Tag Archives: travellers,

Drive 2 Survive Protest, London

Drive 2 Survive rally to protest anti-Traveller law ‘makes history’ The Drive 2 Survive rally kicked off with an explosive start in Parliament Square last week as campaigners warned of a ‘summer of discontent’ against the new racist police bill which will “wipe out” … Continue reading

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Blocked from Facebook for 24 hours

For heaven sake! I have been blocked for 24 hours from posting on Facebook because I had uploaded this image. Now I know the ‘community guidelines’ go on about nudity and sexual activity etc ….. but if anyone sees rudeness … Continue reading

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Convoy forming up and leaving Stonehenge, 1982

GOLLY GOSH !!!!! I have found me taking this very photo at 3.55mins inChris Waite’s Film : Stonehenge Visions Tipi Valley Dreams. Pt 3. 1982, 40 years ago ….. Look, I had hair and everything 🙂 me taking this very … Continue reading

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The 1992 gathering led to a wave of controversial legislation targeting free parties, Roma and New Age travellers.

On the 30th anniversary of seminal UK rave Castlemorton, free party veterans have been drawing comparisons between the infamous Criminal Justice And Public Order Act 1994 (CJA) and new legislation targeting protests. From May 22nd through 29th, 1992, tens of … Continue reading

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Free Party Exhibition and Show. A Retrospective

Free Party Exhibition and Show. A Retrospective Lost Horizons, Bristol I’m there again next Saturday 28th May and on the panel discussion then: 4pm – 5pm – Talks w. Q&A – DiY (Harry H & Jack), Alan ‘Tash’ Lodge, photographer … Continue reading

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How DiY Sound System blazed a trail for the ’90s free party movement

The origins of DiY Sound System date back to a mid-‘80s England that was a very different place to how it is in 2022. In many ways it was an England that was freer than today: you could still squat … Continue reading

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British photography

I get a mention with Peter Gardner in this academic piece on British Photography under “The 1970s and 80s: the political turn” …. nice British photography refers to the tradition of photographic work undertaken by committed photographers and photographic artists in the British Isles. This includes those notable photographers from Europe who have made their home in Britain and contributed so strongly to the nation’s photographic tradition, such as Oscar Rejlander, Bill Brandt, Hugo van Wadenoyen, Ida Kar, Anya Teixeira and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen. The 1800s: invention and popularisation Many technical innovations in photography were undertaken in Britain during the 19th century, notably by William Fox Talbot and Frederick Scott Archer. Early aesthetic breakthroughs were made by Lewis Carroll, Hill & Adamson, Julia Margaret Cameron and the Pre-Raphaelite photographers, and the “father of art photography” Oscar Gustave Rejlander. Travelling photography under adverse conditions was pioneered by war photographer Roger Fenton, and brought to a high level in England by Francis Frith and others. There were a number of local photographic societies scattered throughout Britain, often holding large annual public exhibitions; yet photography was mostly deemed at that time to be a science and a ‘useful craft’, and attempts at making a fine art photography almost always followed the conventions of paintings or theatre tableaux. There were also early earnest attempts at “trick photography”: notably of spiritualist apparitions and ghosts. Studio and travelling photographers had flourished in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, but the developing technology eventually allowed the mass-market commercialisation of cameras. With the introduction of the Box Brownie, casual snapshot photography became an accepted feature of British middle-class life from around 1905. =1845–1945: a century of anthropological documentary= British photography has long had a fascination with recording, ‘in situ’, the lives and traditions of the working class in Britain. This can be traced back to Hill & Adamson‘s 1840s records of the fishermen of Newhaven, John Thomson‘s photography for the famous book “Street Life in London” (1876), the street urchin photography of Dr. Barnardo‘s charity campaigns, Peter Henry Emerson’s 1880s pictures of rural life in the East Anglian fenlands, and Sir Benjamin Stone‘s surreal pictures of English folkloric traditions. This Victorian tradition was forgotten once modernism began to flourish from around 1905, but it appeared again in the “documentary” (a word coined in the 1920s by John Grierson) movement of the early and mid 20th century in activities such as Mass Observation, the photography of Humphrey Spender, and the associated early surrealist movement. Documentary pictures of the working people of Britain were later commercialised and popularised by the mass-circulation “picture magazines” of 1930s and 1940s such as “Picture Post”. The “Post” and similar magazines provided a living for notable photographers such as Bill Brandt and Bert Hardy. Also very notable is George Rodger’s London work for the US magazine “Life.” These large-format picture magazines served covertly as a “education in what a good photograph should look like” for their readers, something that was otherwise totally lacking. The British documentary movement contributed strongly to the poetic nature of some wartime early home front propaganda, such as Humphrey Jennings’ approach to film. 1945–1965: the post-war lull After the end of the war, photography in Britain was at a very low ebb. Due to post-war shortages and rationing it was not until about 1954 that it became easy to buy photographic equipment and consumables. As new cameras began to appear, there was debate over the ability to take ‘good’ pictures using old pre-war cameras. This argument was famously answered by “Picture Post” photographer Bert Hardy, who went to the seaside with a simple old Box Brownie camera and came back with some of the most memorable images of England in the mid 1950s. The pre-war picture magazines such as “Picture Post” declined rapidly in quality, and “Picture Post” eventually closed in 1957. Yet the desire to continue the photographic recording of everyday pleasures was evident in the 1950s Southam Street work of Roger Mayne, and also in the early 1960s in the work of Tony Ray-Jones (his “A Day Off”, 1974). Ray-Jones is known to have scoured London for the then uncollected photographs of Sir Benjamin Stone, one example of the piecemeal but growing awareness of the work of earlier British photographers. Ray-Jones’s extensive legacy in turning the mundane into the surreal can be seen in the 1990s work of contemporary photographers of everyday life and leisure, such as Homer Sykes, Tom Wood, Richard Billingham and Martin Parr. The 1960s: fashion and royalty The tradition of working-class and political photography runs in tandem with photography of the upper classes and British royalty, and the photography of the dandy culture of high fashion. Cecil Beaton was a fashion photographer from 1928 for “Vogue“, and later became the official photographer to the Royal Family. Likewise, Lord Snowdon, and Lord Lichfield continued the association of the British Royal family with photography, an association that had first begun when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert patronised the art photographers of their day, and was continued through the establishment of the Royal Photographic Society and the extensive photographic collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. … Continue reading

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The policing bill’s attack on Gypsies, Roma and Travellers

The policing bill is the biggest threat to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in our lifetime. Jake Bowers speaks with Pablo Navarrete to explain why.

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Fight for the right to party

For a brief moment, at vast and lawless raves such as Castlemorton, a generation glimpsed an alternative way of life. Speaking to survivors of the early 90s free party scene, Tim Guest tells the story of how the state crushed … Continue reading

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Zine : Drawing on Festivals, Travellers and tings

A5 40 pages

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Stake Your Claim : Newly made video on the travellers situation

Stake Your Claim : Newly made video on the travellers situationAlternative living has been a prevalent practice throughout history, but it has not gone without its setbacks, criticisms and misrepresentation. Follow the story of the modern van dweller in today’s … Continue reading

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APPG for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers meeting to discuss the criminalisation of trespass

All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers meeting to discuss the criminalisation of trespass In March 2021, the Government announced proposals to bring in harsh new laws which will affect nomadic people. Within Part 4 of the Policing, Crime, … Continue reading

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No Fixed Abode Travellers Collective Resisting Anti-Trespass

Before they imposed their law upon us, we were free. Now, only trespass is freedom. For a millennia, those in power have systematically wrenched our rights to exist from us through legislation, jurisidiction, and flat out violence. One thousand years … Continue reading

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Criminalising A Way of Life – The Impact of The Bill on Travellers

Over the last few weeks we’ve seen the passing of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in the House of Commons turn the right to protest into a hot topic and rightly so. The Suffragettes, Chartists and Civil Rights … Continue reading

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Gypsies and Travellers Are Under Attack – And So Are Our Collective Freedoms

If GRT culture is stamped out, then everyone else’s liberties will be just one step behind. by Jake Bowers 5 April 2021 A mixed Irish Traveller/Romani encampment on Hastings seafront, April 2021. Photo credit: Jake Bowers Every spring, as daffodils and primroses … Continue reading

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Legal Briefing on Proposals to Criminalise Trespass

Legal Briefing on Proposals to Criminalise TrespassBy The Community Law Partnership Thanks to Marc Willers QC and Tessa Buchanan of Garden Court Chambers and to Abbie Kirkby of Friends, Families and Travellers for their comments on this paper. The Travellers … Continue reading

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A Slideshow 60mins. 400pics Festivals, Travellers, Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Free Party

A Slideshow 60mins. 400pics Festivals, Travellers, Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Free Party, Policemen and …….. >>

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