Blog

It’s true what they say – Crufts 2012

Three full days shooting pictures for Getty Images at Crufts, the “Worlds largest dog show” is as it turns out, hard work. Not that I am adverse to a bit of hard graft when required, but when you don’t know your Lhaso Apso’s from your Hungarian Vizsla’s then you have your work cut out.

The NEC in Birmingham is absolutely vast, so wandering around the thousands of trade stands, show rings and kennels can easily take an entire day. Consequently I thought finding pictures amongst the mayhem for the three whole days I would be covering the event, (and keeping it interesting) was going to be a bit of challenge to say the least. As it turned out however, quite the opposite was true.

I had a plan which I was determined to stick to. First spend an hour or so photographing owners arriving with their pampered pooches outside, file some early pics from the press office, have a brew (cup of tea), then move inside and get stuck in.

Sadly all my plans were scuppered when I caught sight of a Bedlington Terrier in a studded leather jacket making it’s way to hall 5. That was it, I was off.

By the time my retinas had adjusted to the twenty five stop difference between the blazing sunshine outside and the dimly tungsten lit arena inside the terrier had vanished forever.

From past experiences I knew that when the sun shone outside, the job would becomes lot easier inside. With jobs like this it’s always good to do a bit of research beforehand, or try and remember what may have worked or failed in previous attempts, and aim to better it. I knew therefore that when the sun was out, the light would cast fantastic shadows down onto the floors below, so was keen to get picture number one in the bag. The thing is, I am a sucker for a silhouette, and knowing the British weather only too well, knew I had to move fast.

As predicted the clouds soon rolled in and the yellowish glow took hold, but I got my shot. Now time for that brew.

 

Featured on the Guardian’s 24 Hours in Pictures

 

Shuffling around the venue I saw all manor of pampered pooches. There were Terriers with quirky bouffants, Pomeranian’s with pony tails, Bichon Frisse in buns, Staffies in tutus, Hounds in headscarfs, and many others all wrapped up in ribbons, tassles and bows having their full makeovers. There were big dogs, thin dogs, little dogs and large dogs, and all things in between. Minus the ego’s, it reminded me of the last time I was backstage at London Fashion week.

So for three out of the four days I continued to cover the show. I tried to mix it up with a selection of the pre-show preparation, preliminary judging, the people/owners, the shows, the dogs of course and general atmosphere that make the event what it is.

In doing so I discovered that it’s true what they say. Dog’s and there owners really do look alike.

It all ended late on the Sunday night when Elizabeth the Lhaso Apso won the coveted title of Best in show.

Trying to file the pictures for the papers deadlines was not helped by the ill tempered hired help that did there very best to kick us out of the venue the second it was over, but we persevered, and I fortunately managed to get a few pics in the papers the next day much to my relief.

Below are a small selection of images I shot while on assignment at Crufts, and hopefully give a bit of a flavor of what it was all about.

The Guardian ran a slideshow featuring a selection of pictures from the four days, including a few of mine.

If you are dog mad then as a spectator, this is definitely  the place for you. If you are simply mad, then again this may be the place to come.

Just remember to bring your dog.


Mar 20, 2012 | Categories: animals, News, photography, Posts, Publications, Recent Work | 1 Comment »

Getting my bearings in Benin.

At the beginning of January I set out to Benin in West Africa to shoot a feature on the spiritual birthplace of Voodoo, one of the countries fastest growing official religions. The trip was a bit of a punt, but with the backing of my picture desk at Getty Images we thought we would give it a go, and hopefully I would come back with a colourful set of interesting pictures that would make a nice standalone feature.

Sitting in the gulf of Guinea, the nation of Benin is tiny by African standards. Hemmed in by the might of Nigeria on its Eastern flank and Togo on its West, this former French colony with a population of around 8.5 million people is one of Africa’s most stable countries with a functioning democratic government and a relatively strong economy owing largely to the huge port in Cotonou.

Like many African Nations Benin shares a complicated history of political upheavals, military coup’s and remembers a dark colonial past. Ouidah on the countries South West coast was the departure point for slaves heading into the ‘New World’ during the 18th and 19th centuries. Ouidah is also the birthplace and spiritual heartland of Voodoo.

My entry point was the coastal city of Cotonou, the de-facto capital and commercial heart, with Porto Novo further to the North being the actual capital. The first thing that hit me was the traffic. It was complete chaos with motorcycles zigzagging through the streets like swarms of bees crisscrossing each other in death defying moves. Consequently the pollution in the city combined with the heat was quite overwhelming at first. Geographically Benin was a fairly uninteresting city of flat never-ending streets crossing streets crossing other streets. A myriad of ‘stuff’ lined the roads, from dried fish, fruit and vegetables, intricate fabrics, shoes, handbags, chickens, goats, spices pots and pans.

When arriving anywhere new, I always like to spend a day or two familiarising myself with the lay of the land before hurtling myself into anything too heavy. So, with a feather in my cap I headed out and decided to head to Ganvie. Often called the Venice of Africa, Ganvie is a stilted fishing village on Lake Nokoue, a huge lagoon North of the city. It is the largest such village in Africa, and home to approximately 20,000 residents. Despite the guidebooks touting it as a bit of a disappointing tourist draw, Ganvie was fascinating, which goes to show that you should always take what the guidebooks say with a pinch of salt. Ironically I didn’t see any tourists at all which was a pleasant surprise.

I have included a slide show with a selection of the pictures from Ganvie below. By no means comprehensive, they capture a slice of life from one afternoon whizzing round in a boat. For a real sense of how big this place was I would have needed a helicopter but I don’t think the budget would have stretched on this occasion sadly. Maybe next time.

Moving on from Ganvie and Cotonou I headed to Ouidah, Benin’s Voodoo heartland which was an eye opener to say the least. I am still putting that together as a separate blog so watch this space for the next installment…..

Jan 27, 2012 | Categories: News, photography, Posts, Recent Work, Travel | 4 Comments »

The Year of the Horse

As the year draws to a close, it’s always good to have a look back at how you have fared. What you got, what you missed and what you perhaps could have done better. A cathartic process.  It has been a massive year for major global news stories but working for an agency like Getty it’s not all about the earthquakes, tsunamis and civil upheaval. It is also about offering something else, a slice of life, a quiet moment, a peak behind the obvious. This year for me has been a relative success, with several great trips abroad including Tunisia, Cannes and a Royal Wedding In Monaco. Of course we have had a few big jobs including the Royal Wedding and the recent riots. Two jobs where the world’s gaze fell sharply on the UK, something that doesn’t happen very often and an opportunity to try and step up to the mark. Whether I achieved that I don’t know, but I had fun trying either way. The best job of the year though has to be a feature I was assigned at Newmarket Equine Hospital. A story that published really well, and one I featured in more detail in a earlier post.

I read a ‘top tip’ from the director of photography at Getty, Hugh Pinney, last week that read along the lines of,  “Have a long term plan in mind and use every opportunity as a stepping stone towards it”. (hope I got that right)  It’s true, and made me realise that it’s not all about rushing towards the headlines. We all want to cover the big stories but sometimes have to ask ourselves whether we are ready. I’m getting there, but it’s a marathon, not a sprint. So with that in mind I will be looking forward to 2012, which again is setting itself out to be a biggy what with the Olympics. It should be a great year.

Here is a selection of some of  my pictures from 2011, which I will be adding to over the next few days.

Dec 22, 2011 | Categories: News, photography, Posts, Publications, Recent Work, Royalty and Entertainment, Wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The Leveson Inquiry. A Response.

The following is by fellow photographer Christopher Pledger and is an open letter in response to the ongoing Leveson inquiry. If you care about the photographic industry please take the time to read this as it affects all of us.

 

Christopher Pledger: Press Photography and the Leveson Inquiry

 

These are my personal views and are not intended to be representative of any organisation I work for as a freelance photographer.

 

The testimony of witnesses this week at the Leveson inquiry has included damning condemnation of the behaviour of the paparazzi. Both the celebrity and ‘ordinary’ victims of phone hacking have told of being chased, spat at and terrified by photographers. These experiences could have fatal consequences for the news photographer, a vital part of a truly free press

There are important distinctions to be made between a paparazzo and a press photographer. A comparison of the two is like that between the cowboy builder and a professional tradesman. It is also important to distinguish between the paparazzi and celebrity photographers. Celebrity photographers work with the permission, and often to the benefit of, their subjects. This can range from red carpet premieres to organised and set up photo shoots of a celebrity out shopping or on the beach. I do not class them in my definition of paparazzi. Lacking moral or ethical guidance the paparazzi work with little respect for the law. The composition, quality, or origin of a photograph is a distant second to its commercial value. Paparazzi agencies will often employ people with little or no knowledge of photography. The agency will provide cameras with settings taped over so they cannot be changed. It is not a photographer that is sent out of the office, simply a man with a camera.

Press photographers by contrast are skilled professionals with years of training and experience. They work within the strict guidelines of both the Press Complaints Commission and their newspaper or news agency. These guidelines include respecting both peoples right to privacy and the boundaries of private property. A good news photograph will be technically excellent and able to tell the story in a single frame. In contrast to the paparazzi financial rewards are low.

This is not to imply that all press photographers are angelic super-humans working to expose the truth to an unwitting public. Like any industry there are a minority of ‘rogue traders’ who are prepared to bend or break the rules to get a picture.

The problem for legitimate press photographers is they are seen as no different from the paparazzi. Regardless of the assignment they are covering all press photographers now experience regular abuse from strangers in the street. When photographing something as mundane as a the outside of a high street bank it is not uncommon to hear shouts of ‘pap scum’ or ‘leave them alone’ from passers by. If a group of press photographers are gathered outside a court or government building the first question asked by curious passers-by is not ‘what’s happening?’ but ‘which famous person is coming?’.

The problem of public perception stems from two different sources, celebrity magazine culture and television news. The dominant celebrity culture makes it hard to avoid a constant stream of images cataloguing the daily lives of the A to Z list. It is no surprise that the general public perceive the primary role of photographers as being to feed this machine. The problem is complicated by disreputable publications being prepared to buy pictures on a ‘no questions asked’ basis. This makes it hard to distinguish between photographers working in a professional way and those who aren’t.

Television news coverage is the other major factor in the problem of perception. During most stories a clip of press photographers is included as a ‘cut away’ shot to add visual interest. If the clip includes the subject of a story being surrounded by the media reporters will often refer to a scrum of photographers. This ignores the numerous TV cameras both in the scrum and filming from a distance. This has been demonstrated during TV reports on the Leveson inquiry. Press photographers have been working from an official area behind a barrier to give witnesses arriving space. TV reports have consistently referred to ‘hordes of photographers’ while ignoring the seven video cameras surrounding witnesses as they arrive. By using these tactics TV news aim to draw a distinction between the dirty press and the clean media.  In doing so they may perhaps be driving the Leveson inquiry toward concluding tough privacy laws are required, privacy laws that will include a ban on photographing people in public without their permission.

A ban of this type would be the death of the free press in the UK. Current guidelines require that individuals should not be photographed while they have ‘a reasonable expectation of privacy’. In practical terms this means anyone in a public place can be photographed without permission, as they cannot expect privacy in a public space. If laws were introduced requiring the written consent of an individual before they were photographed, it would mean press photographers would have to ignore events unfolding before them. Some of the biggest news stories in the last year could not have been reported. Pictures of Charlie Gilmour swinging from the Cenotaph would have been taken illegally, likewise pictures of Oliver Letwin disposing of government documents in a park bin. Press photographers would be as ham strung as reporters prevented from covering stories of public interest that are subject to super injunctions.

The problem of finding a solution that avoids this type of privacy law is extremely difficult. Legitimate press photographers already have licensed press cards that are required to be shown to work in places like Downing Street. This system has not stopped any of the behaviour reported this week, or prevented the use of faked press cards. Digital cameras are cheap and easy to use making it hard for anybody to distinguish between professional and amateur, press photographer and paparazzo. If 99 out of 100 photographers comply with a code of conduct, one will always break the rules and tar the rest with the same brush. Introducing government or police regulation and control over licensing of press photographers would affect impartiality and freedom.

It would be very hard to argue that there can be no changes following the Leveson inquiry. We must be very careful what these changes are and where they will take us. Press photographers are in danger of being so restrained by regulation that we become like the fire fighter who cannot enter a burning building for fear of breaking health and safety regulations.

 

Christopher Pledger

 

These are my personal views and are not intended to be representative of any organisation I work for as a freelance photographer.

 

www.christopherpledger.com

 

Nov 27, 2011 | Categories: News, photography | Tags: , , , , | Leave A Comment »

Roundup from the last few weeks

I have been looking through some of my recent pictures this week as I have set about getting my archive in order, and thought I would stick a few images together from some of the events here in little old London and beyond.  We have had quite a busy time actually.

Gadaffi’s death may have happened thousands of miles away but as the realisation hit for Libyan people across the world, including the many Libyan Nationals here in London, I was glad to be a part of this global event in whatever small part I could. It is impossible to know what it really meant to the hundreds of people that turned out at the Libyan Embassy in Knightsbridge, but their sense of relief  was palpable and very moving. I can not imagine how this must have manifested itself on the streets of Tripoli.

We have had dodgy cricketers, dodgier bankers, bionic exoskeletons, once in a lifetime art events in the shape if the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition at the National Gallery, protests, global summits and of course Remembrance services across the country that both myself and colleagues covered.

The ‘Occupy’ protesters  kind of  lost their message when they decided to occupy St Paul’s Cathedral instead of their intended target the Stock Exchange, and whom remain despite the best efforts of everyone to move them on. Syrian nationals protested in numbers as their people fell victim to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime, and more recently the student protests which thankfully managed to take place with hardly any trouble at all, and consequently probably had far greater impact than had there been violence.

I enjoyed a very wet and miserable G20 where virtually nothing was achieved, and at the end of last week covered Armistice day, which this year took me to the Cambridge American Cemetery, which I had never been to before.

So all in all an interesting few weeks, scrappy at times with a few long wet days standing on ladders thrown in for good measure, but enjoyable all the same.

And I didn’t have to wear my hard hat once. That is a result!!

 

Nov 13, 2011 | Categories: photography, Posts, Recent Work | Leave A Comment »