Tips for shooting protests

I've photographed quite a few demonstrations over the years and they never fail to offer something photographically. Here are a few things I've learnt while shooting them:

1. First off, aside from the tasty edited highlights that you see on the news the fact is that for large amounts of time not terribly much happens. Be prepared for a lot of walking and standing around, don't wear your Sunday best and make sure you've got comfortable footwear. You might end up staying longer and later than you plan so have clothing such as hat, scarf and gloves with you too. If you are looking for where the action is, follow the sound of hovering helicopters. These will be piloted by either the police or the media and they'll certainly be looking at something worth photographing

Anti pension reform protest, Bastille, Paris 2010

2. Most of the time you'll find yourself in a large moving mass of people so it's important to try and stay ahead of the crowd. A high viewpoint is great for this so climb up onto anything that will give you an elevated viewpoint so you can anticipate the movement and get yourself in the best position. You could even ring on a doorbell and see if a nice old lady will let you shoot from her window (assistant to hold onto your thigh is optional)

Protest against the bombing of Gaza by Israel, Downing Street, London 2006

3. In my experience, photographers are grudgingly tolerated by the police during these events. They won't exactly welcome you with open arms but the majority of them understand that you're there to do a job and you will be left to get on with it. But if things start to get heated it might get a bit 'hands on' so watch yourself

Mayday demonstration, Oxford Circus, London 2001

4. The police may decide to block off an area containing people within it and not let anyone in or out. This does not (usually) apply to accredited journalists but you'll need some I.D to wave at them, a N.U.J (National Union of Journalists) card is one of the mostly widely recognised

Anti Nazi League against English Defense League, Harrow Mosque, London 2009

5. Be aware that certain groups do not like having their photographs taken and view photographers with a lot of suspicion and hostility. This is especially true of extremist groups and I've witnessed photographers being assaulted and having their kit broken. If in doubt stay at arms length and be vigilant

Anti pension reform protest, Nation, Paris 2010

6. Things can be very different on the continent and overseas. In Europe the use of baton rounds, flash grenades, C.S gas and water canon are common and present much higher risks than the tactics used by the mainland U.K police forces. Be aware of what you're getting yourself involved in before you head out

Anti Nazi League against English Defense League, Harrow Mosque, London 2009

7. With such a fluid situation plus the chance that your movement may be limited it's a good idea to have two cameras with you, one having a wide to medium telephoto lens and the other a standard telephoto zoom. This means you're able to get the shots you want in most situations.
Prime lenses are fairly useless since you may be wedged in a crowd against other people and unable to move. I use a 24-105mm and a 70-200mm which gives me great flexibility when shooting, it's also a good idea to use lens hoods and UV(0) filters to protect the front element of your lenses as they may get a knock. Shooting an event (or anything for that matter) without your kit being insured is a no no

Anti Nazi League against English Defense League, Harrow Mosque, London 2009

8. Don't on any account, go anywhere near police dogs. They only have two settings which are either 'on' or 'off'.
If you see them being deployed during a demo they will definitely be set to 'on'

Anti pension reform protest, Nation, Paris 2010

9. If you are looking to get shots of confrontation you will invariably find yourself sandwiched between groups of agitated protestors and lines of police who will be waving their batons about. As well as this you will also find yourself in the firing line for any missiles being thrown by members of the crowd further back. For this reason it is a good idea to think about some sort of head protection.
Some people use cycling or climbing helmets which can be a bit cumbersome when you are taking photos. I recently came across this 'bump hat' from the D.I.Y store B&Q which does the job perfectly. Looks like a baseball cap but acts like hard hat, sneaky...

10. Above all shooting protests can be incredibly rewarding for a photographer. Working in such a fluid situation can really bring out the best in you and you'll be amazed at the effect of a little adrenalin on your image taking.

Anti pension reform protest, Bastille, Paris 2010

African Paris feature

One of the features for the Paris issue of Time Out centred around the 'Goutte D'Or' area in the North of Paris. This working class area has a large African population and the tone of the piece was about discovering the lesser known parts of the city.
I had a sneaking suspicion that shooting this area might not be straightforward as many of the people here are living and working 'sans papiers', ie illegally, so may well be camera shy. This was proved correct as most of the shops on the picture list refused point blank to have any photographs taken on the premises. Of those that did agree I found that as soon as the camera came out the shop would mysteriously empty of people, even the person working there would suddenly remember they had something urgent to do out the back.
So to get across a sense of the place (without upsetting anyone) I concentrated on the various colours, patterns and textures of the area. The various fabric shops, music stores and greengrocers all provided this and these shots worked well as a back up plan.
Another shoot was a portrait of Jean-Claude Mbvoumin, a native Cameroonian who runs the charity 'Soc Solidaire' which rescues young African boys who have been brought to France by men posing as football agents.
The idea was to have a portrait of himself with a few members of his team kicking a ball in the background. Arriving at his offices I discovered that the other people attending were now unfortunately unavailable and also that he had no football at his offices threatening to make the whole shoot a bit redundant.
Not to worry, after a quick look round outside his offices we found an Alimentation Generale (a corner shop) which had a few of those plastic footballs you find at petrol stations, five minutes later and five Euros lighter I was shooting him playing keepy uppy in the middle of the street and also a few posed shots outside a cafe - job done.

Recent Publication: Time Out Paris issue

A couple of spreads from a recent shoot in Paris for Time Out magazine. I've been fortunate that this has become a regular annual commission and I always enjoy being in Paris just as Spring is starting. This year features included newly opened fashion outlets, the use of iron in the architecture of the city and a piece on the Goutte D'Or area in the north which has a large African population

A varied week...

Variety, so they say, is the spice of life. Working as a freelancer allows me the freedom to carry out assignments for different clients shooting a variety of different subject matter.
This last week has been a good example of this, the following shoots were all done here in London and have taken me to very different locations across the city


Tuesday 22nd March - Stockwell, South London
This shoot was a commission for a magazine that deals with social housing issues. The piece centered around a woman who runs a community centre on the Stockwell Park estate which has more than it's fair share of problems with crime, drug dealing and gang violence. The image above shows the door at the entrance to the centre and yes, that's a bullet hole in it... more from this shoot when the piece has gone to press


Thursday 24th March - City of London
Early morning view over the square mile from the offices of a firm of solicitors on New Street Square. I was here to shoot a conference on the housing sector and before the job started grabbed a few shots of St Paul's in the morning light huddled amongst it's modern neighbours, thank God winter's over


Saturday 26th March - Piccadilly, West End
Cuts and bruises... The protest against the rounds of Government spending cuts leads to the inevitable clashes between protesters and police. I couldn't stay long at the demo as had a another shoot but managed to find this hot spot just as Piccadilly was being ransacked. This image was taken on Regent Street as people tried to join the main group via connecting Air Street, a line of police separated them, missiles were thrown and arrests were made. I got another photographers lens in the back of the head and a shove from a policeman's shield for my trouble


Saturday 26th March - Sotheby's Auction House, New Bond Street, Mayfair
An hour later and just around the corner from Piccadilly I'm standing in Sotheby's wearing a suit and shooting a load of Russian V.I.P's at a fundraising event for a museum in Moscow.
This job came via a contact at a U.K magazine and the images will be used in some sort of Russian lifestyle magazine (as far as I know).
It was a job 'for my soup' as the French would say and there certainly were some odd characters there, the night ended with one of the attendees (a sort of Russian Tony Soprano) telling me that if I took his picture I would have 'big big problem'.
A varied week indeed...

India images now live

After a monster editing session a gallery of images from my month long trip to India are now live on my main website.
The images can be seen via this direct link showing the various locations I visited and include the towns and cities of Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, Jaipur, Pushkar, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.
Since getting back I have been busy promoting the work to both current and new clients (more to come on that), I've also spent a week shooting in Paris for an editorial client and since getting back from that have been very busy with shoots here in London. Lots more posts to come...

Riding the rails - Indian Railways

By far one of the most memorable aspects of the trip was taking the trains in between destinations (I say memorable in the same sense that people who were there talk about the Woodstock festival - it being both the best of times and worst of times). Most of the journeys I took were overnight with a duration of around twelve hours, the sleeping arrangements were basic but comfortable via fold down beds with either 4 or 6 to a compartment depending on the class travelled.
I'd been warned about security on the trains but encountered no difficulties at any point, but if you think you're going to get a good nights sleep, forget it. Having five other people in your compartment usually meant one of them will snore (loudly) and the frequent stops at other stations throughout the night with people coming and going was not conducive to a nice slumber.
Anyway, people normally started stirring at dawn and a chai wallah would usually appear walking through the carriage offering your morning wake up at a cost of only five rupees. I'd then walk down to the end of the carriage and open up the heavy train door to be met with the rising sun over the countryside and the fresh breeze as we rattled along the tracks. I really can't think of a better way to start the day and once you see this all thoughts of the interesting nights sleep you've just endured will be immediately forgotten.
The following shots were taken with me hanging out of the train door as we were whisked along, one hand on the camera, the other holding the handrail - tightly.

Last leg of the trip - Jaisalmer

Fear not, the lack of posts lately is not due to me having been eaten by a tiger or contracting rabies from a monkey, I returned to London from India two weeks ago and since then have been busy with shoots and also editing the images from the month long trip.
Last leg of the journey before my return to Delhi saw me in Jaisalmer which is a desert town in Western Rajasthan near the border with Pakistan. It was one of the highlights of the trip and whilst there I met a fellow photographer who apart from taking great pictures was also a thoroughly nice bloke. We went out shooting together on a few occasions and although I don't think I've ever done this before it was a great experience, the fact there was two of us I felt led us to get better access than we would have done otherwise.
In the shot above you can see me showing the image on the back of my camera to a couple of kids I've just photographed. This happened A LOT during the trip and it was always charming to see the reactions of people when they saw their image displayed on the back of the camera.
The image below shows the occasion when we wandered into the grounds of a Jain temple that was being renovated and happily snapped away. I must say it was quite refreshing to be able to casually wander into a place and ask 'photo okay?' (which it usually was) rather than encountering suspicious and jumpy officials which unfortunately is all too often the case in the West



As I mentioned, throughout the trip people loved having their photo taken. This was especially true whenever I came across a group of children who would quite frankly go bonkers when they saw my camera with cries of 'photo photo' at the tops of their little voices - the sequence below from Varanasi is a case in point:





Being able to show a person the image you've just taken is great but it would also be good to have the option to give the images to them. On a couple of occasions I was asked to email pictures to people (which of course I will) but this lacks immediacy and more importantly in a place such as India the vast majority of people do not (yet) have access to computers.
My fellow photographer anticipated this drawback and quite brilliantly overcame it with the use of a Polaroid 'PoGo' mini printer. This pocket sized Dye-Sub printer plugs straight into your camera via USB printing wallet sized images, the bonus of it being a Dye-Sub printer is that it produces instantly dry prints as the process uses heat rather than ink.
If people are only too happy to have their photograph taken then it is great to be able to return the favour by offering them a print of their choice there on the spot. The image below shows when we returned to visit a family to give them the prints that had been shot the day before. It was so nice to see their reaction as they were handed their photographs and it was obvious that it was very well appreciated.
The printer is relatively inexpensive and I will definitely be getting one for my next trip, my thinking being that the investment in this item will make your subjects more appreciative and open to you ultimately offering the chance of better pictures.



Please note - the first two images in this post are reproduced with kind permission by Ignace Mouzannar