So the sun finally came out in London. This is the view of London Fields from my desk (which always makes me sing this in my head); acres of pallid, vitamin D starved hipster skin. The funny thing is, it’s only about 19 Celsius, and I just got off the phone to my Gran in Australia and she was complaining how cold it has gotten recently, “It’s only 20 degrees and I have to wear two jumpers!”.
Twelve fearless young supporters of Action Aid’s ‘Bollocks to Poverty’ campaign raised £4700 by strapping themselves to big blokes and leaping from a plane from 10 000 feet up. This is my favourite photo of the day, with everyone outside watching the skydivers from the first plane descend and Action Aid supporter Emily Vizor (far right) looking rather ill at the prospect.
Of course the first thing Emily says after landing is “I want to do that AGAIN!”
Write up and more photos over on Action Aid’s website here.
The launch of the Hackney Living Library, a permanent organic seed swap. Growers can donate, propagate and exchange organically grown seeds, protecting and celebrating the diversity of food grown in Hackney.
Find out more or get involved over at their Facebook page.
Part of the UK Uncut series of actions on 26 of March 2011, the day of the TUC demonstration through London where an estimated half a million people took to the streets to protest the government budget cuts.
Art Uncut creatively target corporations accused of avoiding their tax responsibilities, in a time of swingeing cuts to public services.
Spent Saturday afternoon taking pictures for environmental regeneration charity Groundworks, of the Cossall Estate Christmas party. The small children having a blast, playing with the toys Santa gave them and racing round a dancefloor to hip-hop Christmas music.. it actually gave me a tingle of Christmas feeling in my normally stone cold heart.
So I took some photos for Doctors of the World last year, was just looking at their website and discovered that they had used them for a video.
The picture at the start is not mine, some of the pictures in the video are by photographers Andy Aitchison and Simon Reed, mine are mainly the parents with children and the pregnant woman with the doctor. We had to keep the identity of the adult service users private.
On Saturday, up and down the UK protesters blockaded, super-glued and sang out against the hypocrisy of wealthy individuals and corporations avoiding their tax responsibilities. Like Sir Philip Green, the 9th wealthiest man in the UK, owner of Arcadia group (TopShop, BHS, Dorothy Perkins to name a few), who doesn’t pay a penny into the UK tax purse, preferring to funnel it all off to his wife and family in the tax haven of Monaco. The coalition government is so fine with this that they have appointed him as an adviser on austerity and efficiency in the civil service. Here are a few snaps from the demo at Topshop on Oxford Circus, which I took for UK Uncut.
A while back I photographed a sweet little action for Art Not Oil, one of a series of performances by the art/activist group Liberate Tate. These dramatic, oily interventions were all about highlighting the shady ethics of oil-sponsorship of the arts.
In January 2011 at a central London location, Platform will be exhibiting artifacts, images and video from the Liberate Tate collective. To raise the funds for this they have produced a lovely collection of postcards featuring photographs from the actions, including two from the British Museum action.
What lovely stocking filler they would make for your arty, activist inclined mates. You can go here to watch a short film about the project and make a donation, earning you packages of postcards and an enormous sense of well-being. And quickly please, there are only 20 days left to raise £1300.
Last Monday (I know, blogs should aim to be all about the brand spanking new.. ) I was up in Nottingham to photograph the amazing climate activists on trial for defending our planet, and their awesome supporters, for the start of their Crown Court trial for conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass and criminal damage. These people inspire me.
You can follow them via the Ratcliffe on Trial blog or over on their facebook page (where you can ‘like’ them too, all support hugely appreciated). There are updates every day and they are both Informative; NASA scientist James Hanson giving detailed explanation of the seriousness of human induced climate change, Inspiring; Sarah Shoraka eloquently expressing how there is a democratic deficit in dealing with climate change and Entertaining; Felicity Gerry for the prosecution suggesting that their money and time would be more effectively used by hiring Cheryl Cole to flog second hand clothes. Cheryl Cole. Stopping climate change. OK.
It’s better than CSI Miami.
