I introduce you to a variety of events. I am interested in festivals, music, community and multi-cultural events. In this set I show something of the Asian Mela, Chinese New Year, Sikh Vaisakhi, St Patricks’ Day, St. Georges’ Day, Mexican Day of the Dead and a Malaysian Festival in Nottingham. All in colourful national dress. Light-night in Nottingham shows a variety of lighting installations, music, theatre and stages.

Assorted aspects of Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham. A while ago, I completed the BA(hons) course in Photography at NTU. [and some other courses besides]. In later life, I returned to NTU to do an MA in photography. So much technically had changed. Attitudes, explanations and representation had all progressed and I though I’d have an update to ‘keep my pencil sharp’. Here showing some of the course work and degree shows, I have exhibited at ‘large scale’ in the Bonington Atrium and Gallery there. I have also exhibited in the vitrines there giving an opportunity to show original transparencies. To the modern student eyes, they are almost considered to be an ‘historical process’ and caused much discussion and amazement at the depth of saturated colours that could be achieved.  I use this material in slide projections at events and can present at large scale in public space

There are a number of campuses across the city and more widely in the county of Nottinghamshire, offering splendid facilities and a wide variety of architecture and space.

Trade Unions held well attended rallies in support of wage claims, better working conditions and pension rights. Pictured here are a couple of the anti-austerity events in London, called by the Trade Union Congress TUC. Protests, demonstrations and pickets.  Further, disputes against the cutting of staff and council public services, the fire service, teachers, university lecturers, junior doctors, NHS privatisation etc. etc …….

As a member of the National Union of Journalist, I have represented Nottingham Branch at the ‘Delegate Meeting’ of the union’ written reports and photographed the speakers. In addition to trade union activities, I have always thought of the NUJ as my ‘professional organisation’ representing good practice, ethics and standards.

Briefing by Sir David Attenborough, English broadcaster and natural historian, on the Maintenance of international peace and security: Climate and Security, during the Security Council Open VTC.

Armed Forces Day aims to show the public, various aspects of military life.

Invited to cover the Army Presentation Team on their visit to Nottingham University

The 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment arrived back home following a six-month operational tour of Afghanistan. They paraded through Nottingham and received the Freedom of the City. A cause for some celebration and relief, but also some sadness on behalf of those who were killed or injured.

Every year, I attend the Remembrance Day Parades. On a lighter note, I have photographed various re-enactments including The Sealed Knot Civil War Society, The Napoleonic Association, Medieval, Norman and Saxons. Oh …. and some Vikings once!

A selection from the Derbyshire Peak District, Mid and North Wales, Snowdonia.

Following the Enclosure Acts of the 18th and 19th centuries, many of the highest and wildest areas of moorland and mountains – previously common land open to all – ramblers without a permit were often forcibly evicted. Engaging in a spot of direct action up on Kinder Scout in 1932, 400 walkers from Sheffield and Manchester met a line of some 30 keepers and scuffles resulted. Six were arrested and charged with public order offences. At trial, Benny Rothman said: “We ramblers, after a hard week’s work in smoky towns and cities, go out rambling for relaxation, a breath of fresh air, a little sunshine. But we find when we go out that the finest rambling country is closed to us, just because certain individuals wish to shoot for about ten days a year.”
A century-old campaign for the cherished “freedom to roam” across mountain and moorland was reached with the long awaited passing of the Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act in December 2000. Important to me, since I can now walk in the landscape by right, rather than permission. More than twenty years since the act was past, but can still only access 8% of England.

The free festivals were being attacked by the Tory government with the introduction of the Public Order Act 1986. Section 39 states that ‘if two or more persons have entered land as trespassers and are present there with the common purpose of residing there’ it becomes and offence. So, if section 39 says that we may not ‘reside there’. What if we don’t reside there, but stay up all night and ‘make a racket’ ?? 🙂
…. thus, the beginnings of the free party scene that began to emerge around the country resulting in an injection of new blood and economy to the festival scene. ‘Rave’ parties are similar to free festivals in that they are unlicensed events in locations kept secret until the last possible moment. Such events offered similar opportunities for adventure and began attracting huge numbers of people from the cities. This scene grew dramatically with the Castlemorton Common event attracting 25-30,000 over 6 days. The free festival scene began to merge with the rave and free party scene producing a hybrid with new dynamism.
[This set from late 80’s to early 90’s, shot on transparency film, all before digitals].

With greater acceptance by society, gay pride events have been gaining in popularity. Shown here, events from Manchester, London, Leicester, Derby and Nottingham. Greater Manchester Police and the Gay Police Association asked for this group picture before they joined the parade. It is also encouraging to see chief police officers joining with other groups from public service, such as the military etc.

Many commercial outfits have arrived and taking places at these events. Some of the more cynical perhaps feel that they are simply trying to cash in on the ‘pink pound’ and not give a screw about the civil rights held up here. At Manchester Pride, some youths held up signs “too poor to be gay” and pride not profit”. They were hustled to the side by security who then started harassing me. Citing commercial sensitivity!! ’twas ever thus!

Nottingham City Council ceremonies with counsellors and assorted officials. Events covered here include the unveiling of the Brian Clough Statue and the dedication of Speakers Corner. Opening of the Goose Fair. A plaque and memorial stone to honour George Africanus was dedicated by religious leaders including the Bishop of Kingston (Jamaica). A notable resident, he was a West African former slave who became a successful entrepreneur in Nottingham. Also, commemorated, the Annual Act of Remembrance.

Frequent appearances of the Sheriff of Nottingham and Robin Hood. [they don’t seem as antagonistic with each other now as was once the case].

As a photo-journalist, I have covered a wide variety of emergency situations. I have some training in risk assessment at incidents. Major fires, road accidents, building site collapses and public order all present unique challenges. The fire service are also seen here, in water rescue and the use of the air ambulance. After incidents involving crime, a team of forensic evidence gatherers are frequently to be present at scene. Having previously worked as a paramedic with the London Ambulance Service, I have photographed accident scenes, not just as news coverage for submissions to the media, but also as ‘how to’s’. Pictures have been used by services in their training for personnel in accident procedures.

As a member of the National Union of Journalists and a representative of the Nottingham Branch, I have successfully negotiated a set of guidelines on police / press relations. These have been nationally adopted under the auspices of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

http://www.epuk.org/opinion/photographing-protest

Photographing Protest

24 February 2015 – David Hoffman

Protest photography is much more than extreme street photography. Coverage of protest forms our social memory, it creates a permanent record for history, spreading the ideas behind the protest and fertilising social change.

An informed citizenry is the heart of a dynamic democracy. And nothing informs with more immediacy and power than images. Through an ever growing range of media, protest photography brings an awareness of current issues to the 99% who never take part.

Look at how the Occupy movement has changed the political agenda and brought inequality, tax dodging and the fat untouchable friends of the political class into public debate and into mainstream politics. Images have been central to the coverage and public discussion. Without photographers and videographers covering those events the few thousand organised protesters would have had no effect.

Our “democracy” gives us almost no grip on the nation’s politics. We get to vote for one of a couple of very similar parties every five years. If we live in the wrong place or vote for a party other than Labour or Tory our vote is unlikely to have any effect at all. What does have influence is the media portrayal of politically relevant events. New media – Facebook, Twitter etc use a massive number of images. They have become a large part of most people’s lives. Even traditional media, while still putting their own political spin on the words, have a great thirst for images. And images are harder to spin than words.

Protest photography is much more than extreme street photography. Coverage of protest forms our social memory, it creates a permanent record for history, spreading the ideas behind the protest and fertilising social change.

There’s something very Zen about protest photography. Caught on the fly, seen and recorded in a fraction of a second, protest photographs are truths. Not an explanation of the truth. Not a commentary or an analysis.

They are about as unmediated as a record can be. This is why Photoshopping things into or out of photographs is seen as such a serious breach of trust and of ethics by photojournalists.

Without the photos and video the student protests of 2010 would have passed without comment. Those images brought the betrayal of the LibDem promises to the forefront, undermining and discrediting the coalition. The likely electoral crushing of the LibDems in the forthcoming election stems directly from the visual coverage of those protests. Perhaps seeing the political power wielded by those protests is why the police made such efforts to discredit them by attacking them with such force and cunning.

Public protest is so potent a force that the state puts massive resources into subverting and undermining it. Undercover cops act as agents provocateurs as well as spies. TSG (the Territorial Support Group – the hard cops) provoke protesters so that FIT (Forward Intelligence Teams – the small groups with cameras) can film and photograph them to add to the police databases. Police tactics are often designed to smear the causes rather than to keep the peace.

Remember that “abandoned” police van left in the middle of Whitehall on one of the 2010 student protests?

The police said that this was because the van had broken down and the police had had to abandon it in fear for their safety. But they were just 30 metres from several thousand other police officers, there were few protesters nearby and all was peaceful at the time. How come these scared policemen left all their protective equipment in the van when they left it? If they were genuinely fearful they would surely have stayed safely locked in until help arrived. They’d hardly have left their shields, helmets and stab-proofs behind and walked through the protest which is what they did. And it was a suspiciously old and rusty van. All the others were quite new and shiny.

I believe the van was placed there for two purposes. To provide film and stills of vandalising by protesters for the media to make the demonstrators look like angry thugs. And to tempt activists into disorderly and illegal acts that the FIT teams (there were two teams with long lenses and video cameras carefully placed in advance watching that van from a distance) could use for later arrests and adding people to their database.

Cast your mind back to the Poll Tax riots of 1990. Again, the police tactics appear designed to provide pictures that could be used to show Poll Tax protesters as no more than greedy looters.

Hackney – police drove angry protesters north into the shopping area of the Narrow Way, they could have been sent south where there were no shops to attack.

Islington – police drove angry protesters south into the shopping area of Upper Street, they could have been sent north or west where there were no shops to attack.

Brixton (twice) – police drove angry protesters south into the shopping area of the High Street, they could have been sent north, east or west where there were no shops to attack.

Trafalgar Square – police drove angry protesters north into the shopping areas of Soho and Leicester Sq, they could have been sent down towards the river or into the park where there were no shops to attack.

Sometimes it’s only later that the meaning of the events captured becomes apparent. Patterns appear. Reasons lying behind police action become visible.

The Custard 7 staged a peaceful anti-Olympics protest in Trafalgar Square. They were arrested on the basis that the custard they used in their piece of street theatre was a “noxious substance”. The reality was that they were arrested, not for what they did but in order to impose restrictive bail conditions banning them from all Olympic venues as well as Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park for the duration of the Olympics. Then once the games were over the charges were quietly dropped.

We’re seeing the same tactic now with the current Occupy protests in Parliament Square with wardens telling people to leave for no apparent reason. This gives the police grounds for arrest when they don’t leave. The real purpose being to disrupt the demonstration and avoid images of the protests appearing in the media. If you find that hard to believe ask why, at each one of these demos, the police were instructed to prevent photographers and film crews from getting anywhere near the (again peaceful) protest.

A few minutes before Millbank Tower – Tory Party offices – was attacked in a 2010 protest I saw three van loads of police guarding it being pulled out, leaving it defended by just a handful of ordinary uniformed officers.

The police had decided that Millbank was a target, hence the vans. Why did they pull out? Why did they take so long to respond when the building was predictably attacked as soon as they left? Could it be because there had just been a Home Office decision to cut police budgets and an example of how much the politicians depended on police protection was thought desirable?

We are now seeing a far more insidious and organised police/state attack on protest photography with photojournalists being added to the national domestic extremist register.

Then that database is used to show their faces and identify them at police briefings. Those photographers and videographers then find themselves excluded from events. They are targeted and sometimes physically attacked by police. A colleague of mine had his arm broken at the G20 protests in 2009 and here’s a clip of me losing five teeth at the hands of a very large TSG Inspector that same day.

It’s not all gloom and doom though. Our police remain far less oppressive than those in most other countries and they are not immune to the pressures that we can exert. A group of six of us, all NUJ members, are taking legal action in the High Court against the Met in an attempt to force them to open up the secret databases documenting journalists and defining us as domestic extremists.

The Met chief, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is no friend of protest. He’s now preventing a climate change protest by forcing the organisers to pay for private security firms to police their marches. Just this week we’ve seen a peaceful group of housing campaigners dispersed under threat of arrest using powers designed for serious violence.

A number of professional organisations – EPUK, the NUJ and BPPA among them – are intervening. We have had meetings with top level officers. We have had successes such as the introduction of Media Guidelines which set out the relationship between police and journalists. We have made progress on the display of officer identification numbers. We have had some useful input into police riot training. Meetings taking place at the moment seem likely to give photographers a significant input into police training.

There is much that has been achieved and while there is plenty more to be done I’m confident that protest photography is strong and healthy and will have a central role in shaping our future for a long time to come.

David Hoffman’s Tradecraft

• Dress quietly, don’t wear badges or slogans.
• Maintain a polite and co-operative demeanour – especially when badly treated. The police will try to provoke in order to arrest.
• Remain clearly separate from participants and from police.
• Look after your kit. The most important item is your body. Take a helmet, good boots, shinnies, water, cereal bars and barley sugar. Wear cotton. Synthetics will melt and stick to your skin if burned.
• Good boots! Something that will protect you from broken glass or sharp pieces of metal and will keep their grip on slippery surfaces. I like Magnums.
• Know the area or at least have a copy of a local map. Try always to have at least two ways to get out.
• Study police tactics, see how they move crowds, form kettles. Get to know the rank badges.
• When things get rough, your colleagues are your protection. Stay in sight of them. Watch out for each other.
• Carry a small, amateur looking camera. If it really kicks off put your pro gear away – or better get it out of the area – and work with something unobtrusive. No flash!
• Learn basic first aid, carry a small kit.
• Join a professional organisation such as the NUJ.

The text of Photographing Protest comes from a talk of the same name David Hoffman gave at the Photographers’ Gallery on 19 February 2015 in conjunction with the exhibition Human Rights Human Wrongs. 

Text © 2015 David Hoffman

Zoe from out Green festival at 5.51min

Laws Progress & Confliction

I wanted to add some remarks with a bearing on the previous post here …..

I wrote some notes on the advance of the law back in June. From March, the country had been in ‘lockdown’ and some were holding events with little concern for public health. Events were also held in ‘nature reserves’ there was some violence and then leaving a humongous mess.
The covid-19 restrictions have been eased somewhat since then, but gatherings of more than 30 outside are still prohibited under new regulations. I have been concerned at increasingly obnoxious tightening of law and restrictions on gathering since the 1980’s, dealing with protest, gatherings, festivals, travellers etc …. High Court Injunctions, the Public Order Act 1986, Entertainments (Increased Penalties) Act 1990 and the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. All this before the next shed-load that I’ve been writing about and predicting that is still to come. All of those laws were brought about by government concerned at our ability to organise and enjoy events put on by ‘our tribes’ and wishing to live life free of their oppressive rule.
But, I do now find myself conflicted. I have done my best to advise and stand up against all of the above because the law was designed to favour those vested interests in governmental control, attempts to squash dissent and the centuries old practice of restricting access to ‘our land’. Now however, the current restrictions are trying to deal with public health. Surely, this is proper and we should have greater regard for the health and wellbeing of all of us. It is inconvenient I know, with people chomping at the bit to ‘get on down’ with each other and socialise in our tribes again. The health concern will be used by authorities as a convenient excuse to excerpt the control they have always been trying to do, but the issue is a real concern to society at large and I think we should have a care for others who may be affected. Hence my confliction.

The Home Office’s Stay Home ad is soundtracked by heavy drum ‘n’ bass

The UK government has made a video telling people not to rave, oddly using a rowdy drum ‘n’ bass track to accompany it.

The Home Office released the info video today (February 18). You’ll recognise the style of video – and music choice – from the anti-piracy adverts used before films back in the day.

In it, the loud and brash d’n’b plays over a montage of police body cam footage of officers attending parties and illegal gatherings under the UK’s COVID-19 restrictions. If anything, the tune in question just makes you want to go out raving even more.

Phrases that flash up on screen include ‘You shouldn’t go to parties’, ‘You shouldn’t make your own pub’ (referencing one party that put up a ‘COVID ARMS’ sign), ‘You shouldn’t go to raves’, ‘You shouldn’t hold baby showers’, ‘You shouldn’t be meeting up’ and ‘Meeting up is against the law’.

All gatherings are currently against the law.

Stay Home. Protect The NHS. Save Lives. pic.twitter.com/Bg7wyN7chF— Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) February 17, 2021

It’s very doubtful the Home Office didn’t know what it was doing by using a d’n’b tune and digging into nostalgia with the anti-piracy ad. Their plan clearly worked as the vid’s caused a storm on social media with people wondering WTF is going on.

People are mainly kicking off that the caption says ‘All gatherings are against the law’, with human rights barrister Adam Wagner saying the “tweet and video grossly misstate the law.”

Despite the UK being in lockdown, illegal raves have been happening all over the country. They’ve even continued to happen with £10,000 fines being dished out to organisers that are caught and £800 fines being issued to those found at gatherings of more than 15 people.

A new report from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Night Time Economy has called on the government to take urgent action to save the nightlife industry in the UK. The group – made up of over 40 MPs – claims nightlife could face “extinction” if the industry is not supported by the government properly. Dave Turner. MixMag

Here, the prime minister leaves Parliament after PM Questions. Some protest. MP’s and local government counsellors make speeches. During election campaigns, I photographed various candidates at the hustings. David Blunket MP, Home Secretary visited Nottingham after the infamous murder of 14 year old Danielle Beccan. Attended the G8 when the UK had the Presidency of Justice and Home Affairs ministerial meetings in Sheffield. Rev. Jesse Jackson visited Nottingham, supporting ‘Operation Black Vote’. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has assorted church meeting and met with local politicians.
A previous Labour leadership campaign, Jeremy Corbyn created a ‘media frenzy’. Other people and events can be seen in the ‘news coverage’ gallery.

I started taking pictures, at the end of the 70’s. I wanted to communicate something of what it was like to be a young rootless “Traveller”. Because I was one. Many looked at the various examples provided by gypsies here and in Europe; to nomadic people across the world. To try life outside the house in many different ways and to pick and select those means that make life comfortable, easy and meaningful. The ‘bender’, the Indian ‘tipi’, the Moroccan ‘yurt’, the Romany ‘bow top’, the western two-man tent, the truck and the double decker bus. Life on the road in an old £300 1960’s bus, truck or trailer seemed like a bloody good option weighed against the prospect of life on the dole in some dirty city where the only values being espoused by the Tory Government were those of me, me , me and more me – what was a poor boy to do. Five of you – £60 each , forget about the Tax and Insurance, let’s just chuck a few mattresses in the back of the Bella Vega and head for the nearest festival where we will be welcomed. Anarchists, venusians, pikies, pixies, conspiracy fugitives, old school, new school, never been to fucking school – wheeler, dealers – tryers, flyers, out and out liars – saints, sinners – all of them strangers in their own very strange land.
[This set from early 1980’s shot on transparency film, all before digitals].

Arts, crafts, installations, graffiti, performance ….. and many things able and mysterious.
Here a selection from commissions, university degree shows and galleries. Productions by local artists, sculpture and examples of public and performance arts.

Earlier work covering the free festivals and those from a traveller background. Living in old busses, trucks and caravans, driving around the country on ‘the circuit’ with family and friends. Since the late 1970’s have been photographing events and the people around I found interesting. Dealing with aspects of ‘alternative’ lifestyles and sub-cultures. From photographing many free and commercial events the project grew to encompass ‘free party’ events (‘rave culture’), environment protest, land rights with surrounding social concerns. Always aiming to present a more positive view of people and communities that are so frequently misrepresented.

This set presented in submission for an MA degree in Photography at Nottingham Trent University where I specialised in issues surrounding representation.