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Climate Camp from a photographer perspective.

Luca | 18.08.2007 11:31 | Climate Camp 2007 | London

You have a camera! You cannot go there, you cannot photograph here, you need to be accompanied...ecc...

hi, I'm a professional photographer and
I went to the climate camp a couple of times. It was nice to see the good intentions,
the recycling, the sustainability, overall there was a good vibe and energy,
but unfortunately the camp made me feel i was a terrorist or something like that,
just because i had a camera on my neck.
This is just crap,
the demonstrators praise and embrace freedom but they are clearly not free,
as the only people truly free are the ones that have no problems to be photographed,
(Europeans are clearly not free at all).
I understand very well that there are bad photographers that are just like paparazzi, but as there are bad muslims not all the muslims are terrorists.

In the end of the day the demonstrators are just like the people they are fighting against to,
using the same attachement to secrecy and all the crap that it's clearly against freedom of speech.

Unfortunately, there is still a long way to go.

Luca

Luca
e-mail: lucakuba@hotmail.com

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

silly

18.08.2007 11:47

You posting is silly. You failed to understand why the camp is there, it is not for you to just take photos. Maybe we should come to your house and take photos of you?!

Time and time again you get these self-important freelancers who think we are here for them. Bollocks! If the camp agrees a policy via consensus - THIS IS FREEDOM. I think your just being selfish.

fanculo

Who's claiming Freedom

18.08.2007 12:19

Besides the Climate the camp (and Brian Haw's protest) is highlighting the lack of Freedom in this country, clowns can be stopped and searched on the whim of two police officers, &c. The actions outside the camp are photographable, inside the camp many have cameras and as this site shows can take quality images of what we require plus the money from an event staged by the campers needs paying for.
As a side issue how many times has Luca attempted to have photographs published from the regular Critical Mass non-demonstrations? Miles of photo opps with many participants merrily waving.

visiting camper
mail e-mail: ari.henry@gmail.com

comment to the 'fanculo' guy

18.08.2007 13:31

First you fail to understand that without the media the climate camp is COMPLETELY meaningless.
Sorry this is it. You might not want to believe it, but this is the way it is.
Climate camp without the media = worthless.
You need the media to spread the message, to make people think, to change people's perspective and beliefs, to change the public opinion that this camp is not another protest made up by the usual anarchists and unemployed.
So first pay some respect for the freelancers that are getting a positive image out of it.

Second i am going to visit people 's home and portray the way we live in this age, what's wrong about this?
i've been photographed within my domestic perimeters by other fellow photographers and i don't see any problem in doing this,

What's all this fear about being photographed?
Fear don't equal freedom, sorry it doesn't.

Third we should stop treating photographers just like privacy invaders,
we report the current times visually, ....imagine how much photographs we didn't have now that documents our pasts if everybody behave so selfishly about their 'privacy'.

Luca

luca
mail e-mail: lucakuba@hotmail.com

response

18.08.2007 14:23

On a fundamental level of what its like to have a camera lense staring at you I think you should read Roland Bathes' 'Camera Lucida' before you assume that the phenomenon of being happy with beibg photographed is one of freedom. Also read Satre's notes on being watched too, the look. Being put infront of a camera is a phenomenologically imposive act.

But the majority of campers plain and simply dont want their faces published and dont trust members of the corporate media to respect this. Like many others, ive been told by very nice corporate photographers that regardless of my wishes, photographs taken of me would be published because they were very good. Why wouldn't police gather photographs of people from newspapers when they are already trying to capture them with their FIT squads? Freedom entails respect and responsibility, this is not what the corporate media generally champions.

pip

actvists need privacy

18.08.2007 14:48

Luca. Imagine you are in affinity group and you are having a meeting about a surprise visit to, say, Biggin Hill the following morning. Would you really want a photographer that you don't know from who knows where, taking pictures? There has to be a balance between privacy and media accessibility.

John Ackers

comment to the comments

18.08.2007 15:33

I agree about the balance between privacy and media accessibility for this kind of events,
i only think it could have been managed in a different way,
maybe by previously filtering the photographers, getting in touch with them, discuss the various issues,
i don't agree that all photographers can be placed in a unique vacuum, we all have different backgrounds/ purposes/ styles and aims.
Judging an enviromental photographer just like a corporate media photographer doesn't work,
it doesn't work for you and it doesn't work for us,
allow anyone with a camera only 1 hour access (with personal guard), it's not a nice feeling,
everyone get the same shots, (well in matter of subject/situations i mean),

another thing that strucked me was that everyone was so paranoid about the media, but nobody were actually aware of how the media was portraying the protest, well at least the 5 guards that escorted me weren't.
From what i read and see in these days the media is not giving a bad picture of the camp (except for the evening standard) ,... i repeat this is from what i read and see , i cant read all the paper and see all the tv news...

anyway, good luck with tomorrow action,

luca
a
(regarding the other comment, i'm sorry i firmly believe that the only free people are the ones that
are undisturbed when photographed,
if we get attach too much to our privacy we won't have any visual history of our current times).

luca
mail e-mail: lucakuba@hotmail.com

as a fellow photographer

18.08.2007 16:22

i do understand your feelings, luca.

the decision to limit the media time within the camp to 1 or 2 hours per day was publicised a week before the camp opened and perhaps this time could've been used to negotiate access for any freelancers.

as a camper though i really didnt want to be in any more photos (considering that the FIT ones werent really negotiable).

peoples republic of southwark