Greenwich buildings sink under scaffolding (multiple exposure)

A couple of years ago (or more) we were sitting on a bench in Cutty Sark Gardens looking at the broad sweep of the river. An Australian approached us and said “Where can I find the Cutty Sark mate?”

We pointed ironically to the scaffolding and the still smouldering ruins of the boat.

He’d come half way around the world from a remote station in the Australian outback to see the Cutty Sark. More fool him some might say, for not checking his itinerary first.

Two or more years later there is still a pile of scaffolding where the Cutty Sark should be and it is no longer possible to sit on a bench and view the broad sweep of the river. The former because the renovation seems to be taking for ever and rumours abound as to why. There are big sums of money and rapacious consultants involved. The latter because the entire river front is behind hoardings.

And looking round, much of Greenwich town centre is also covered up. It seems to have happened overnight or maybe I just blinked.

I decided to take a walk around town centre and photograph the damage.

St Alfege?

Looking for Hawksmoor? Forget it

Walking out of St Alfege Passage, the first thing you see is more scaffolding above the market

Even the heritage phone boxes are in a poor state, missing doors and glass.

Soooo, lets find the Tourist Office to ask what there is to actually see in Greenwich since we’ve come all this way. Errrr….

Discover Greenwich?

Doesn’t work for me either. Walking down a bit further, it is good to see what we are missing.  Tacky pictures beneath barbed wire and surveillance cameras.

Before, during or after?

Cutty Sark Gardens is full of signs helpfully pointing in all directions

Directions to nothing much

The ‘gardens’ themselves are bleak beyond belief and have been for a long long time. This is not a world-class attraction by any stretch of the imagination. It is also the first sight of Greenwich for anyone disembarking from the ferry.

The long march south

Looking in the opposite direction, this is the ‘view’ across the river. Some poor saps have had to carry their buggy up the steps from the foot tunnel. The lift isn’t working.

We mean foot tunnel

The Old Royal Naval College doesn’t get any better if you want to slip down past the pier

Not the entrance

The views of the river and Canary Wharf just get better…

Canary Wharf

Nice bollard, looks like a ….

The entrance

Once we get to The ORNC things start to get slightly surreal

Uber scaffolding

There are some guys blocking access even as I took photographs

Then came the Pièce de résistance…

I went into the courtyard of Trinity College of Music to take some photos of the scaffolding hidden away even in there. I sat on the bench and loaded a film and a security guy came out but just to play with The Dog rather than order us off the premises. I started taking photos while Kate chatted about dogs with him and then another security guy came out and told me that I couldn’t take photos… He ignored the dog. And his colleague.

“Its the rules” he said, “I don’t make them, its the college’s rules”.

“Security” he replied when asked. I forewent the “I’m a photographer, not a terrorist” meme.

Could I see the rules? “No”.

I’d have to go to the East Gate or the West Gate to get permission to photograph and it was, in his view, doubtful that I would get it.

Naturally, I chose the wrong gate but we got a little closer to the truth. The supervisor at the East Gate reckoned I’d have to go to the West gate for permission. He didn’t have a clue why I shouldn’t be allowed to photograph in the courtyard, but another guy at the gate thought it had “something to do with copyright, innit”. This is far more likely since the place makes loads of money from the film industry using the location for historical shoots. I’m not quite sure how yours truly impacts on Hollywood, but rules are rules.

I couldn’t be arsed to schlep all the way back to the West Gate. I have a sneaking suspicion I would have been referred back to the East gate anyways.

Trinity College of Music – a small suggestion. Brief your security staff properly so they are confident about what they are enforcing. They will be less defensive and less shit scared of ending up on a YouTube video looking and sounding like total dickheads given the current paranoia about filming in public places. At the very least, place a sign somewhere visible saying ‘No Photography’.

What was the big secret? just shitloads of scaffolding.

Rules are rules

So, shoot me…

I’ve had to make this post part 1 of a series. In just two and a half hours I have enough photos to fill several posts. Particularly when you walk down the Thames path a little way. I don’t suppose the average tourist would get that far:

Thames path hi-jacked by developers

Literally, up the garden path. How have they got away with this? The Thames path is now so convoluted with ‘short-term’ closures for ‘improvements’ that you might get more enjoyment walking down the main road approach to the Blackwall Tunnel.

So… for three times the price of a coffee in Deptford, where I can overlook an insanely interesting and vibrant High Street and market, I could do the same in a World Heritage site just down the road. I could take in that olde-worlde town centre full of scaffolding, cladding, tat-shops, fast-food tex-mex outlets, more scaffolding and even more wardens than The Dog could shake a stick at. If only I could see it.

Under wraps

Now why do I think of Christo and Jeanne-Claude…?

Think I’ll stick to Deptford till 2012 has gone. As somebody who lives nearby I can see a dark humour in all of this. As a visitor attraction, Greenwich is currently a massive fail. I hope nobody from UNESCO drops by for vacation. I also hope local people are being employed for all this new work.

Cutting edge CCTV in Deptford hehe

I’ve learned so much more about photography and its basic principles (ie exposure, composition and development) over the last eighteen months through using film, particularly by restricting myself to a couple of film types and developers. I wish the same could be said about restricting the cameras. Film got me into medium format photography and as usual I immersed myself and found real love ® using vintage cameras, some over 70 years old. Lots of them…

Film is very unforgiving if you fuck anything up so you learn to get it right. Like not using fixer to develop the film, or not leaving the lenscap on, or not keeping the light off in the darkroom… no names.

So perversely I’m posting some lo-fi Holga images

I want to explore colour more. William Eggleston’s new(ish) exhibition ‘Paris’ is so hugely inspirational that I want to do some. Eggleston can afford the colour processing, I can’t, so I’ll have to use a digi.

But the Holga is such fun!

And the Holga is one of the few cameras that can be carried around Spitalfields without drawing the attention of the private security fuckwits. It’s a toy isn’t it. Unlike the 1000′s of high megapixel phones that are snapping away constantly round there. After all, if I were covertly scoping the place I’d really try to draw attention to myself wouldn’t I? Fucking idiots.

Brick Lane too. The last bit that is any good, up at the Bagel end.

Of course, I will still be using film. The Portra’s grain is to die for too (ISO 800). Messy negs, I blame the lab.

Greenwich Millenium Village

The colour is the photograph. This is why I like Saul Leiter’s colour work so much. Form and structure are so often obscured by colour. Larry Sultan, Martin Parr and ‘big colour’ exponents excepted.

Laban, Deptford (library window)

I expect the library window is mended now, it is getting on for 2.5 years ago I photographed this during the Deptford Festival in 2007.

The spiders web was shot with a lensbaby. Funny thing with the lensbaby 3G – it looks like an alien sex aid. I was snapping around Shoreditch one Sunday with it on the camera, and since it was the only camera I had I took a photo of anti-terror police pulling a guy out of a Mercedes just off Rivington Street. The copper came over and although this was before the widespread abuse of Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 I was expecting the worst. I was fairly well bang to rights in the ‘dumb things to be caught doing’ sense. After the spiel, he wanted to look at the photos I had been taking so I handed him the camera with the lensbaby (for those that don’t know it looks like this, not at all like a traditional lens). I did this because these were the paramilitary police in dark blue combat gear, shaved heads and machine guns, not out of any willingness to help. The copper took one look at the rig and said ‘Uhhhh, OK, forget it…’

Win! He couldn’t admit he hadn’t a clue what to do with it and I didn’t push it.

I then got a bollocking for not respecting the privacy of the poor fucker they had pinned to the car. In public… In Shoreditch… Just off the High Street. Obviously I said nothing to hint at glaring flaw in his argument. FFS!

And the biggest irony? I’d missed the shot anyway.

Or maybe their x-ray vision spotted that I had a bag full of camera gear because I was on my way to a photo assignment. Either way, I’m a photographer not a terrorist.

“I’m guessing you must get this all the time” one of them joked, “being a photographer…“

Yep. But how did you know?

“No wonder you get pissed off – sorry!”

FFS!

I didn’t engage and refused to give my details as I’m entitled not to do. But I did waggle my press card and they didn’t take it further. Maybe the press card helped.

I pushed Tri-X to 1600 and in a fit of madness developed it in Rodinal. Since I was also guessing exposure and zone focusing the results are somewhat ‘interesting’. The images look slightly better resized when you click them.

It was so good to see so many photographers present. I’ve been ticked off before in some forums by one or two UK snappers who seem to believe that police abuse of Section 44 powers is somehow an imaginary leftie conspiracy because it hasn’t happened to them personally. Duh, wake up and smell the coffee those people.

Petruscos Eye Project getting ready to go out in the crowd

There are already countless photos from the gathering circulating round the web, many a technically better and certainly more colourful record of the event than mine. As we might expect from a gathering of photographers, most of whom know exactly how to get their work out there very quickly.

View from the balcony as the gathering got underway

Interestingly I saw only one policeperson, looking harassed. They stayed away possibly realising that they would have been snapped to hell and back twice, because we could. Bizarrely, on the steps of the National Portrait Gallery, a security goon told somebody to stop taking photographs. How to draw attention to yourself. What a total fucking idiot, and a good demonstration of the intelligence level and (lack of) craft of our security staff.

Probably the only place in London where you can point a huge zoom at a child

We managed to be interviewed twice too. It is heartening to see young people getting out in the crowds and actually talking to people. It warmed the cockles of my journo partner’s heart. There is hope

Interviewing

Condoms were available too from the London House of Common Sluts – Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which was nice.

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

We left Gizmo at home unfortunately. A potential large police presence and a pit-bull aren’t the best combo. There was one demo dog there though (non-threatening) who’s photo has now gone round the globe several zillion times judging by the number of retweets on Twitter.

I’m a dog not a terrorist

I started with the gorilla and I’ll end with the gorilla.

Nothing to photograph here, move along now

I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! invite all Photographers to a mass photo gathering in defence of street photography.

Street photography…

12 Noon

Saturday 23rd January 2010

Trafalgar Square

I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist! invite all Photographers to a mass photo gathering in defence of street photography.

Following a series of high profile detentions under s44 of the terrorism act including 7 armed police detaining an award winning architectural photographer in the City of London, the arrest of a press photographer covering campaigning santas at City Airport and the stop and search of a BBC photographer at St Pauls Cathedral and many others. PHNAT feels now is the time for a mass turnout of Photographers, professional and amateur to defend our rights and stop the abuse of the terror laws.

Details

“It would be better that the government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism – that we live in fear and under a police state” (my emphasis).

This government listen to people that should know a thing or two? Pass me a reefer… and I’ll go and snap a few coppers. Should be good for a few years inside.

Street photography Met style…

Title: Jail for photographing police?
Feature: news
Date: 28 January 2009

The relationship between photographers and police could worsen next month when new laws are introduced that allow for the arrest – and imprisonment – of anyone who takes pictures of officers ‘likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

Set to become law on 16 February, the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 amends the Terrorism Act 2000 regarding offences relating to information about members of armed forces, a member of the intelligence services, or a police officer.

The new set of rules, under section 76 of the 2008 Act and section 58A of the 2000 Act, will target anyone who ‘elicits or attempts to elicit information about (members of armed forces) … which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

A person found guilty of this offence could be liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and to a fine.

The law is expected to increase the anti-terrorism powers used today by police officers to stop photographers, including press photographers, from taking pictures in public places. ‘Who is to say that police officers won’t abuse these powers,’ asks freelance photographer Justin Tallis, who was threatened by an officer last week.

Tallis, a London-based photographer, was covering the anti-BBC protest on Saturday 24 January when he was approached by a police officer. Tallis had just taken a picture of the officer, who then asked to see the picture. The photographer refused, arguing that, as a press photographer, he had a right to take pictures of police officers.

According to Tallis, the officer then tried to take the camera away. Before giving up, the officer said that Tallis ‘shouldn’t have taken that photo, you were intimidating me’. The incident was caught on camera by photojournalist Marc Vallee.

Tallis is a member of the National Union of Journalists and the British Press Photographers’ Association. ‘The incident lasted just 10 seconds, but you don’t expect a police officer to try to pull your camera from your neck,’ Tallis tells BJP.

The incident came less than a week after it was revealed that an amateur photographer was stopped in Cleveland by police officers when taking pictures of ships. The photographer was asked if he had any terrorism connections and told that his details would be kept on file.

A Cleveland Police spokeswoman explained: ‘If seen in suspicious circumstances, members of the public may well be approached by police officers and asked about their activities. Photography of buildings and areas from a public place is not an offence and is certainly not something the police wish to discourage. Nevertheless, in order to verify a person’s actions as being entirely innocent, police officers are expected to engage and seek clarification where appropriate.’

The statement echoes the Prime Minister’s answer to a petition signed by more than 5700 people. Gordon Brown reaffirmed, last week, that the police have a legal right to restrict photography in public places.

‘There are no legal restrictions on photography in public places. However, the law applies to photographers as it does to anybody else in a public place. So there may be situations in which the taking of photographs may cause or lead to public order situations or raise security considerations,’ Downing Street says.

‘Each situation will be different and it would be an operational matter for the officer concerned as to what action if any should be taken in respect of those taking photographs. Anybody with a concern about a specific incident should raise the matter with the chief constable of the relevant force.’

However, Liberty, which campaigns on human rights, has decried the excessive use of stop-and-search powers given to police officers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act. The group’s legal director, James Welch, said the powers were used too widely.

In December, freelance press photographer Jess Hurd was detained for more than 45 minutes after she was stopped while covering the wedding of a couple married in Docklands.

She was detained under section 44 of the Terrorism Act. Her camera was forcefully removed from her, and while she showed her press card, three police officers insisted on viewing the footage she had taken.

‘Any officer who suspects an offence has been committed has the right to detain you,’ a Metropolitan press officer told BJP at the time. ‘Because you are a press photographer does not preclude you from being stopped under section 44 of the Terrorism Act. If the officer thought the photographer acted suspiciously, and especially if it was in a sensitive place, he had a right to detain and question the photographer.’

The tension between police officers and photographers is not limited to the UK. Last week, Icelandic police fired pepper spray on photojournalists as they were covering protests in front of the country’s parliament building.

Kristjan Logason, a press photographer in Iceland, tells BJP that he was targeted along with other press photographers. ‘The Icelandic police systematically tried to remove photographers by pepper-spraying them,’ he says.

The photographers were covering a protest in front of the Althing parliament building in the capital Reykjavik. Iceland’s financial system collapsed in October under the weight of billions of dollars of foreign debts incurred by its banks.

Already seven photographers have come forward as having been targetted by the Icelandic Police.

Check bjp-online.com for updates.

Source:

© Incisive Media Ltd. 2009

And just as scary:

1984 in 2009

I didn’t take this photo and I don’t know who to credit it to. The resonances with the 1930s are deeply frightening.

In my not so humble opinion we have already entered it… there is a war on photographers/photographing in the UK

A call to all concerned with attacks on our fundamental rights and freedoms under pressure from counter-terrorism, financial breakdown and the database state

• What are the threats?
• What can be done about them?
• Why should everyone care?

Saturday 28 February 2009

London and across the country joining partners and networks

Where, Who, Why and a Full Programme.