18th September, 2010 – Anti-Pope Protests, London
Joseph Ratzinger aka Pope Benedict XVI visited the UK, and with it came inevitable protests featuring a lot of blown-up condoms. The biggest demonstration was in London, organised by “Protest the Pope” – http://www.protest-the-pope.org.uk/
I was actually quite surprised at just how much anti-Pope feelings there were. It was clear that some demonstrators were incredibly passionate about this, with many people around me having their own personal stories and reasons.
A whole range of activists turned up – Women’s rights,abortion, gay rights, child abuse were just some of the issues people were demonstrating about.
I have a lot of images of placards which are worth full-viewing in my opinion. This must be the only protest I have been to where there has been so much variety in terms of banners and placards. Most of them were ‘home-made’ and these are always interesting to read. In fact, I took a whole bunch more but haven’t posted them all.
Condom umbrella. Now there’s a first:
Notice the guy on the left above – Pastafarian.
Some supporters of the Pope – slightly outnumbered in this instance:
This wouldn’t personally be my first-choice hoodie to wear but hey, each to their own:
Richard Dawkins was one of the guest speakers at the rally, which started at Hyde Park and ended at Downing Street.
He was soon surrounded by a crowd of people all keen to speak to him. I’d imagine he would be a very interesting person to have a conversation with.
Notice the guy on the left with the flourescent jacket:
I did indeed Google Hollie Greig – I’m not sure how it’s relevant to the Pope (yes, it’s about child abuse but I don’t think this relates to the Church in any way?) but in any case it’s shocking..
Horribly out of focus:
Turnout was much larger than expected with an estimated 12,000 people marching to Downing Street. Of course, this number is dwarfed by the hundreds of thousands of people who came out to see the Pope, but these demonstrators have definitely made their thoughts heard. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any images of the Pope himself, although I would have quite liked to.
Religion is a funny thing. That is the only opinion on religion I’m going to include in this post before I end up typing an essay, and well, this meant to be a *photo*blog of sorts. Well OK – one more thing – I know a number of people here who would consider themselves to be religious church-going Catholics who didn’t line the streets to see the Pope because they could not be bothered with the crowds. Hm.. I really have to say I find that incredible. If you have that much faith surely you *would* make the effort to see the man who represents your faith, which could be the only chance in your lifetime? Oh, and one more thing – you don’t need religion in order to be a good, moral person – something I think a lot of people tend to forget. That is all.
——-
On a completely different note, leaving the protest, I came across this:
He was being filmed pogo-ing as part of an advert for KangaROOS.
Very cool and random.
So the World Cup is upon us (in case you hadn’t noticed) which means flags on cars, people bunking off work, and unrealistic hopes and expectations that England might actually win this year (not that I’m being negative – of course I want us to win!).
Came across this fan:
He was reliving his memories of ’66 when England won the World Cup, and explaining the significance of his T-Shirt, which has a print of the front of a magazine from the 70s.
He, like many others, was in Trafalgar Square to watch England’s first match against the USA. However, there was a slight problem. The big screen that was up the day before, had gone.
Whilst the Mayor of London – Boris Johnson (who I did not vote for I’d like to point out) had a ceremony in Trafalgar Square the day before, to celebrate the opening of the games with a large screen, this was taken down the following day. Why? Well, apparently it was only up for South Africa’s first game against Mexico, yet for England’s matches, Boris didn’t give a toss, to put it mildly, and thought it’d attract too many people.
So, Boris flew to South Africa to experience the World Cup first hand, leaving Londoners without a single outdoor screen in central London. Whilst other cities in the country and around the world have public screenings, London has nothing – not in any of the large parks, not in Trafalgar Square – nada. Thanks Boris – what a wonderful Mayor you are. “3rd world” cities have more provisions for their citizens than we do. Let’s hope he fixes up for the Olympic Games, although hopefully by then he won’t be Mayor.
I’m not bitter, honest.
England vs Slovenia in the office:
I’m sure many offices around the country looked like that at 3pm on Wednesday, when England had to win to go through to the second round.
Across the road in Broadgate Circle:
(Broadgate Circle is in the City of London – not in central London, and the only open-air public screen in London which is not maintained by the council. I’m sure Boris would have had this taken down if he had the power to!)
The crowd was mainly full of office workers in suits since the area is in the heart of corporate London.
The only vuvuzela in sight!
We did it! Germany up next..
Shoreditch is an ever evolving hub of street art.
This is by PEN1:
I eventually finished the roll of Ilford Pan 400 that I bought in India but shot in the UK.
A protest opposite Downing Street:
They asked me to take their picture:
The protest was about 17 Sikh men sentenced to death in the UAE. Pamphlets were being handed out they didn’t explain why they were on death row.
Parliament Square:
I went to Blackpool for work. The view from the hotel:
The famous Blackpool tower:
Earlier that evening Blackpool Football Club had paraded through the town in celebration of being promoted to the English Premiership.
Some fans saw my camera and one of the girls got excited and wanted a picture, so I asked her friend if she also wanted to be in it. A guy with them then got aggressive and said to me ‘What the fuck do you want a picture for? You could be a pervert for all we know!”. I said ‘Yeah, I could be – do I look like a pervert? Anyway, no worries.” I then walked off not wanting to provoke him since he was drunk.
I could hear one of the girls telling him not to be so mean and that she wanted a picture. I had a feeling he would call me back, and he did. He said he wanted to be in the picture too. I joked and said ‘are you suuure?’ and he insisted he really wanted a picture:
At that point I couldn’t care less about the image but just thought it was funny how he switched so dramatically.
This girl wanted a picture too:
The perfect city for me would always be by the sea.
Back in London, I shot Matisyahu at The Borderline:
The venue was pretty small, and shooting was quite awkward since there was no designated photo pit. The music was brilliant – it was an acoustic set and included beatboxing, which I didn’t know Matisyahu did until then!
From feel-good reggae in a cosy bar to heavy metal at the Forum:
The Haunted and Slayer.
I love the guitar:
His guitar rocks too
Some other random images from gigs I shot months ago.
John Butler Trio at HMV Apollo:
Florence & The Machine at Brixton Academy:
I might do a concert-related blog soon. How I wish I as at Glastonbury this weekend.. next year I have to go!
A couple of pictures from Royal Ascot, taken with my compact digital:
As always, thanks for looking 
