I'm missing the summer of 2009...

Inner city cricket in London Fields, Hackney, summer of 2009. © Magnus Andersson


Bike on Broadway Market, Hackney, in the sunset, summer of 2009. © Magnus Andersson

Launch of a new category: randoms

No, I didnt Photoshop this. What you see is what you get as a photojournalist. © Magnus Andersson

I know that they have had bad weather and all at the moment, but what where they thinking naming this town in Cumbria? Cockermouth?

Getting rid of the evidence

A WPC (without clearly displaying her ID number) attempts to batter me as Jeff Moore (to her right) of BPPA does nothing to stop her. © Magnus Andersson

The picture above is from the 'I'm a photographer, not a terrorist' event which I attended at The Foundry in August (some background links in this post).

Now it has been revealed that the Metropolitan Police are asking their photographers to delete any images showing officers with their identity numbers hidden/removed.

Basically the Met are asking that any evidence of misconduct by the police are to be destroyed. Does this actually happen in 2009? Was it previously OK for officers to remove their ID numbers, prior to the G20 demonstrations? Was this actually a directive?

How high up in the police hierarchy does this go? Surely someone at the top must get looked into for issuing such orders to destroy evidence, and prior to this, allowing the removal of their ID numbers?

If this was a court case, it would be perverting the course of justice.

If this was business it would be insider trading and then covering your tracks.

If it had been history it would have been David Irving.

The truly frightening thing is that this is all of the above. This is 2009 in the UK, the official police state of the Western world, where the police bends the law to protect their own, where photography is seen as a terrorist sport whilst we are the most photographed population in the world courtesy of CCTV footage.

These are the chilling words from the people that are supposed to look out for us; The Metropolitan Police:

'As of now, any still or moving photography or images of police officers must show them wearing their correct shoulder numbers/markings and name badges if these areas of uniform are included within the shot.'

and:

'As a precaution, if you hold any photography or images that do not meet this instruction they should be culled from your libraries.'

Sometimes things are not what they appear to be

Enter at your own risk... © Magnus Andersson

Friday 13th

A crow flies past the war memorial at Greenwich Cemetery, where - for no apparent reason - no wreaths were laid for this years Remembrance. © Magnus Andersson

Friday 13th...to some its a sign of a really bad omen, for others its good luck. To me? It's a day where I have to say that the camera on the latest iPhone is actually really decent, now that I've had some time getting used to it.

For the pixel peepers, I've left it hi-res, so click on the image to see the full Monty of what the 3Gs can do. Minor curves adjustments done.

Have a good weekend!

Eugene Richards

From his exhibition which I saw in Perpignan, 2009. A returning soldier with half of his head left, hugged by his mother (the reflection of a baby next to her head is coincidental). © Eugene Richards/Getty Reportage

Of all the exhibitions that I saw at this years Visa Pour L'image in Perpignan, Eugene Richards' work on returning injured US soldiers has produced the longest lasting impression on me.

Now you can read a very good interview with him here, courtesy of BJP.

For those of you in London, he's talking at BJP's Vision09 event in London on 27 November. Don't miss it.

Remembrance Day

Portrait of Sgt. Arnould, veteran soldier of 12 years. © Magnus Andersson

This weekend will see the marking of the 90th (I think) Remembrance Day; remembering all those who died in WWI. In today's paper we have done a piece with Sgt.Barry Arnould (above), to get the perspective on how a serving soldier views the Poppy Appeal and what it means to those currently in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

My girlfriend also did her bit for the cause, spending all of last Monday on her hands and knees (steady on) volunteering for the Royal British Legion, hammering the little crosses into the ground outside Westminster Abbey in London. Today her back (and knee) breaking efforts paid off as The Times adorned its front page with a large picture of the volunteers work, filling the page with thousands of little crosses. On Sunday we will go down there to pay our respects.

Also starting this weekend, The Guardian are serialising '100 years of great press photographs', starting tomorrow and running for nine days. Don't miss out.

And its Friday! Hopefully I'll get to check out my friend Bear down at The Wilmington as he plays in Rescue Cat, who are destined for big things. Have a good one!

Neighbours

Flipped car in South London. © Magnus Andersson

This is the sight which greeted the owner of this car one morning. She lives on an estate in south London and she is one of very few people who dares to stand up to the local gang members and drug dealers who use the communal stairwells to hang out in. She claims to know exactly who did this but without witnesses the police is powerless. Credit to her for having the guts to stand up to them though.

I live on an estate myself and there used to be a bunch of kids always smoking joints in the communal stairwell one floor below us. They always went quiet when I walked past them and I never said anything to them. One day, on the landing they always sat on, it had some furniture left on it from someone decorating their flat.

It was set alight on a Saturday morning but I didn't notice as I was asleep. I merely woke up at around 11am and found myself coughing up black bits of soot from my lungs. I opened the front door and the whole stairwell was pitch black with soot, the door, windows, walls, everything. Lots of people could have died because no one was challenging these kids.

Luckily, since this arson incident, those kids have not returned, but to this day I don't know if they actually lived in the building or not. Now I say hi to the kids around here and they say hi back. Not a big effort really, but to stand up like the aforementioned woman takes big guts.

Tree on the loose!

A warning sign in Potters Field, Southbank, London. © Magnus Andersson

Apparently the offending tree was trying to branch out but eventually it got chopped down...yes, this is an actual story I had to cover. Slow news week I guess.