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
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
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
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
e-mail:
ari.henry@gmail.com
comment to the 'fanculo' guy
18.08.2007 13:31
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
e-mail:
lucakuba@hotmail.com
response
18.08.2007 14:23
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
John Ackers
comment to the comments
18.08.2007 15:33
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
e-mail:
lucakuba@hotmail.com
as a fellow photographer
18.08.2007 16:22
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