» Times http://stuartfreedman.com/blog 'we are but shadows'... a blog about photography and life in general... Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:58:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Hang Parliament… http://stuartfreedman.com/blog/2010/05/hang-parliament/ http://stuartfreedman.com/blog/2010/05/hang-parliament/#comments Sat, 01 May 2010 09:16:53 +0000 stuartfreedman http://stuartfreedman.com/blog/?p=829 So, as two further national newspapers swing their support away from Gordon Brown, all indications a week before the election point to a hung Parliament controlled by the Tories. My views on this are complicated: when all the parties represent the Market and the status quo there IS no choice, however my formative political years were formed under the Thatcher government and so I reserve a particular dread for the Bullingdon Club‘s entry into Number 10.

I haven’t photographed elections – or much British politics – for a long time. I do however remember a particularly depressing April dawn dropping rolls of film off at Der Spiegel’s office after photographing John Major celebrating victory in 1992.

Subsequent years of PR-dominated press conferences and stage-managed photo opportunities made me less interested and I turned my attention to the world outside the UK. I do occasionally get to photograph politicians however. Here’s one of the Man that would be King taken a couple of years ago on assignment for the Times Magazine.

UK - Oxfordshire - David Cameron, Conservative Party Leader and Conservative MP for Whitney in his constituency office

I leave my final thoughts to one of my favourite essayists, Emma Goldman, whose views on the subject echo my own:

“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal…”

No gods, no masters.

Happy May Day.

]]> http://stuartfreedman.com/blog/2010/05/hang-parliament/feed/ 0 The Times, the cliff and the wet trousers http://stuartfreedman.com/blog/2009/06/the-times-the-cliff-and-the-wet-trousers/ http://stuartfreedman.com/blog/2009/06/the-times-the-cliff-and-the-wet-trousers/#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:57:19 +0000 stuartfreedman http://stuartfreedman.com/blog/?p=316 I’ve been out of the country working for the last week (more on that another time) but came back to find that the Times had run a picture of mine in their newspaper and online. It was from a set of images on that was originally commissioned late in 2007 for a book, UK at Home.
I had three assignments for the book – one in London at the Tyburn Convent – which was, despite sounding rather dull, was an absolute scream (never underestimate Nuns having fun…), and two in Norfolk. One of the Norfolk ones was to illustrate poor Diana Wrightson whose home in the pretty village of Happisburgh was falling into the sea because of coastal erosion and that’s the one the Times ran.
She’d been a little tricky to get hold of and by the time we’d met at the house in the late afternoon, the light had gone. I checked into a hotel and made my way back there the following day at dawn. As soon as I got there however, I was treated to a fog bank rolling in. I ran down to the beach but because her mobile phone couldn’t get a signal, I had to keep calling her land line (so she had to keep running inside) and as soon as I finally got her into position with tea cup and looking out to see, the fog really came down. I perhaps managed three or four frames. As I was packing up, I took a step backwards on the beach without looking and went almost waist deep into a hole filled with sea water. I knew I only had one change of clothes with me and I was due on another job across the county within a couple of hours. As I turned around though, despite being soaked and furious I saw just how lovely the beach was in the fog and the frames that I took are below…

Uk - Happisburgh - Seabreaks in the water

Uk - Happisburgh - Seabreaks in the water

Uk - Happisburgh - Footprints in the sand on the beach

Uk - Happisburgh - Footprints in the sand on the beach

Uk - Happisburgh - The beach at Happisburgh. Because of coastal erosion much of the village is falling into the sea.

Uk - Happisburgh - The beach at Happisburgh. Because of coastal erosion much of the village is falling into the sea

I sat for the next hour in this poor woman’s living room wrapped in a towel while she dried my clothes and cooked me a bacon sandwiches, amazed how resigned and calm she was to the fate of losing her home and her savings.
I hope that she is still resilient.

UK - Happisburgh - Diana Wrightson drinks tea in the early morning mist on the edge of her garden that is falling into the sea because of coastal erosion. The coast of her village, Happisburgh is fast disappearing.

UK - Happisburgh - Diana Wrightson drinks tea in the early morning mist on the edge of her garden that is falling into the sea because of coastal erosion. The coast of her village, Happisburgh is fast disappearing.

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