Photographers. It may be a particular weakness in our psychology but we do like to categorize. You have your landscape, your portrait, your commercial, your corporate, your sports, your macro, your PR, your panoramic, your stock, your wedding, your aerial, your fashion, your nature, your still life and your wild life photographers. I like to consider myself - if I can presume to make such a consideration at all - above all else, a street photographer.
From my very first interest in photography I became intrigued, excited by and then besotted with street photographers and their art. From Cartier-Bresson to Erwitt, Klein to Meyerowitz I was fascinated by the enigmatic frames caught by their Leica rangefinders. As is my character, I read what I could, biographies, reviews and monographs, all to learn as much as possible about their craft.
It didn't take me long before I'd lost my initial inhibitions and made my way out onto the streets of Glasgow with my camera to put skills to the test. After only a few short months shooting on the streets I had my first brush with over-zealous authority and in recent weeks, in our increasingly paranoid society, I've been thinking back to this time.
I'm sure, by now, most photographers who read this blog will be aware of the Metropolitan Police's "Thousands of people take photos every day..." anti-terrorism campaign. For those who aren't familiar with it, you can see the poster here.
Though at this time specific to London, the poster has caused a marked unrest increasing to outright anger and concern from the photographic community in the United Kingdom. Though, I'm sure worst case scenario, the obvious worry on photographers' minds is that innocently shooting in the street could lead to, well, a mistaken shooting in the street. We only need to think back to the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005 to see that mistakes can happen when hysteria or paranoia take over.
The most worrying aspect of the campaign is its lack of detailed advice to the public. There is a vague suggestion of what may be considered odd, but this can surely be misconstrued - quite wildly - by a public terrified at the thought of another terrorist attack. The average Joe Bloggs in the street is sure to find it difficult to decide what constitutes odd behaviour when a photographer is in the street. How do you accurately distinguish between a hobbyist and a terrorist? Skin colour? Dress? The waters are already muddy before delving deep within.
Terrorists and terrorism exist solely to disrupt the way of life it disapproves of. In the worst days of World War II, the government distributed posters bearing the legend "Keep Calm and Carry On", a sentiment that seems to have been forgotten in recent years. A country with more CCTV coverage than anywhere else in Europe and an allegedly over-reactive Police "service" pulling photographers aside for stop-and-searches; those in charge need to snap awake and realise that Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning not as a template. The day we experience the Ministry of Love, I'm getting out of here.
