from them and were also both suspended from the U.S team, as well as receiving death threats, but neither man ever apologised for what they did. The reason they did this was because they wanted to bring peoples attention to the inequality in the United States which was happening to black people at the time. The silver medal runner Peter Norman, stood next to the two literally and figuratively, because he displayed his solidarity for their action by wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge during the ceremony. Many people thought very negatively about this event, but also a lot felt very strongly about the positivity it caused for the black people of America at the time. Because they felt that they weren't being given their right to 'freedom of speech' which was why the two took this stand as an action for it.
This image was very iconic at the time, but Dominis commented "its not much of a photograph". Because in his eyes all he did was stand 20 yeards away and line the three up and push a button, it was the two runners that created the iconic photograph not him.
Suffragette runs in front of King's horse- Arthur Barrett
Emily Davison ran in front of the King's horse during the race for the Derby on June 6 1913. Davison later died from her injuries that she sustained trying to get equal rights for women, and the vote. This image was later posted in the paper, which only increased the support for women to receive the vote. So like the Monk, she also died for the support of the cause she felt so strongly about, and it was the photograph that captured the moment which ended up providing even more support for the cause until it was later granted. Again, it was the act of running in front of the horse that made this an iconic photograph, not Barrett's skills as a photographer. But if he hadn't captured it, maybe women's rights would've taken longer to be granted.
Freedom of speech taken from wikipedia:
Freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment. "Speech" is not limited to public speaking and is generally taken to include other forms of expression.
I'm now gonna look at iconic documentary photographs. All of these events happened the way they did for a group or individual to get their point across in a big way to hopefully create change for their cause:
Burning Monk- Malcolm Browne
After so many protests nothing had been done to change this persecution by the government so the Monks decided to do something that would definitely get the worlds attention.
The self immolation that was photographed by Browne has such an impact on the world even Kennedy commented "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one". Browne also won a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph. After the image got out and circulated around the world, harsh pressure was put on the Vietnamese government and it finally toppled. This image shows how famous documentary photographs can help change the world, because without the world seeing the footage of the event its unlikely they know whats going on there. Also a photograph has a much quicker impact than text, which is why photographs are so good at getting people attention.
The Black Power Salute- John Dominis
This image shows Gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos raise black gloved fists during the American national anthem at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the image was captured by John Dominis. The two got their medals taken away from them and were also both suspended from the U.S team, as well as receiving death threats, but neither man ever apologised for what they did. The reason they did this was because they wanted to bring peoples attention to the inequality in the United States which was happening to black people at the time. The silver medal runner Peter Norman, stood next to the two literally and figuratively, because he displayed his solidarity for their action by wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge during the ceremony. Many people thought very negatively about this event, but also a lot felt very strongly about the positivity it caused for the black people of America at the time. Because they felt that they weren't being given their right to 'freedom of speech' which was why the two took this stand as an action for it.This image was very iconic at the time, but Dominis commented "its not much of a photograph". Because in his eyes all he did was stand 20 yeards away and line the three up and push a button, it was the two runners that created the iconic photograph not him.
Suffragette runs in front of King's horse- Arthur Barrett
Berlin Wall
As I've got a university trip coming up to visit Berlin, Germany. I thought it would be fitting to research into and then photograph the Berlin Wall, to create more volume in my project about freedom of speech.
The Berlin Wall divided East and West Berlin between 1961- 1989, it was constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany). It completely cut off West Berlin from the surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The Eastern bloc claimed the wall was built to protect its population from fascist elements which were trying to make East Germany a socialist state, The wall was in referred to as the 'Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart' by the GDR authorities, implying Nato countries and West Germany were fascists.
Just before its construction over 3.5 million East Germans fled to West Berlin, in search of more freedom and a gateway to the rest of Europe, which wouldn't be under the same communist rule. There is a famous photograph taken of Conrad Schumann, which shows this movement from East to West.
Schumann was an East German soldier who famously defected to West Germany during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. He was 19 years old at the time, when he was sent to guard a section of the wall on its third day of construction, at that time the wall was only barbed wire which lay on the floor. West Germans shouted over to him to "Come Over!" while he was stood guarding, Schumann jumped the fence and was put into a West Berlin police car to be driven away from the scene. Peter Leibing famously photographed his escape, which has now become well remembered as an iconic image from period just after the war.
Leibing was a German photographer who was working for the Hamburg picture agency Contiepress at the time he took this famous photo. He received a tip from the police, saying that an East German border guard might escape the Berlin Wall, which he then followed up and managed to capture this action shot of Schumann mid jump over the wall.
The wall fell because East Germans had enough of the lack of prosperity and freedom that the West had due to it being a democratic state and close to the rest of Europe. Revolutions against the Soviet Union rose through the 1980's, as people in the GDR started to demand greater personal and political freedoms. The fall of the Berlin Wall is another good example of what could happen when people aren't given such things as freedom of speech and free movement. To this day there is more communism found in East Berlin through the older generations, as well as racism because the East didn't go through the same de-nazification the West did. There is also less religion found in the West as it stayed very secular.
After researching into the Berlin Wall, I'm going to produce some photographs of how it looks now and the area surrounding it.
The Berlin Wall divided East and West Berlin between 1961- 1989, it was constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany). It completely cut off West Berlin from the surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The Eastern bloc claimed the wall was built to protect its population from fascist elements which were trying to make East Germany a socialist state, The wall was in referred to as the 'Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart' by the GDR authorities, implying Nato countries and West Germany were fascists.
Just before its construction over 3.5 million East Germans fled to West Berlin, in search of more freedom and a gateway to the rest of Europe, which wouldn't be under the same communist rule. There is a famous photograph taken of Conrad Schumann, which shows this movement from East to West.
Schumann was an East German soldier who famously defected to West Germany during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. He was 19 years old at the time, when he was sent to guard a section of the wall on its third day of construction, at that time the wall was only barbed wire which lay on the floor. West Germans shouted over to him to "Come Over!" while he was stood guarding, Schumann jumped the fence and was put into a West Berlin police car to be driven away from the scene. Peter Leibing famously photographed his escape, which has now become well remembered as an iconic image from period just after the war.
The wall fell because East Germans had enough of the lack of prosperity and freedom that the West had due to it being a democratic state and close to the rest of Europe. Revolutions against the Soviet Union rose through the 1980's, as people in the GDR started to demand greater personal and political freedoms. The fall of the Berlin Wall is another good example of what could happen when people aren't given such things as freedom of speech and free movement. To this day there is more communism found in East Berlin through the older generations, as well as racism because the East didn't go through the same de-nazification the West did. There is also less religion found in the West as it stayed very secular.
After researching into the Berlin Wall, I'm going to produce some photographs of how it looks now and the area surrounding it.
Berlin Photographs
I didn't really go out with much of an incentive for this shoot, I just wanted to capture things that had a relation to the Berlin Wall and the Holocaust event. And thus were connected to my projects idea of freedom of speech and oppression.
This first image shows the 'Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe' which is a sculpture designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. I think this image works well to represent the scale of the memorial because it looks like the blocks rise as high as the apartments in the background.
These next few images show the existing parts of the Berlin wall which used to separate the East and West. In its day there were two walls which separated the two sides and barbed wire and guard towers in the middle, but now the wall is only one wall thick. I think this image has a good contrasting element to it because it contrasts the old wall to the new skyscraper behind it, which I thinks makes the image give the effect of how Berlin has moved on from those darker times and re built itself.
This image made me laugh at the time as it states:
'Just incase you don't know'
< East West>
As you can see, the wall has now been covered in colourful graffiti. I think this brings colour to such a dark event, but the walls itself is a standing reminder to everyone of the dark times that are now behind them.
This image shows the graffiti of an iconic image which was taken by Regis Bossu in East Berlin on October 7, 1979. The image which I have put the original below, shows a kiss between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker which celebrated the 30th anniversary celebration of the German Democratic Republic.
Peace Procession
I feel like I have made a good start to my project on Freedom of Speech with researching into different iconic events and photographs, and then also researching into the Berlin Wall and photographing that. But I know need to decide what I'm going to photograph which will represent freedom of speech through a documentary/ portraiture format.
I began researching into different events that were being held in the United Kingdom that supported my idea of freedom of speech. The events I am looking for are protests/ walks so I can photograph the supporters and the event in general.
After quite a while looking for different events I found one that is happening in London on the 1st February 2015, this is a peace procession which is meeting outside Westminster cathedral. I think this would be a perfect opportunity to start photographing an event which was very close to my idea, and begin improving my techniques in documentary photography at the start of the project. The procession is being held by Peace Strike, which is an organisation that is constantly campaigning for peace throughout the world. So even though this isn't directly connected to my Freedom Of Speech project, photographing this event would give me good practise for an event I later come to photograph, which is connected to freedom of speech.
http://peacestrike.org/about/
The only problem with this is that there was only one website which mentioned it, so I contacted them via two email addresses to make sure that this event would still be going ahead and I wouldn't waste a journey to London for nothing, so I will await their reply.
After deciding I was going to go to this event, the next thing to do was start looking at photographers to understand their techniques of photographing these events so I would be ready when the event arrives.
I began researching into different events that were being held in the United Kingdom that supported my idea of freedom of speech. The events I am looking for are protests/ walks so I can photograph the supporters and the event in general.
After quite a while looking for different events I found one that is happening in London on the 1st February 2015, this is a peace procession which is meeting outside Westminster cathedral. I think this would be a perfect opportunity to start photographing an event which was very close to my idea, and begin improving my techniques in documentary photography at the start of the project. The procession is being held by Peace Strike, which is an organisation that is constantly campaigning for peace throughout the world. So even though this isn't directly connected to my Freedom Of Speech project, photographing this event would give me good practise for an event I later come to photograph, which is connected to freedom of speech.
http://peacestrike.org/about/
The only problem with this is that there was only one website which mentioned it, so I contacted them via two email addresses to make sure that this event would still be going ahead and I wouldn't waste a journey to London for nothing, so I will await their reply.
After deciding I was going to go to this event, the next thing to do was start looking at photographers to understand their techniques of photographing these events so I would be ready when the event arrives.
Zed Nelson
I have decided that I'm going to do a project on Freedom of Speech, and photograph events that relate to this title in a documentary/ portraiture way. This is because for any event, to get the best understanding of it you need to photograph it in a photojournalist/ documentary technique, but also after my last project on Cultural Diversity in Manchester in which I really enjoyed taking portraits as well, I've decided to include these into my project as well.
Zed Nelson is a London based photographer, who has done a few documentary/ portraiture projects. His project that I will be focusing on in relation to my work is titled 'Gun Nation', which 'explores the paradox of why America's most potent symbol of freedom is also one of its greatest killer- resulting in an annual death toll of almost 30,000 American citizens.'
I think Nelson's Gun Nation is a really good example of the kind of thing I want to recreate, but where as his images are taken over a few months. Mine will be taken over one day, but from different angles and compositions, which hopefully result in the viewer getting the whole picture of the story. As you can see from the photograph to my left, he's taken portraits of his subjects but inside their natural surroundings. So like what I did for my last project, he just stopped then mid what they were doing for a photograph, but he didn't change their environment or actions which would make the image unnatural. I'm going to use this technique at the Peace Procession, of capturing portraits.
This image shows part of Nelson's project in which he walked around a gun show in America. This image as you can see has been taken without the subjects knowing. This means that the moment stays exactly the way it was, without any of the subjects changing what they're doing for the camera, which would result in the moment changing.
Like the portraits, I also hope to capture candid documentary photographs at the event, because they will represent the general feel and mood of the day, and go alongside the portraits which focus just on the people. These candid photographs will represent to the viewer what the area they are processioning in looks like, aka it will give them more visual information about the event so they get a better more detailed understanding of whats going on there.
This final image of Nelson's represents his close up images, in this case its a close up of pick n mix ammunition. The close ups fit in between the candid and portrait images, which I think increases the viewers awareness of what the project is about. It also highlights to the viewer certain details that would not have the same affect if he captured them from afar.
These three different techniques of shooting can be displayed following each other and this results in the viewer coming away with a very detailed understanding of the event that just happened. This understanding would not be as much if he just shot in one technique, aka candid or close up. This technique is also very popular for books, because again it represents the whole event from all photographic angles, giving the viewer a very detailed view. I'm going to try and use these techniques in my shoot at the peace procession.
Zed Nelson is a London based photographer, who has done a few documentary/ portraiture projects. His project that I will be focusing on in relation to my work is titled 'Gun Nation', which 'explores the paradox of why America's most potent symbol of freedom is also one of its greatest killer- resulting in an annual death toll of almost 30,000 American citizens.'I think Nelson's Gun Nation is a really good example of the kind of thing I want to recreate, but where as his images are taken over a few months. Mine will be taken over one day, but from different angles and compositions, which hopefully result in the viewer getting the whole picture of the story. As you can see from the photograph to my left, he's taken portraits of his subjects but inside their natural surroundings. So like what I did for my last project, he just stopped then mid what they were doing for a photograph, but he didn't change their environment or actions which would make the image unnatural. I'm going to use this technique at the Peace Procession, of capturing portraits.
Like the portraits, I also hope to capture candid documentary photographs at the event, because they will represent the general feel and mood of the day, and go alongside the portraits which focus just on the people. These candid photographs will represent to the viewer what the area they are processioning in looks like, aka it will give them more visual information about the event so they get a better more detailed understanding of whats going on there.
These three different techniques of shooting can be displayed following each other and this results in the viewer coming away with a very detailed understanding of the event that just happened. This understanding would not be as much if he just shot in one technique, aka candid or close up. This technique is also very popular for books, because again it represents the whole event from all photographic angles, giving the viewer a very detailed view. I'm going to try and use these techniques in my shoot at the peace procession.
Peace Strike Replies
Annoyingly I got the reply from Peace Strike and it isn't going ahead, so I will have to change my plans. This is the email I sent:
Hi there, am i correct in thinking that there will be a peace procession outside westminster cathedral on 1st February 2015?
I am currently doing a photographic university project on freedom of speech and would love to come and photograph this event as a perfect addition to my project.
look forward to hearing from you
Elliott Gill
And their reply:
Sorry to say but the Peace Procession has been put 'on hold ' for the foreseeable future due to lack of support and a negative element that began to influence the procession.
This sadly happens in life when you try to unite people together in common humanity. There is often an opposite view and a dividing elements that tries to influence people in a negative way.
That said, generally the procession was well received and enjoyable.
We hope to resume again at some point.
The Peace Strike Campaign was based at Parliament Square. The camp was removed in early 2012.
We still have a Peace Picket there and will be announcing plans soon for future events. Please keep in contact with us so that we can let you know our new plans coming up in March.
Do you want us to put you on our mailing list?
Best wishes and good luck with your photography course.
Maria G
I then replied a second time:
Hi there, am i correct in thinking that there will be a peace procession outside westminster cathedral on 1st February 2015?
I am currently doing a photographic university project on freedom of speech and would love to come and photograph this event as a perfect addition to my project.
look forward to hearing from you
Elliott Gill
And their reply:
Dear Elliott,
Thank you for contacting Peace Strike.That said, generally the procession was well received and enjoyable.
I then replied a second time:
Hi there,
I'm sorry to here that it is no longer taking place, as it would have been a very good thing to photograph for my project, and your procession is for a very good cause.
But yeah put me on your mailing list, because if it does reignite I will be sure to come visit a future event.
Thanks for the reply
Elliott Gill
Luckily I took the initiative to email them before travelling to London, but unfortunately the event isn't taking place anymore which means I am going to have to change my plans about my project and what events I'm going to photograph. I will still go ahead with my idea of Freedom Of Speech, but this London Peace Strike procession will not be a part of it.
Thinking of new idea
Peace Strike replied, saying how they were not running events at the moment which meant that I know had no event to shoot for my project on Freedom of Speech.
I started thinking about the title 'Freedom of Speech', and thought about who in the UK uses this right heavily and realised that the English Defence League, which is a far right street protest movement that opposes Islamism and Sharia in the Uk, states 'Freedom of Speech' as something that they are trying to protect. Photographing this group at one of their marches would be perfect for my project which could be based solely around that one event. I could shoot the march using methods that I was previously going to use for the London peace procession, i.e from three different angles, which results in the viewer coming away feeling like they have witnessed the event through my photographs from all angles and aspects.
The English Defence League will also be really good people to photograph because I will be able to photograph people who are against their views. In the past their marches have been known to get violent, which will be interesting to photograph as long as I do this in a cautious manner.
English Defence League
To start my project on the EDL I'm going to do some research into them to figure out what to expect from the group and their marches.
The English Defence League is a far right street protest movement which focuses on opposing what it considers to be the spread of Islamism and Sharia law in the UK. The EDL has been described as Islamophobic and has faced confrontations with various groups, including Unite Against Fascism (UAF) who I will also be able to photograph at a march the EDL take part in because they're always there to oppose them.
Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll who were co-founders of the organisation, have now left the group, with Robinson citing concerns over the "dangers of far-right extremism". He was replaced as leader by Tim Ablitt. Ablitt had previously been organiser of the South West branch of the EDL, before taking over from Robinson in October 2013.
The EDL formed after an Islamic extremist group called Al-Muhajiroun, held a demonstration against the war in Afghanistan in 2009 which then ended in a few of them getting arrested. The EDL formed through people such as football hooligans deciding something needed to be done about this, these hooligans found that a lot of different 'firms' and supporters had the same views as them and they joined together through common interest. They decided that Islamic extremists was a national problem which needed to be dealt with, so they put aside their football rivalries and joined together under the flag of the EDL. To this day a lot of the way the organisation acts in front of the media and the violence they can create, can be associated with their football hooligan routes. Even though the organisers and leaders say it is an established political party that should be taken seriously. They believe to have had between 25,000- 35,000 active members in 2011, but support has been on a bit of a decrease since then.
There is a large association with the EDL and violence even though they try to complete their demonstrations peacefully this isn't always the outcome. Most of their conflict is with Unite Against Fascism or groups similar. This has led the police to spend anywhere between £300,000 to £1 million worth of tax payers money policing the event to make sure no trouble happens. It has been recorded that some journalists have had death threats from the group for painting them in a bad light. This suggests that I need to be incredibly careful when photographing the group, and making it clear to them why I am doing this project. A lot of the most violent EDL protests and marches were between the years of 2010- 2011, and they don't have as many incidents as they used to.
The English Defence League is a far right street protest movement which focuses on opposing what it considers to be the spread of Islamism and Sharia law in the UK. The EDL has been described as Islamophobic and has faced confrontations with various groups, including Unite Against Fascism (UAF) who I will also be able to photograph at a march the EDL take part in because they're always there to oppose them.
Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll who were co-founders of the organisation, have now left the group, with Robinson citing concerns over the "dangers of far-right extremism". He was replaced as leader by Tim Ablitt. Ablitt had previously been organiser of the South West branch of the EDL, before taking over from Robinson in October 2013.
The EDL formed after an Islamic extremist group called Al-Muhajiroun, held a demonstration against the war in Afghanistan in 2009 which then ended in a few of them getting arrested. The EDL formed through people such as football hooligans deciding something needed to be done about this, these hooligans found that a lot of different 'firms' and supporters had the same views as them and they joined together through common interest. They decided that Islamic extremists was a national problem which needed to be dealt with, so they put aside their football rivalries and joined together under the flag of the EDL. To this day a lot of the way the organisation acts in front of the media and the violence they can create, can be associated with their football hooligan routes. Even though the organisers and leaders say it is an established political party that should be taken seriously. They believe to have had between 25,000- 35,000 active members in 2011, but support has been on a bit of a decrease since then.There is a large association with the EDL and violence even though they try to complete their demonstrations peacefully this isn't always the outcome. Most of their conflict is with Unite Against Fascism or groups similar. This has led the police to spend anywhere between £300,000 to £1 million worth of tax payers money policing the event to make sure no trouble happens. It has been recorded that some journalists have had death threats from the group for painting them in a bad light. This suggests that I need to be incredibly careful when photographing the group, and making it clear to them why I am doing this project. A lot of the most violent EDL protests and marches were between the years of 2010- 2011, and they don't have as many incidents as they used to.
Unite Against Fascism
At the English Defence League marches, the UAF always go along to appose the opinions of the EDL. These marches are now policed in a way so the two groups cannot meet, which means that the chance of violence his heavily decreased. After researching into the EDL I thought I should also do the same for the UAF.
Unite Against Fascism is an anti-fascist pressure group in the United Kingdom, which has support from politicians of all mainstream UK political parties including people like David Cameron and the late Labour politician Tony Benn. It describes itself as a national campaign with the aim of alerting British society to a perceived threat of fascism and the far right. In particular with the British National Party gaining a foothold at local, national and European elections.
Like the EDL, UAF demonstration have been known to get violent but not as violent as the EDL. Also usually the violence is because of the EDL, but the UAF have been known to start the violence, which has been stated in many police reports.
The difference is between the UAF and EDL is because the UAF has support from politicians and much of the media, the EDL are always made out to be the bad people in all events.
My main aim of my project is going to be on the EDL but I will document the UAF as well, because they will be a part of the event that I come to photograph.
Unite Against Fascism is an anti-fascist pressure group in the United Kingdom, which has support from politicians of all mainstream UK political parties including people like David Cameron and the late Labour politician Tony Benn. It describes itself as a national campaign with the aim of alerting British society to a perceived threat of fascism and the far right. In particular with the British National Party gaining a foothold at local, national and European elections.Like the EDL, UAF demonstration have been known to get violent but not as violent as the EDL. Also usually the violence is because of the EDL, but the UAF have been known to start the violence, which has been stated in many police reports.
The difference is between the UAF and EDL is because the UAF has support from politicians and much of the media, the EDL are always made out to be the bad people in all events.
My main aim of my project is going to be on the EDL but I will document the UAF as well, because they will be a part of the event that I come to photograph.
EDL March Dudley 7th February
Unlike my other two projects this one will take place in a very different format, in which I have to do all my development and research before I actually do the shoot because there is only one EDL march before my deadline. This will mean that everything rests on this one shoot, so I have to make sure I will be ready for it, and I know how to document this event to the fullest. Whereas in my other projects I have developed my idea using artists and multiple shoots as the project has unfolded.
After looking at the EDL's website, there is one march that they will be doing before my deadline that I will be able to go to and document, this is in Dudley on 7th February 2015. Dudley is on the outside of Birmingham, so it wont be too far to travel to. This is the first EDL demo of the year so they are expecting to have a lot of support from their followers. The reason they have chosen Dudley to host the first one of the year is because it has just been granted to built a 'mega-mosque' after a seven year battle with the price tag of £18 million. Which has created a lot of discussion between the different sets of groups for whether it is needed or not because there are already seven mosques in the Dudley area.
The EDL have released a statement to their official Facebook group stating why people should come and show there support in Dudley on the 7th February:
After looking at the EDL's website, there is one march that they will be doing before my deadline that I will be able to go to and document, this is in Dudley on 7th February 2015. Dudley is on the outside of Birmingham, so it wont be too far to travel to. This is the first EDL demo of the year so they are expecting to have a lot of support from their followers. The reason they have chosen Dudley to host the first one of the year is because it has just been granted to built a 'mega-mosque' after a seven year battle with the price tag of £18 million. Which has created a lot of discussion between the different sets of groups for whether it is needed or not because there are already seven mosques in the Dudley area.
The EDL have released a statement to their official Facebook group stating why people should come and show there support in Dudley on the 7th February:
First demo of the year. EDL foot soldiers are needed in Dudley. Here’s why:
•• Dudley is your average English town – nothing to make it stand out nationally – but that doesn’t stop it from being loved by the Black Country people who call it home
•• Dudley is like your town and my town. It’s our equivalent of “Hometown, USA”. More than
•• When a home town like Dudley is under threat, the threat reaches into houses and into families and into hearts. The present threat has a name: it’s the Islamification of home towns like Dudley
•• Dudley has invited the EDL to support its struggle against another mosque – the town’s eighth. If we can help stop this mosque we will be helping protect a home town and its families. A home town like yours. Families like yours.
While we are in Dudley, we’ll be demonstrating FOR England, FOR freedom and FOR our English future. And we’ll also be protesting AGAINST a barrage of assaults on us: Muslim rape gangs, halal, Trojan Horse schools, the burka, returning jihadis, sharia law, men treating women as second class, uncontrolled mass immigration. The list goes on. And on.
Just Wednesday this week, yet another report on Rotherham – and they STILL haven’t charged any of the men who abused the 1,400 English girls! The EDL won’t let them forget.
Just Wednesday this week, yet another report on Rotherham – and they STILL haven’t charged any of the men who abused the 1,400 English girls! The EDL won’t let them forget.
People ask “What is the English Defence League actually defending?” Assuming that’s not a smart-arse question, let’s begin a list here. Each item could be a post in itself. And every one of them has been the subject of many books.
Winston Churchill kicked off our list in 1939: "The essential aspects of democracy are the freedom of the individual, within the framework of laws passed by Parliament, to order his life as he pleases, and the uniform enforcement of tribunals independent of the executive. The laws are based on Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus, The Petition of Rights and others. Without this foundation there can be no freedom… As long as these rights are defended the foundation of freedom are secure…" Islam would demolish all these.
What else are we, the EDL, defending? Our belief in the democratic process, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, equality of opportunity, the presumption of innocence, small government, the individual before the group, religious freedom, trial by jury, the rights of the child, our Christian heritage. Again, Islam would do away with all these.
Join us on Saturday 7 February in the defence of Dudley and in the defence of England – our rich heritage, our proud history and our threatened future. Bring the whole family. Bring posters protesting the mosque or other aspects of the Islamification of Britain.
As you can read from their statement, they talk about how they will be demonstrating for freedom, which is why I have decided to photograph this group. And they are using the right to freedom of speech and press to get their point across to the world. After researching into why the EDL are coming to Dudley, I can begin preparing for the event. I will do this through looking at different photographers who produce work that is similar and also look at articles I may need to think about before going to an event that could potentially kick off and turn into a riot.
Benedict J Fernandez
Benedict Fernandez is an American photojournalistic street photographer for the last 50 years. He began his career as a crane operator at a shipyard, and then began photographing his fellow workers which ended up becoming on of his major portfolios 'Rigger's'. After a while he decided to turn his hobby into his life's work, after a while Alexey Brodovitch who was a legendary art director and graphic designer noticed him and asked if he would join his design laboratory. He then arranged for Ben to become the darkroom tech and manager at Parsons School of Design, which went on to be an incredibly influential place of learning for photography, and created a lot of very successful photographers.
During the mid sixties, Fernandez photographed throughout the streets of New York and became one of the most important street photographers of his era. In his time he also photographed a variety of socially significant events, such as protests and demonstrations. Which is why I have come to look at him before my shoot photographing the EDL march in Dudley. Someone once mentioned that Fernandez approached all of the events he photographed as a concerned observer, who has no political initiative to get out of the shoot. He just went and captured what he saw, from an un-biased point of view, which I think is why he is one of the great photojournalists of the time. His focus, quite rightly is heavily set upon the social aspects of these events because it was the people who created them so its obvious that they were his main focus.
One of his techniques which is quite obvious when viewing his work is that he liked to photograph people holding signs. I think this is because the viewer could read the views of the people on the sign and then instantly understand what they were protesting about without any other visual information. This meant that one photograph could potentially represent the whole event to a person who didn't know why this even was taking place. Also when photographing the signs, you also get to see the subjects facial expression which also helps tell its own story about the event. These two pieces of visual information together allow the viewer to get a detailed look upon the event.
Something else he does within his work is take a few steps back from the action to show the scale of the event, which can be seen in the photograph to the left. This represents to the viewer the scale and importance of the event to the viewer which I feel is important to show.
The last technique I'm going to discuss that Fernandez uses in his photography is getting close to the action which makes the subject captured the main focus of the image. This allows the viewer to easily see the subjects emotion on their face which thus represents the publics general emotion to the whole event. This technique can be seen in the image to the left.
I'm going to try and use these techniques while photographing the EDL march in Dudley, which will hopefully result in me covering the whole event and not just a part of it.
During the mid sixties, Fernandez photographed throughout the streets of New York and became one of the most important street photographers of his era. In his time he also photographed a variety of socially significant events, such as protests and demonstrations. Which is why I have come to look at him before my shoot photographing the EDL march in Dudley. Someone once mentioned that Fernandez approached all of the events he photographed as a concerned observer, who has no political initiative to get out of the shoot. He just went and captured what he saw, from an un-biased point of view, which I think is why he is one of the great photojournalists of the time. His focus, quite rightly is heavily set upon the social aspects of these events because it was the people who created them so its obvious that they were his main focus.One of his techniques which is quite obvious when viewing his work is that he liked to photograph people holding signs. I think this is because the viewer could read the views of the people on the sign and then instantly understand what they were protesting about without any other visual information. This meant that one photograph could potentially represent the whole event to a person who didn't know why this even was taking place. Also when photographing the signs, you also get to see the subjects facial expression which also helps tell its own story about the event. These two pieces of visual information together allow the viewer to get a detailed look upon the event.
Something else he does within his work is take a few steps back from the action to show the scale of the event, which can be seen in the photograph to the left. This represents to the viewer the scale and importance of the event to the viewer which I feel is important to show.
The last technique I'm going to discuss that Fernandez uses in his photography is getting close to the action which makes the subject captured the main focus of the image. This allows the viewer to easily see the subjects emotion on their face which thus represents the publics general emotion to the whole event. This technique can be seen in the image to the left.
I'm going to try and use these techniques while photographing the EDL march in Dudley, which will hopefully result in me covering the whole event and not just a part of it.
Mike Brodie
Mike Brodie is an American photographer who began hopping trains at 17 and spent five years crisscrossing the US, photographing his journey which he later made into a book entitled 'A Period of Juvenile Prosperity'.
One reason why his photographs for this project are so encapulating is because Brodie lived the lives of the train hoppers that he captured. I think to document anything to the fullest extent you need to become part of the community your photographing, I think for my project photographing the EDL I
should try to talk to the subjects before and during the event and become part of them. This should firstly allow the portraits to properly show the personality of the people I photograph and also give the viewer a deeper insight into the group which is portrayed in the media. I'm hoping my photographs will proved the viewer with something more than the medias photographs, because they document the group from the side and never get fully involved so their photographs will always be from the point of view of an outsider looking in. This means that their images will never portray the real feelings of the group, like Brodie did for this project I want to become part of the group for the day to photograph them properly.
Like Zed Nelson did, Brodie took a range of different styles for his images. Like the top image shows, he took some documentary/ portraiture images which capture the subject with their knowledge in the natural surroundings that their in.
On the other hand he also caught more candid images which suggest that the subjects present in the image had no idea that he was taking the photograph, so the moment captured is exactly the same as how it happened in real life. This gives the idea to the viewer that they are being shown images from a group they wouldn't get accessed to in real life, and makes them feel apart of whats happening. Specifically in the image shown above, the point of view is as if the viewer was a person who is on the train looking at one of their fellow travellers, which makes them feel very involved in the images.
Another type of image he took was candid action, which is the same type as the image above but it just involves more movement. This works really well for his project but its taken on a moving train, which the viewer could forget from looking at some of his other images that look very static. For the EDL, if any fast action takes place I will try to capture it, but I will also try and capture the general walking action of the march that will be taking place. If things kick off with the police though it will give my documentary project a different feel, one of a much more fast pace event.
His images are richly toned which make the images portray quite moody scenes of hard times and disparity, and also a struggle to be free from the normality of the everyday which they are trying to escape.
Something I can from Brodie's work is getting within the community you want to photograph, because it's the only way to represent to the world what they are actually like. I wont be able to do this as much as Brodie did for my project on the EDL, but on the day I can at least talk to the supporters and photograph people from inside the group instead of just shooting at them. Furthermore, Brodie knows really well what kind of images he needs to produce to best represent the events that he witnessed, which meant taking photographs from multiple different angles of different things to give the viewer the a little snippet into each part of the journey and what they got up to.
Another type of image he took was candid action, which is the same type as the image above but it just involves more movement. This works really well for his project but its taken on a moving train, which the viewer could forget from looking at some of his other images that look very static. For the EDL, if any fast action takes place I will try to capture it, but I will also try and capture the general walking action of the march that will be taking place. If things kick off with the police though it will give my documentary project a different feel, one of a much more fast pace event.His images are richly toned which make the images portray quite moody scenes of hard times and disparity, and also a struggle to be free from the normality of the everyday which they are trying to escape.
Something I can from Brodie's work is getting within the community you want to photograph, because it's the only way to represent to the world what they are actually like. I wont be able to do this as much as Brodie did for my project on the EDL, but on the day I can at least talk to the supporters and photograph people from inside the group instead of just shooting at them. Furthermore, Brodie knows really well what kind of images he needs to produce to best represent the events that he witnessed, which meant taking photographs from multiple different angles of different things to give the viewer the a little snippet into each part of the journey and what they got up to.
Protest Photography
After looking at a few photographers that also capture events using a documentary style, I wanted to do some research into what to expect from these events and how to deal with it if it turns violent.
This was an interview with the award winning press photographer Cathal McNaughton, and draws on his experience photographing different violent events and how he stays safe, while getting the picture he needs.
What goes through your mind when it kicks off?
It’s important to try to stay calm, because you get caught up in the moment. Your instinct when adrenalin kicks in is to rush around and shoot lots of pictures. But then you’ll look at the back of your camera and realise you don’t have anything good.
So I make myself slow down and remember to pick my shots. I have to be quite clinical. It’s hard, though, to avoid getting overly excited when people start throwing petrol bombs, and bricks and bottles crash beside you.
The hardest part is being aware of your surroundings at all times, yet disciplined enough to choose your pictures carefully.
Where is it best to be when violence breaks out?
These running riots can be very fluid, moving from street to street very quickly. If you’re not paying attention, you’ll be caught suddenly in no-man’s-land. Avoid at all costs getting caught between the rioters and the police, as you’ll risk being injured from both sides.
Strangely, it is best to be among the rioters or slightly off to their side. Unless police start firing baton rounds, they’re not going to be throwing any missiles. So if you are standing close to the people who are hurling missiles, you won’t be hit by them.
You have to be aware, though, that in these tense situations people can change their moods very quickly. Amid the trouble, there are moments of great humour and excitement among the rioters, but this can turn to anger in an instant. If they suddenly don’t want you there, you have to run. So I try to read their body language as the situation unfolds.
After reading his interview it has given me some good tips on what to do if violence does brake out, and the event turns into a riot scene because some EDL marches in the past has led to this happening. This has just reminded me to stay out of harms way if this does happen by not putting myself in the middle of the event. Also its better to be on the side of the EDL because they are more likely to throw objects that could hit me. Furthermore if the mood changes they might suddenly decide that they don't want any photographers capturing whats happening, which means that I potentially could become a target. Another point he's given me to think about is not letting my adrenaline get the better of me and end up shooting loads of photographs that end up being pointless. Its much better to stay calm and remember the type of images you want from an event, and shoot a small amount of good images rather than a large amount of bad.
I have also looked at this article online -http://photography.about.com/od/lessonsbysubject/a/howtophotographaprotest.htm
Which goes into detail about how to photograph a protest and what to do in certain events while also mentioning how to prepare for the protest itself.
This was an interview with the award winning press photographer Cathal McNaughton, and draws on his experience photographing different violent events and how he stays safe, while getting the picture he needs.
What goes through your mind when it kicks off?
It’s important to try to stay calm, because you get caught up in the moment. Your instinct when adrenalin kicks in is to rush around and shoot lots of pictures. But then you’ll look at the back of your camera and realise you don’t have anything good.
So I make myself slow down and remember to pick my shots. I have to be quite clinical. It’s hard, though, to avoid getting overly excited when people start throwing petrol bombs, and bricks and bottles crash beside you.
The hardest part is being aware of your surroundings at all times, yet disciplined enough to choose your pictures carefully.
Where is it best to be when violence breaks out?
These running riots can be very fluid, moving from street to street very quickly. If you’re not paying attention, you’ll be caught suddenly in no-man’s-land. Avoid at all costs getting caught between the rioters and the police, as you’ll risk being injured from both sides.
Strangely, it is best to be among the rioters or slightly off to their side. Unless police start firing baton rounds, they’re not going to be throwing any missiles. So if you are standing close to the people who are hurling missiles, you won’t be hit by them.
You have to be aware, though, that in these tense situations people can change their moods very quickly. Amid the trouble, there are moments of great humour and excitement among the rioters, but this can turn to anger in an instant. If they suddenly don’t want you there, you have to run. So I try to read their body language as the situation unfolds.
After reading his interview it has given me some good tips on what to do if violence does brake out, and the event turns into a riot scene because some EDL marches in the past has led to this happening. This has just reminded me to stay out of harms way if this does happen by not putting myself in the middle of the event. Also its better to be on the side of the EDL because they are more likely to throw objects that could hit me. Furthermore if the mood changes they might suddenly decide that they don't want any photographers capturing whats happening, which means that I potentially could become a target. Another point he's given me to think about is not letting my adrenaline get the better of me and end up shooting loads of photographs that end up being pointless. Its much better to stay calm and remember the type of images you want from an event, and shoot a small amount of good images rather than a large amount of bad.
I have also looked at this article online -http://photography.about.com/od/lessonsbysubject/a/howtophotographaprotest.htm
Which goes into detail about how to photograph a protest and what to do in certain events while also mentioning how to prepare for the protest itself.
Talking with the EDL
The date of the Dudley march is fast approaching and after thinking about it, I thought it would probably be better if I make contact with the EDL to let them hear my plan and to see what they think about it. This is because they could be extremely apposed to the whole thing, which would then allow me to approach the event with a more caution. Or on the other hand, they could be on board with my project idea and actually help me complete it, such as give me names to get in contact with to photograph.
After having these thoughts, I messaged the EDL on their official Facebook page to see what there response would be to my project idea, even though I didn't know what to say really I just decided I would state my intentions and see what they thought.
The message I sent them states:
Hi there, I am a 19 year old photographer who is currently studying photography at Manchester Metropolitan University. For my self directed project I have decided to focus on freedom of speech within the uk, and I feel that your organisation, the EDL, would be perfect to photograph for a section of my project, as you say yourself you're trying to defend freedom of press and expression within the uk among other things. And it would be great to get photographs that show your side of the story of what your marching for, as i've heard you do get some bad press. I would like to come to your demonstration in dudley and take portraits of the people who are involved and support your organisation, while also taking some photographs of the march to go along side the portraits. For the portraits, I wouldn't need to set anything up, I would just ask willing participants to stand in the natural surroundings that the meeting and walk will take place in, and take their photograph. This project is not for the newspapers its just for my university course. And I wanted to message you first before showing up tomorrow to give you a chance to say what you thought about my idea Look forward to hearing back from you Elliott Gill
They later replied with:
Elliott,
some of our patriots won't appreciate you photographing them without their specific permission. The UAF and certain Muslims have made life very difficult for some, going to their workplaces for example and trying to make them lose their jobs, posting their photo's names phone numbers and addresses online, they get threats to themselves and their families etc, threats as serious as rape, murder and violence. When opposing anything in Islam this is just some of the stuff we are up against., so please understand it will be best to request permission from individuals, some of our patriots will be only to happy to pose for photos, but should anyone object, I hope you understand the reasons why and respect their wishes. You may also get eyed with suspicion as we have had UAF members infiltrate our demos to deliberately cause trouble. (We then get the blame) Go along to our meeting point and talk to people BEFORE getting out a camera. Our patriots are a great friendly bunch, have a chat and you will see how wrong the media are - first hand. Good luck with your project.
I then replied to their message saying:
Hi,
I understand that many people may not want to have their photograph taken which i will respect their opinion. I will come to the meet before hand though and speak to people before starting shooting
Elliott
Overall I am happy that I did make contact with them before turning up at the event, because it made me realise how serious some of the threats that have been made to members of the EDL are, the message allowed me to understand the amount of caution I had to photograph with when asking for permission for images. And while the group is in the meeting spot, ask everyone for permission, because some of their supporters will take it as an attack if I take their picture without asking first. I will photograph them candidly when they begin marching because, their attention will be elsewhere and not focused on me photographing them. The message has also given me a small insight to the opinions of the EDL on the UAF and how they are the ones that cause trouble, but the media blame it on the EDL because they support the UAF.
After conversing with them, I've decided that I will meet them at their meeting place and like they state, talk with them before getting my camera out to begin shooting portraits. This act of talking with them will mean that I get a much more of an insiders feel for the group, like Brodie has done in his images, which will hopefully translate into my images, which then gives the viewer more of an involved feeling and makes them feel like they are witnessing the true side to the EDL and not what the media want us to see.
After having these thoughts, I messaged the EDL on their official Facebook page to see what there response would be to my project idea, even though I didn't know what to say really I just decided I would state my intentions and see what they thought.
The message I sent them states:
Hi there, I am a 19 year old photographer who is currently studying photography at Manchester Metropolitan University. For my self directed project I have decided to focus on freedom of speech within the uk, and I feel that your organisation, the EDL, would be perfect to photograph for a section of my project, as you say yourself you're trying to defend freedom of press and expression within the uk among other things. And it would be great to get photographs that show your side of the story of what your marching for, as i've heard you do get some bad press. I would like to come to your demonstration in dudley and take portraits of the people who are involved and support your organisation, while also taking some photographs of the march to go along side the portraits. For the portraits, I wouldn't need to set anything up, I would just ask willing participants to stand in the natural surroundings that the meeting and walk will take place in, and take their photograph. This project is not for the newspapers its just for my university course. And I wanted to message you first before showing up tomorrow to give you a chance to say what you thought about my idea Look forward to hearing back from you Elliott Gill
They later replied with:
Elliott,
some of our patriots won't appreciate you photographing them without their specific permission. The UAF and certain Muslims have made life very difficult for some, going to their workplaces for example and trying to make them lose their jobs, posting their photo's names phone numbers and addresses online, they get threats to themselves and their families etc, threats as serious as rape, murder and violence. When opposing anything in Islam this is just some of the stuff we are up against., so please understand it will be best to request permission from individuals, some of our patriots will be only to happy to pose for photos, but should anyone object, I hope you understand the reasons why and respect their wishes. You may also get eyed with suspicion as we have had UAF members infiltrate our demos to deliberately cause trouble. (We then get the blame) Go along to our meeting point and talk to people BEFORE getting out a camera. Our patriots are a great friendly bunch, have a chat and you will see how wrong the media are - first hand. Good luck with your project.
I then replied to their message saying:
Hi,
I understand that many people may not want to have their photograph taken which i will respect their opinion. I will come to the meet before hand though and speak to people before starting shooting
Elliott
Overall I am happy that I did make contact with them before turning up at the event, because it made me realise how serious some of the threats that have been made to members of the EDL are, the message allowed me to understand the amount of caution I had to photograph with when asking for permission for images. And while the group is in the meeting spot, ask everyone for permission, because some of their supporters will take it as an attack if I take their picture without asking first. I will photograph them candidly when they begin marching because, their attention will be elsewhere and not focused on me photographing them. The message has also given me a small insight to the opinions of the EDL on the UAF and how they are the ones that cause trouble, but the media blame it on the EDL because they support the UAF.
After conversing with them, I've decided that I will meet them at their meeting place and like they state, talk with them before getting my camera out to begin shooting portraits. This act of talking with them will mean that I get a much more of an insiders feel for the group, like Brodie has done in his images, which will hopefully translate into my images, which then gives the viewer more of an involved feeling and makes them feel like they are witnessing the true side to the EDL and not what the media want us to see.
Angelos Tzortzinis
Before going to the event i'm going to research into one more artist who has photographed protest and conflict events, to understand another style of photography before going and taking my own images on this one day event.
Angelos Tzortzinis is a Greek documentary photographer who recently photographed the events in Crimea and Ukraine. He merged his photographs from this event together and titled it, 'The Barricade' this was because the public made this huge barricade out of what ever they could get their hands on to stop the government troops getting into the area and putting a holt to their protest. All of Tzortzinis images are taking around this Barricade over the days that is was still standing.
The scenes he photographed are very different from the ones that I have talked about in other photographers work but the techniques he uses are exactly the same. Like the other, he uses the same techniques such as taking candid photographs and also portraits, which thus gives the many photographs that capture the same event but from different angles. The candid show the greater happenings of the event and the true moments, where the portraits focus on a single individual or group for the viewer to look at.
Tzortzinis must have spent a few days documenting the event and how this was effecting the people. Because I remember that the barricade only stood for under a week before the government managed to breach it. The three photographs of his that I have chosen to look at show firstly the photographs he took to capture the general feeling of the event which show the viewer images that capture the background as well as a few subjects. This then gives the viewer an idea of what the event looked like, before just focusing on individual people.
The second image shows genuine moments from the event, which the viewer can relate to. Such as this hug I have shown, these allow the viewer to see the event from the viewpoint of the individuals that took part, and thus means the viewer feels like he's looking at real human moments, not just photographs of people with a cause one could not relate to.
The third technique is portraits, in which the subject has full knowledge of the image taking place, this allows Tzortzinis to focus one image on a specific person who might be specifically interesting for the viewer to see. In this case it is a small child, he chose this because to the viewer, a child should be playing with his friends, not at an antigovernment protest which ended in multiple killings.
For my project I'm going to look for genuine moments that the EDL members have, to make the viewer feel like they are really people as well not just football hooligans. And also my portraits will try and focus on people who are making an obvious stand, which will be interesting for the viewer to focus their full attention to for one picture.
Angelos Tzortzinis is a Greek documentary photographer who recently photographed the events in Crimea and Ukraine. He merged his photographs from this event together and titled it, 'The Barricade' this was because the public made this huge barricade out of what ever they could get their hands on to stop the government troops getting into the area and putting a holt to their protest. All of Tzortzinis images are taking around this Barricade over the days that is was still standing.The second image shows genuine moments from the event, which the viewer can relate to. Such as this hug I have shown, these allow the viewer to see the event from the viewpoint of the individuals that took part, and thus means the viewer feels like he's looking at real human moments, not just photographs of people with a cause one could not relate to.
The third technique is portraits, in which the subject has full knowledge of the image taking place, this allows Tzortzinis to focus one image on a specific person who might be specifically interesting for the viewer to see. In this case it is a small child, he chose this because to the viewer, a child should be playing with his friends, not at an antigovernment protest which ended in multiple killings.
For my project I'm going to look for genuine moments that the EDL members have, to make the viewer feel like they are really people as well not just football hooligans. And also my portraits will try and focus on people who are making an obvious stand, which will be interesting for the viewer to focus their full attention to for one picture.
Dudley 7th February 2015- Summary
After looking into the various photographers that I have done for this project, I realised that all of them covered the events they documented from a few different styles of photographing. This includes portraits, candid photos and close ups, the reason they do this is because it gives the viewer lots of visual information from all angles and aspects of the event. Which then when the different techniques are collaborated together in the form of a portfolio or book tells the whole story of the event and gives the viewer the bigger picture. Because of this, I have decided to split the photographs I took up into these different sections so make it obvious through in my coursework what I mean about this technique. I will then choose my favourite images from the groups for my final pieces, which will when viewed together hopefully show a more detailed account of the days events.
The event was a really good experience to improve my photojournalistic techniques as this is the kind of photography that I want to do when I'm older. The day started with me travelling to Dudley port train station, because this is the nearest one to the march, which I knew because I had been using the EDL's directions they had posted on their website. When on the train I began talking with a few members of the EDL who were also on it, I didn't tell them I was a photographer for fear they might take it the wrong way and my day would be over before it started. When arriving to Dudley station, I decided that I may as well get on the coaches that the EDL had put on for their supporters to take them to the meeting point, these coaches were escorted through the town by 8 police on motorbikes who had stopped the traffic in the town. After looking at Brodie's work and how he got fully involved with the people he photographed, I decided that this would be a good chance to become part of the EDL which would give me a better chance at representing them through my photographs. Also I understood that much of the media would've never done this, so it gave me an individual insight into the EDL that most people would never see.
I began talking to a man on the coach who asked me if this was my first march which I replied it was too, he turned out to be the leader of a few of the southern districts of the EDL. The conversation mood changed after I told him about my actual reason why I was here, because he was concerned for my safety, he stressed to me that many people would not like being photographed and that I should be very cautious. But he went onto say how I could photograph him, which will be the first image I show, and also he put me in touch with the head of the EDL's media in case I needed anything from him.
The head of their media called Colin Lunn gave me his email address- Edlcolinlunn@gmail.com
and said that if I ever needed anything from the group to contact him via that. This has given me ideas of projects that I could do in the future, as a spin off from this one. To carry on photographing the EDL.
I arrived at the venue they were meeting at and got off the coach with all of the EDL. And began walking around talking to people, and telling them why I'm here and if I could photograph them for my project. Then they began doing their march around Dudley, which I documented as well to go into a different section of my project. After they finished marching, they listened to a few talks from their leaders and guest speakers which I also photographed. Half way through this I went to find the UAF who were also doing their own demonstration. On the way I noticed an incident with a very drunk man, a few of the public and the police which I have also photographed and put into its own post. I then found where the UAF were demonstrating, and I photographed them to finish the day.
Overall it was a successful day to improve my documentary techniques, and try to photograph an event from all angles to capture the greater picture. The only incident that happened to me was one of the EDL flicked his cigarette at me because he thought I took his picture which I didn't, later on from this I saw a member of the EDL throw a bottle at a photographer. But luckily nothing more serious happened.
Im now going to upload the photographs in their different sections, before merging some back together for my final pieces.
The event was a really good experience to improve my photojournalistic techniques as this is the kind of photography that I want to do when I'm older. The day started with me travelling to Dudley port train station, because this is the nearest one to the march, which I knew because I had been using the EDL's directions they had posted on their website. When on the train I began talking with a few members of the EDL who were also on it, I didn't tell them I was a photographer for fear they might take it the wrong way and my day would be over before it started. When arriving to Dudley station, I decided that I may as well get on the coaches that the EDL had put on for their supporters to take them to the meeting point, these coaches were escorted through the town by 8 police on motorbikes who had stopped the traffic in the town. After looking at Brodie's work and how he got fully involved with the people he photographed, I decided that this would be a good chance to become part of the EDL which would give me a better chance at representing them through my photographs. Also I understood that much of the media would've never done this, so it gave me an individual insight into the EDL that most people would never see.
I began talking to a man on the coach who asked me if this was my first march which I replied it was too, he turned out to be the leader of a few of the southern districts of the EDL. The conversation mood changed after I told him about my actual reason why I was here, because he was concerned for my safety, he stressed to me that many people would not like being photographed and that I should be very cautious. But he went onto say how I could photograph him, which will be the first image I show, and also he put me in touch with the head of the EDL's media in case I needed anything from him.
The head of their media called Colin Lunn gave me his email address- Edlcolinlunn@gmail.com
and said that if I ever needed anything from the group to contact him via that. This has given me ideas of projects that I could do in the future, as a spin off from this one. To carry on photographing the EDL.
I arrived at the venue they were meeting at and got off the coach with all of the EDL. And began walking around talking to people, and telling them why I'm here and if I could photograph them for my project. Then they began doing their march around Dudley, which I documented as well to go into a different section of my project. After they finished marching, they listened to a few talks from their leaders and guest speakers which I also photographed. Half way through this I went to find the UAF who were also doing their own demonstration. On the way I noticed an incident with a very drunk man, a few of the public and the police which I have also photographed and put into its own post. I then found where the UAF were demonstrating, and I photographed them to finish the day.
Overall it was a successful day to improve my documentary techniques, and try to photograph an event from all angles to capture the greater picture. The only incident that happened to me was one of the EDL flicked his cigarette at me because he thought I took his picture which I didn't, later on from this I saw a member of the EDL throw a bottle at a photographer. But luckily nothing more serious happened.
Im now going to upload the photographs in their different sections, before merging some back together for my final pieces.
EDL Portraits
For this section of the project which looks at portraits, I asked each one of these people if I could take their photograph and also why I was doing this. Unlike my last project which focused on portraits this was very different because I realised I had little control to what the subject did in the image, I just had to make sure that they were in focus and framed properly within the image and then what ever they wanted to do in front of the camera I just captured.
The guy on the left of this image is the one I first spoke to on the coach who introduced me to the head of their media. He was carrying a pig, to symbolise how muslims don't eat pork. He called this pig, No-Ham-mad which represents Muhammad.
I spoke to a few people who wore masks and the reason some of them did this was because they would loose their jobs if their face was published in the papers as part of the EDL.
I like this image, because it looks like they're some strange boy band from the layout of the few subjects and the costumes they are wearing.
I think this image shows the EDL in a completely different light compared to some of the other portraits I took, because they actually look very friendly and genuine which is not what the media make the EDL out to be.
I think this represents how the elders of the EDL are almost grooming the kids into how they should think and act. Which contrasts my ideas of freedom of speech for the project.
This is one of my favourite images from the whole shoot, because he is basically wearing a sign, which is what I wanted to focus on after looking at Fernadez's work. Also I think that my portraiture techniques in this image show through, and capture his personality well.
This is another image that shows how signs are really good at providing extra information for the photograph because the viewer can read their views and also see them.
I think these two subjects contrast the medias view on the EDL which I like, because to me they don't look like stereotypical football hooligans.
The last two images depict more subjects that need to wear masks for their jobs incase they were seen supporting this cause. A lot of the EDL made the peace signs with their hands which does contrast the view the media portrays on them. Also it creates strange photographs like these two where masked mean are gesturing the symbol of peace.
This lady requested that I photograph her and her friends and then email her the photograph which I have done. I also thought this showed a genuine moment that looks very friendly from a bunch of people who are meant to be so violent.
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