Tag: UK
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Insure Our Survival
In February 2024 Extinction Rebellion spent three days targeting fossil fuel insurers in the City of London. Shortly after this, major insurers Zurich pulled out of insuring new oil and gas. In late October 2024 XR returned to the City of London for another three themed days. Insurance is the Achilles heel of the global…
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Opportunity Area
I’ve recently bought two second-hand tilt-shift lenses, designed for architectural photography. Mechanically shifting the lens’s optics upwards allows me to photograph tall buildings without distortion. The technique dates back to the nineteenth century, but the current frenzy of high rise building in my local area makes it increasingly useful; allowing me to contrast the human…
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Bonnington Square
Exhibition 1986 Bonnington Square in Vauxhall, south London, was part of an estate of houses built in the 1870s to house railway workers. It became famous in the 1980s when all the houses in it, vacant and awaiting demolition, were squatted. In the late 1970s, the Square was compulsorily purchased by the Greater London Council…
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Ukraine war protests
The Ukraine solidarity protests I’ve attended have had a complex mix of people and agendas. Ukrainian Christians with Uyghur Muslims; Trotskyites, EU supporters and nationalists. Peace campaigners amidst Ukrainians calling for more weapons. Anti-fascists, Russian dissidents, anti-imperialists, Hong Kongers and climate activists, human rights activists and immigration campaigners; trade unionists and British Jews. All made…
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Protection
‘Fucking mask wearers’ swore the elderly gent as he and his wife looked around the farm shop tea room. He meant me, and I’d have taken it more seriously, if moments before he hadn’t sworn at everybody for parking their cars incorrectly. Still, it was an interesting pairing: authoritarian and pseudo-libertarian in one go. Nobody…
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Stranded Assets
Since the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, HSBC has poured over $110bn into fossil fuel firms and projects. Valuations of fossil fuel companies include the oil, gas & coal resources they’ve claimed for future exploitation. To comply with the Paris Agreement, most of these must stay in the ground; Mark Carney (former…
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Stop
From 21st December 2020 to 29th March 2021, London came under Tier 4 ‘Stay at Home’ Covid restrictions. We were only allowed out for work or exercise. Non-essential shops and social spaces closed, although ‘one person [was] permitted to meet with one other person in an outside public space’. Our horizons narrowed, and time felt…
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Compliance
Since Covid cases have exploded again, I’ve returned to the City of London for my exercise. The streets are quiet but there is always at least one fugitive figure in view. As we come into proximity, I find myself trying to categorise them: compliant or libertarian, responsible or feckless, aware or oblivious. Will they cross…
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Time
An excellent double edition of Time Magazine, given over to the climate crisis, features a photo of mine from London Fashion Week 2019. You can read the ‘One Last Chance’ edition here: https://time.com/5864702/extinction-rebellion-climate-activism/
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Perimeter
Black Lives Matter There’s a point on the periphery of every demo where people cease to be part of a crowd and become private individuals again. With numbers, comes solidarity and strength, the normalisation of carrying placards and banners, chanting, cheering, and occupying the middle of the road. The usual rules do not apply. After…
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Through Positive Eyes
Book and Exhibition I have worked on this project with Gideon Mendel and Prof. David Gere since its inception in 2007. Through Positive Eyes features insider photography by people living with HIV and AIDS. Over the past decade, the project has grown, one city per year, to become ambitiously international in scope, now encompassing ten…
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In the Shadow of Brexit
The book A commission from Prof. Nando Sigona, at the University of Birmingham, to photograph families with one or more parents from a non-UK EU country. You can read the introduction to the book in the slideshow below or download the complete pdf book here. The accompanying website and videos can be found here. About…