Turning Pro

Turning Pro from magnusphotog on Vimeo.

OK, the self imposed blog holiday is now over. It was good while it lasted but it is now time to start posting again. As a treat I give you the finished audio slide show on promising young boxer Darryll Williams, which I mentioned here earlier. He's fighting again next week, May 3rd at The Troxy in east London, if you fancy checking him out in the ring for yourself.

2011 Sideways Summary

A brand new year is just around the corner so I'll try and summarise 2011 with some of my favourites shots/shoots along with some pictures that never ended up going on the blog. I'll be the first one to admit that blogging has become a bit of a burden this year. The black hole of never ending good stuff that is Twitter overtook the sharing of online content. The planning of my wedding took up an enormous amount of time too, but lets be honest, laziness is at the heart of the problem. Enough with the excuses, here we go.

The moment my now wife said 'yes' to me on top of a castle overlooking the sea, with friends and family from all over the world gathered in one spot, was definitely the highlight of the year (and my life!), and these two pictures are from our resulting mini-honeymoon to Dorset, where amongst other things, we took in the delight that is Durdle Door.

One the funniest and most rewarding of my own projects that I worked on was the phenomenon of same-sex dancing. This picture is from an event at The Rivoli in Brockley, where couples from all over the world come to compete in ballroom dancing. An audio slide show will hopefully be complete in time for next years competition.

Sitting beneath West Norwood Cemetery is one of the country's few large-scale catacombs. Known as the Millionaire's Cemetery, it was one of the most fashionable places in the city to be buried during Victorian times, when death was commemorated in the most indulgent way a family could afford, and catacomb burial was seen as the pinnacle of high status. Chipped and moulding coffins are on plain display. There are approximately 1,500 coffins down here, with capacity for about 2,000.

The first thing to greet you when you enter the catacombs is the old hydraulic catafalque (above), aka coffin lift. At the end of a funeral, as something of a dramatic conclusion, this would have been used to lower the coffin straight into the catacombs from the old chapel above (which was destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War). Waiting below would have been a team of pall bearers, who would have then unloaded the coffin and taken it to its allocated space. An awesome place, which really gave me the creeps.

Since 2010, I've had the pleasure of working with Kick It Out. This shot is from one of their many coaching sessions for black and Asian managers, where England U19 manager Noel Blake (R) and Chelsea FC's Michael Emenalo (L) took part. The work they do is much needed, with only two black managers involved in top-level football in this country, and as racism charges against John Terry and Luis Suarez have proved, there is still a lot to do to stamp out racism from the game.

More sports, this time a nice portrait. I was sent down to Ladywell Fields in Lewisham to get a site shot as they had just had a new surface laid down on the athletics track. A chap which I vaguely recognised was about to start training and I got chatting to him. Turns out it was Conrad Williams, a Team GB athlete training for next years London Olympics, and he was more than happy to pose for a few shots.

A final sports pic, this one from Wimbledon, where sadly I only had time to go for one afternoon. This is ultimate champion Novak Djokovic twisting his arm unbelievably as he serves. I love how this looks and have a whole series of these.

A couple of shots from the flash mob outside City Hall in May, where security guards have made it into a sport to stop photographers from getting their cameras out. Getting creative with the message are Leah Borromeo (top) and NUJ's Jess Hurd. More on all things related at PHNAT.

The Royal wedding was fun! The nation went into hyper drive and got a day off for their troubles. Little girls dressed as princesses and neighbours threw street parties in a seldom seen show of friendliness. For me, it was a extremely busy day, but luckily I didn't have to go into Buckingham Palace, where photographers have been speaking of the job from hell. I was well fed and watered all day. This shot is from East Greenwich Pleasaunce.

More royalty, here's Camilla getting a stiff upper lip from an equestrian friend as she visited Ebony Horse Club in the middle of Brixton.

The biggest story in London was probably the August riots. I came back from work just as Hackney was erupting. I went down to have a look and within 10 minutes I'd seen three people being robbed of their cameras. There was no police in sight, people were committing robbery right left and centre, and as I wasn't covering it for the paper, I decided it wasn't worth the risk. Numerous photographers got beat up and robbed, and I'm kind of glad that I stayed away. The above pic's are of the aftermath in Woolwich and Lewisham, but, the riots also brought some good things. How about these (below) riot inspired custom finger nails from an art exhibition in Peckham?

Finally, here's a round up of links to some of the numerous 'Pictures of the Year' out there:

Tom Jenkins of The Guardian, AFP's Leon Neal, Time, The Guardian, BBC, Greenpeace, The New York Times, The Telegraph, MSNBC, The Big Picture parts I, II and III, Reuters UK and global, Flickr, The Daily Beast, British Red Cross, to name but a few, and of course the pictures of the year in LEGO.

Happy New Year to all of you!

Stiff upper lip

The Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker-Bowles, paid a visit to the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton a few days ago and as always with a Royal visit, you never take your eye off the target and pray that magic will happen. I cant say that this visit presented vintage opportunities, but at least it gave the subs a chance to roll out old clichés like 'Saddle do nicely', 'Stiff upper lip', 'Why the long face?', 'Feeling a bit hoarse' etc.

In all fairness, Camilla was great, but I suppose a girl like her will always feel at home around horsey people, even though it is in deepest Brixton. The Ebony initiative itself is amazing though, and the kids that come here clearly benefit from the place. The fact that horse riding can be found in the midst of this urban jungle is no mean feat, so stand up and be proud, Ebony Horse Club, and keep on saying yay in the (long) face of the neigh sayers...

Perpignan

 Marcus, Mattias and fellow visitor.
 
Now that the cuts and bruises that I got at Visa Pour L'Image are starting to go away, I thought I'd briefly take you through the trip to Perpignan in Aug/Sep. I stayed with my friend Mattias Johansson and his mate Marcus Funke in a swanky new hotel, much closer to the town centre than in previous years, meaning that we managed to walk a lot less and drink a lot more than usual. Bad tings.

Perpignan street.

Anyway, the streets of Perpignan are beautiful and in previous years my go-to-camera has always been the LX3 but it now sits in the most-boring-camera-ever category and therefore most of these are iPhone pictures using mainly Hipstamatic (Nick Turpin is excused from looking at this post*).

Mmm, wine.

This being my third year, I was determined to actually see ALL the exhibitions on show, something we hadn't managed previously. You'd think in a small town like Perpignan it isn't a big problem, but when you factor in 1) we're on holiday, 2) its south of France and full of restaurants and cafes and 3) phojofatigue** and 4) all the free drinks, etc, it becomes a problem. In theory you can probably see all the exhibitions in one day, but for the above stated reasons, we paced ourselves and tried to make the most of it.

Dedicated photojournalists as we are, we always start the week with a champagne breakfast and this year was no different. I flew straight from London to Perpignan while the rest of the 100 or so Scandinavian PJ's flew to Barcelona and then caught a bus to Perpignan, leaving me to do the shopping for my room mates, below.

The traditional champagne breakfast.

When it comes to the exhibitions, the one that really stuck with me was Martina Bacigalupo's 'My Name Is Filda Adoch'. An essay about one woman's daily experiences of life in the Ugandan civil war. Heartbreaking yet tender, not to mention humbling, but what set this work apart from everything else on show was the handwritten captions on the frames, direct quotes from Filda herself, with short succinct sentences about her daily struggle, making an immediate impact and giving a strong voice to the person depicted, something that felt distinctly lacking in almost every other exhibition; the voice of the subject/s.

My Name Is Filda Adoch exhibition.

My second favourite was LA Times Barbara Davidson and her work of Los Angeles residents who have been caught in the crossfire of gang warfare. Again, low key and intimate photography with lots of voices from the people affected by stray bullets.

It comes as no surprise that the two best exhibitions are by female photographers with stories away from breaking news, instead focusing on long-term projects, Davidson spending over four years on hers, initially in her own time, then having to nag her editors to let her continue.

Caught In The Crossfire exhibition.

We of course wanted more of the same and, against better reasoning, got up early one morning to see Brian Storm and hear more about the multimedia converts in our business. It wasn't until about 50 minutes of watching slide show after slide show that we realised that we had misread the schedule, today was only a showcase of MediaStorm's work, yesterday was the actual talk. Brian was only in the room to cue up the projects, one after the other. Photojournalism 0 - 1 Alcohol. :(

Some of the drinkers.

Also worth a mention was Joceylyn Bain Hogg and his work about the London underworld families who are now slowly fading away, a continuation of his work The Firm from 2001.

Again, we never made it to Campo Santo, the place where they do amazing outdoor screenings, but the screen in the main square; Place de la Republique, where you have the added benefit of eating and drinking at the same time, is just as good. Its even better if you can view it from a rooftop overlooking the square, with some champagne and nibbles. Thank you Christina!

The view from Christina's  rooftop.

My friend Maciej Dakowicz also had his 'Cardiff After Dark' series shown at the big screen (the day before we arrived) and when we bumped into each other outside Cafe de la Poste where he told me that it had gone down really well. Last week The Daily Mail decided to run a series of the pictures with bad crops (their own, not Maciej's crops), misleading caption information and of course the word 'foreign' in the headline, cue a shit storm. To date there are over 2200 comments from 'outraged' readers, and Maciej apparently saw a spike of more than 500.000 hits in one day on his flickr pages. His work is great, just sad to see the Daily Fail use it for its own scaremongering purposes. Luckily The New York Times and The Guardian took a more measured approach.

A lone musician on a corner on the last evening.

All in all a great week but slightly exhausting, luckily we made it to the beach on the last day for some much needed frolicking in the sea. A special thank you to the Scandinavian organisers Christina (SFF), Per (Canon Sweden) and Jamil (Canon Denmark) for pulling out all the stops, especially on the last dinner at L'Arago! :)

The beach.

* to be fair, Nick was talking about not sending Hipstamatic shots to his in-public mag, his tweet here
** the feeling of deja vu after each new image, and/or succumbing to depression of seeing too much photojournalism in one day.

Rolan Adams & Stephen Lawrence

20th anniversary march for Rolan Adams in February, 2011.

"It's been a long time in coming but we still have a long way to go, and so at this moment in time, all I can think about is Stephen. Perhaps somewhere down the line we will finally get justice for him, because everything has just been a long time for us to get to this position." Doreen Lawrence, May 18, 2011

These pic's come from the Thamesmead Housing Estate, south east London (where parts of one my all time favourite movies A Clockwork Orange was filmed). I first visited in 1997 when a friend lived there and I will always remember it as a bleak and desolate place. It was bad back then and it is bad now, one of the poorest parts of London.

On a grey February day, along with fellow photographer David Hoffman, I attended the 20th anniversary memorial to the little-publicised racist murder of Rolan Adams, 15, which happened only a stone's throw away from these pictures.

I had arrived a bit early for the job and had time to wander around the estate again for the first time in nearly 14 years since my first (and only) visit.

People at the memorial told me about their stories from 20 years ago, how the racist BNP had moved in and how scared they were. Nobody of colour could visit the pub - if you did it was a gamble with your own life, and Rolan's peers all had a story to tell on how, once, perhaps to watch a football match, or simply try to have a drink with a friend, they bravely ventured to the pub only to be chased away by white youths wielding knives, bats and chains.

In Rolan's case it was to be fatal, just like Stephen Lawrence, 18, two miles away and two years later.

On the day before Rolan's murder, anti-racist organiser Dev Barrah, still active in the community, said on Thames TV that it was 'only a matter of time before someone got murdered'. His ominous prediction proved true within 24 hours. Rolan was outnumbered by 15 white youths and slashed in the throat, as he and his brother walked home from a youth club.

If you have the stomach, read this 1991 Guardian article by Jocelyn Targett via London Street Gangs. Its colourful language at first, but nevertheless a good read.

Rolan's murderer, Mark Thornburrow, has recently been freed but Stephen's killers never served time in the first place. There has been trials before, but the amount of injustice in his case is unbelievable. When an institutionally racist police force handles a racially motivated murder, this is what happens.

Today though, there were at last some good news: two men are to be tried for Stephen's murder which happened 18 years ago. Justice for dead young black men in this country turns slowly.

Rolan would have been 35, Stephen would have been 36. Rest in peace.

If you arm yourself only with a camera...

Tim Hetherington. Image courtesy of Frontline Club.

...you are most likely going to lose out in a war zone. Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros paid the ultimate price yesterday when they were hit by a targeted RPG/grenade/mortar attack in Libya.

I did not know either of them yet I have cried over their passing. The more I look at the interviews and images from these two men, the more I realise that this loss goes beyond merely two more dead in a far away war. I feel inadequate calling myself a photojournalist when I look at their work.

I've watched Tim's 1.5h appearance at the Frontline Club in full and if you were ever in doubt that photojournalists are mere button pressing monkeys, please take some time out and watch this clip from 2009. Few people are as well informed and eloquent as him. This is an extremely sad day for their families, a sad day for (some) of the people they documented and a big loss for photojournalism.

I've got nothing but respect for what you did with your lives. Rest in peace Tim and Chris.

Power to the people

Earlier today we went on the TUC organised March for the Alternative in central London. My fiancé (who works for Camden council) and me tried to find the NUJ section but finding anyone in this crowd was difficult. I ran into three SLP colleagues but quickly lost them again. No wonder when there have been reports of up to 500.000 people attending the event. Good show!



We went along to show our support for the people who have already lost their jobs because of this Con-Dem government, and for those that are fighting to keep theirs, and for the future generations of children who can no longer afford university, for the people who might not get proper health care and to show our outrage at the bankers getting bonuses while the rest of us paid with our tax money to fix their problems, etc etc etc. Hey David Cameron, if you ever wanted to see a big society, look now.



As I write this, the 24-hour news channels are busy repeating the incidents caused by a few idiots who took the opportunity to cause havoc in London under the guise of The March for the Alternative, rather than focusing on the enormous amount of people who marched happily and peacefully, unified against this unholy coalition government.



With that in mind, I'd rather share some 'ordinary' images from the march as it was perceived by the majority. Power to the people!














All images © Magnus Andersson

PS. For a little extra flavour you can check out my earlier live feed from today here.

A little woopsy

Michael Palin giving a speech in a retirement home. © Magnus Andersson

I messed up before Christmas. I was scheduled to photograph Monty Python funny man and explorer-extraordinaire Michael Palin at an retirement home, but I was running late. It was a cold day and I was wearing the customary scarf of a photojournalist-in-denial: the Keffiyeh (aka Palestinian scarf, aka كوفية‎ and many more names, basically a head scarf traditionally seen in Arab countries.

In the West however, we misunderstand it and wear it around our neck. There's currently a huge lack of sand storms in the UK, which renders this head dress more suitable as a scarf. So you get the point. OK.

I arrived within minutes to spare of Palin's speech and parked quickly, paid the meter and ran across the road towards the entrance. The security guard was chatting to a mate in a car in the drive. When he saw me sprinting across the road he suddenly sprang into action to intercept me. I thought that this was a little odd for a retirement home and slowed down so he could reach me at the door.

I declared my intentions (local paper photog here for Michael Palin) and he seemed positively relieved! I was let in to the reception, where I was greeted by a smiling black lady who simply asked me to sign the register before introducing me to their PR person.

(At this stage I am still wearing my big camera backpack, winter jacket and, crucially, my keffiyeh scarf)

I am led down corridors perfumed with Glade to cover up the smell of old people (this is in no part a slight on old people's hygiene, it is simply a fact that these places tend to smell of wee+Glade).

Eventually I am led into a really warm room where 60-odd oldies are gathered waiting for Palin. I am told NOT to obscure the elderlies vision (long lens job) and only to take a few pictures during the opening MINUTE of his 40 minute speech, using NO flash in a near dark room. OK, I say (thank you D700).

"Would you mind putting your bag in hold during the event"? I am asked. Yes I would mind. I need this bag to do my job. "Harrumph" I can keep my bag but am asked to remove my jacket, fair enough.

It is only now, when I am firmly wedged in-between the chairs of a couple of really old frail ladies, with my long lens protruding, that I realise that the job description did mention something of a Jewish retirement home.

After my little woopsy, I was eventually allowed to shot the remainder of the session on both short and long lenses, but my keffiyeh magically disappeared into one of my lens cases.

Lesson learnt from all this? Try and read the job description carefully, and dress accordingly. ;)

Kick Them Out!

Front page: A training session for Kick It Out, run by Paul Elliott MBE (far left), a legendary ex-footballer whose career was cut short by injury. © Magnus Andersson

In the age of dinosaurs sports commentators spouting sexist comments, yes Andy Gray and Richard Keys, look away now, it's always nice to get to work for the good guys on the other side of the fence, those that realise that if you want to make a difference, you have to be that difference.

Bearing in mind the sports presenter events of last week, it is with some pleasure to announce that a picture (above) which I took just over a year ago while working with Kick It Out was chosen for the front page of their latest Annual Report. The report itself was launched at the House of Lords in Westminster last month, an event which I also covered.

As a staffer on a local newspaper you end up getting a lot of front pages so the excitement tends to wear off a little, but when its through one of your own freelance contacts and you are proud to play a (albeit small) part in the important work that is being done, it feels good!

Lord Herman Ouseley chatting to my buddy Francis Nkwain and Benoit Assou-Ekotto of Tottenham Hotspur FC at the House of Lords. © Magnus Andersson

And while Kick It Out's primary concern over the last 17 years has been against racism, they have always worked against all forms of discrimination in football. Lord Herman Ouseley, Chair of Kick It Out, said: "This indicates a lack of understanding by individuals at the forefront of sports broadcasting who are revered and respected by many, and hints at wider issues about sexism in society."

Getting the Kick It Out's Annual Review 2009-10 cover was a nice ending to last years output. The ousting of a couple of old 'experts' in the new year was a bonus. Onwards 2011, kick all the bigots out! :)

Full Kick It Out Annual Report 2009-10 here.