As another youth-strike took place yesterday across the world, I continued my long-term project of documenting protests, which we have seen more and more of in recent months. Here are a few images from the march in London. Although climate was the focus of Friday’s international gathering, some protesters used the opportunity to express their thoughts about alternative or unrelated issues.
(c)SJField 2019
Today I wandered through the centre of London and photographed people protesting, but included here are people who are just watching, or taking advantage of the fact there are no cars on the road, and some are simply getting on with life as they explore the city.
The protesters were expressing themselves for a variety of reasons although most of the images below cover the Extinction Rebellion blockades. However, there are other groups too. There are signs in the pictures which may identify movements, but that’s not what I’m most interested in here. What matters to me is the desire to protest – to speak out, to question the status quo – regardless of what the individuals choose to affiliate themselves with. Perhaps I take my lead from Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa who is quoted in Nicholas A Christakis’s latest book Blueprint, “Seeing people only as members of groups is …’ inherently reductionist and dehumanising, a collectivist and ideological abstraction of all that is original and creative in the human being, of all that has not been imposed by inheritance, geography, or social pressure’ Real, personal identity, he argues, ‘springs from the capacity for human beings to resist these influences and counter them with free acts of their own invention.”‘ (2019)
Many people here gave me permission to take their photographs. However, there are some candid, taken in the tradition of street photography. I am extremely grateful to everyone who acknowledged my camera or spoke to me and told me a little bit about themselves.
The world might seem a lot less stable than it’s been for a while and people are often justifiably angry and frustrated – perhaps for reasons we don’t always understand, but I try to take comfort from scientists/writers Fritjof Capra and Pier Luigi Luis who wrote in A Systems View of Life; “…new structures, technologies, and new forms of social organisation may arise unexpectedly in situations of instability, chaos or crisis.” (2016)
All images (c)SJField2019
References
F Capra, P Luigi Luisi, 2016, A Systems View of Life, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
NA Christakis, 2019, Blueprint, New York, Little Brown Spark
The following images are from today’s climate Extinction Rebellion protests, which I believe are planned to continue for some days to come. As I have been doing over the last two years, I photographed the way people are choosing to speak out about issues that matter to them. I will need to keep some images back as I read there are planned arrests this evening, but the protesters in the following images are obscured in some way or performing and so overtly present or have already been arrested.
This morning, someone I know said that the arrests had been pre-arranged but I spoke with a legal observer this evening and was told categorically the arrests had not been arranged in any way. Those being led away did not look like they were happy to be going anywhere and I saw how they tried to sit it out – but no-one was violent. I was told people were arrested as gently as possible on Waterloo Bridge this morning, which is where I heard a policeman telling one of his colleagues they were going to arrest people one by one – and then they proceeded to do so.
I was not able to stay for the evening but it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few days.
All images (c)SJField2019
Today I chatted with several people as I wandered through Parliament Square documenting the anti-Brexit protest. Two guys I met, Chris and Bill, asked me who or what I was taking photographs for. I told them I was doing it because I think we’re going through a really important time and that I thought it was worth documenting; in years to come we will look back at this period and children will learn about it in history. People want and are willing to speak up about the things they feel passionate about – and let’s face it, we’re British; under normal circumstances, we’d rather talk about the weather. But lots of people (although not quite everyone, it’s true), regardless of which cause they associate themselves with, are currently frustrated and choosing to be vocal about their feelings one way or another.
Here are some images from today, more than I would normally share on this blog. But I really wanted to convey a message that the people speaking up today were from all walks of life, and not, as some in the media would have you believe, easily categorised into a little envelope. We must do our best to avoid that kind of simplistic thinking as it helps no-one. I also want to point out that there are a few images here of people who feel passionately that we do not need another referendum, and as you will see, they were having perfectly reasonable conversations with people who hold different views to them.
Finally, if anyone finds themselves on my little corner of the internet and would rather they weren’t, please get in touch and chat with me about it.
(c)SJField 2019
Sarah Furniss Photography 