Recently in Photography Category

The Boston Globe's "The Big Picture" is a fantastic that I visit everytime it's updated. They've got some stunning photos of Obama taken over the last few weeks. The shots in the rain are awesome.

F11 to maximise and then J and K to navigate.

(A few photographers really need to clean their lenses/sensors though!)

The Today Programme website has a great audio slideshow from photographer Rankin who's been out to a camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo with Oxfam to photograph some of the people who live there.

There are some fabulous photos which have been taken in a very different way to how you'd normally see such images. The photos are also on display outside the National Theatre on the South Bank. So I shall have to stop by and see them.

There's a fabulous new exhibition of the work of celebrated war photographer Robert Capa currently on display at The Barbican.

It features, in detail, several key events that Capa covered from the Spanish Civil War through D-Day to the end of the war. Alongside Capa's work, we also have that of his partner, Gerda Taro, who shot alongside Capa much of the time.

It's wonderful to see some of the most famous photos of the twentieth century placed in context. So the famous shot of a man being shot and killed in Spain, is surrounded by the shots Capa took before and after it. For some reason, a few people came to question its veracity, but putting it alongside every other photograph that Capa and Taro took that day, makes it clear that it was a horrible accident that Capa caught the moment of the Republican soldier's death.

Incidentally, like many others, I thought that the photo showed the man's brains or skull being blown off, but that's actually a tassle on his cap that we see (I say "we" - but of course the photo's not mine to reproduce here. You can see a smaller representation at the Barbican's website in the top right hand corner, or here at the International Center of Photography).

The other standout images are those that Capa took on D-Day where he accompanied the US troops on Omaha beach. An accident when the rolls of film were being rush developed in London following Capa's return means that we have very few of the photographs Capa took left, and what we do have are not as good as they might be. But they still bring home the horror of war, and they obviously informed Steven Spielberg when he made Saving Private Ryan.

Third time lucky - today I finally made it into the Hadrian exhibition. When I'd previously popped in to try to see it, I'd gone on Saturday afternoons when all the tickets for the day had already been sold.

I tried to book online for today, but no luck, so I pitched up early to buy tickets in person. I still had to wait an hour and a half before I could get in, but that's not a problem when you're in one of the world's great museums.

What I hadn't quite realised was that Statuephilia was also on at the museum. This is a collection of five "sculptures" by contemporary artists, placed amongst the museum's other exhibits.

They're quite fascinating - and I decided to take photos of them. Well easier said than done. With four of the five, you can take as many snaps as you like - indeed with a few exceptions, you're free to photograph away inside the museum. The Hadrian exhibition didn't allow it, and although I suspect that the reason was partly to ensure that they sold plenty of £25 catalogues, it was very full and taking photos tends to get in the way of the exhibits for other people.

Taking photos of the exhibits in Statuephilia was also fine for most of the exhibits as I say, but there was one for which photography was expressly forbidden. That, of course, was Damian Hurst's piece. Now as it happens, I did take a photo of his piece. It's not very good, and it was before I read the sign banning it.

I've noticed that it's quite common for Hirst to ban taking photos of his pieces. I was in the Metropolitan Museum in New York last year where he has one of his sharks on display. Once again, the museum was happy for you take photos, but his piece banned it.

Perhaps my feelings on the subject aren't too different from those of some others. The skulls on display at The British Museum really aren't anything to write home about and certainly aren't as clever and involving as Tim Noble and Sue Webster's Dark Stuff which was given plentiful approval from those who I saw it with. The relative merits of the vaguely obscene gold statue of Kate Moss are also in the balance, but it's undoubtedly the most popular piece from the unscientific survey I made today. People were taking photos from every angle. The Hirst piece simply had a woman with her daughter sitting on the floor sketching it, which I assume doesn't break the rules.

Now here's a subject that could leave me in all sorts of trouble, because some may have some very strong feelings about it, but it's prompted by something I heard today.

I was in London, sitting in the sun reading the paper. Nearby a father was playing with his son. He was using DSLR and taking photos of his child.

A charming scene.

Then behind me, another man, sat on his own, also with a DSLR took a few photos. The father realised this and came over.

"Did you just take a photo of him?" he asked.

"Yes," replied the other man.

"Would you delete it please... That's fine."

And then he went off with his son.

Now I suppose that there are one or two fundamental issues I have with this.

On the one hand, if you're a parent, you're probably going to be concerned if someone else - a stranger - is taking photos of your children. You've heard all the stories about paedophiles everywhere. You don't want your child being the subject of some pervert with a camera.

But in fact, if you're out in public, anybody can take anybody else's picture. Just about every street corner has a CCTV camera collecting video of you, and your kids, never mind stills.

Would I take photos specifically of someone else's children in a public place? Absolutely not - at least not without asking some kind of permission if the circumstances were what they were today.

Yet I have taken photos of kids in public before. Here's a favourite I took at the seaside:

Kids were mucking around trying to avoid the waves as they came crashing in against the promenade. It's a fun photo.

Should I have asked permission before I took it? Well there were no parents immediately around as I recall, but the image captured something interesting.

Now faces aren't visible in this picture, but then I was at the Mayor of London's Festival a few weeks ago, which features a carnival procession. I took lots of photos (I've yet to process them) and there were hundreds of kids taking part amid the adults. I've got photos of lots of different things. Just about everyone else in the crowd was also taking pictures.

In that instance, you'd be a fool if you didn't think your child was going to photographed. Indeed I saw photographers posing children to get better images as the various groups processed past my point on the side of the road.

Is this wrong? Is it any better or worse than taking a photo of a child playing?

If you think about famous photos taken all over the world, you might think of images of children playing in bombed out London streets during the Blitz, or kids put to work in third world countries. Did those photographers ask permission of parents? Or have they in fact captured some important historical records?

While, as I say, I can understand the concern of the parent, I worry that it's a state of things to come - I'm guilty before I'm innocent.

When I'm out with my young niece and nephew at the playground, I love to take photos of them, but if there are lots of kids around, I put the camera away. That's from fear of being wrongly perceived. And it's worrying that I think that way. This fear will only get worse.

Interestingly, I also visited the Photographers' Gallery today, where they have an exhibition by Dryden Goodwin that features images of Londoners, including a series of people on the top deck of nightbuses. He didn't ask permission; perhaps an image of you is on the wall of a gallery somewhere? There aren't any kids anywhere, but pictures of people shot from public spaces on public transport or in the street can be exhibited freely.

One final thought. Had that gentleman behind me been a paedophile, even if he had deleted the photo he took, undeleting it later would be exceptionally easy. But let's face it, he almost certainly wasn't and just thought that a photo of a child playing on a sunny autumn day might be quite nice.

A nice piece of street art spotted in Soho. It links to www.neoexternalism.co.uk.

A good piece on the BBC News website regarding the "guilty until proven innocent" attitude that seems to be taken more and more with regard to taking photos in public. (Via Boing Boing)

Austin Mitchell MP is also leading the charge against this nonsense.

And obviously, those CCTV cameras are always on you!

Here's a cracking little film made for Current.TV about the rights of people to take photos or video in public places.

(Link via 2point8)

Amateur Photographer magazine has recently been carrying a series of stories about photographers stopped on the streets because they were considered "suspicious." They even went as far as republishing the cover they produced at the outbreak of WWII (at a time, remember, when the UK was under serious threat of invasion) highlighting the fact that you were still allowed to take photos.

Then there's the recently launched Met Police campaign asking people to look out for suspicious photographers.

If you've got a camera, you might be a terrorist in the eyes of the Metropolitan Police.

Remember, if you're in a public place, you're allowed to take pictures of whoever or whatever you want. That's why a private business or individual can perfectly legally put up a CCTV camera pointing into the street. They've not asked your permission. You don't have to ask theirs.

I visited the China Power Station: Part I exhibition at Battersea Power Station today, which is worth going to, if only for the opportunity to have a look around the famous London landmark before it's converted into a spectacular new venue.

I wasn't the only person going around packing a camera; everywhere I went, another photographer was setting up a tripod to take some photos. And as you can see in the couple of pictures I've posted here, the weather was fantastic with clue blue skies.

I cycled there, and this must be the most cycle-friendly exhibition I've ever been to. Inside you can leave your bike anywhere you like. That's because they've laid on hundreds of mountain bikes inside which you can just pick up and cycle around on and then leave wherever you like. Great.

Inside you can see the hollowed out station itself including turbine rooms. Then there are the pieces of Chinese art. Much of these are video installations which are moderately interesting, although I did like the screen that just showed passers-by in China gathering outside some kind of shop window becoming more and more interested in what's going on. Strangely alluring.

See the full set of my photos here (Obviously I took many many more but I've selected a few key ones).

Afterwards it was another cycle back towards Trafalgar Square to see what was going on at the I Count climate control protest.

I stayed there for a short time before heading up Charing Cross Road where I ran into a march that was going to converge on Trafalgar Square. It was all very well behaved and everyone involved seemed to be having fun.

I'll not be going in there, then, originally uploaded by James Cridland.

Since I actually took this photo I thought I'd comment. I still find it amazing that the police acknowledge the existence of what it obviously some kind of clip-joint. They even put a man and a sign outside it, yet they can't close it down.

My favourite picture of this trip so far. Yes - a certain amount of processing has been applied, but it's more to do with the power of RAW and using two versions of the photo blended into one.

I spent a lot of time burning the clouds then undoing what I'd started.

I think the only thing I'd change is the framing of the actual boat which was a little off.

She's there to publicise a Keep Britain Tidy initiative to get people to stop dropping food on our streets.

I made this image from my window today in the baking sun using a great little tutorial from Photojojo. I'm sure I can do better with more time and many many more photos!