A recent conversation about using Photography for good made me realise that about the best thing I personally could use my camera for right now, was to provide a little, no matter how little, more visibility to protests against the ongoing genocide being committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza, and other violations of international law such as the kidnapping of civilians (including a Member of the European Parliament) while within international waters, and unprovoked attacks on a number of other foreign nations, most recently Iran.
I’ve attended as many as possible over the last two years, in a number of different cities, but have generally just had my (until recently, utterly terrible) mobile phone with me to share these quickly via Instagram Stories … which is my platform for sharing what I do, and ultimately, what I believe to be important and worth sharing, with my friends, family, and whoever else has decided to follow me for some unknown reason.
It’s still my platform for those things in this case, and regardless of whether they’re only seen by twenty-odd people five to fourteen working days after I post the pictures (thanks, algorithms) I’ve decided that it’s important to use this platform as much as possible, not just through Stories. This website is too.
With all of that in mind, I made it a priority to get to this past Saturday’s protest in Parliament Square in London with my camera, and made the following photographs – starting with some of the other early arrivers.
One. Two. Three. Four. Occupation no more.
The main protest gathered crowds as well as a number of speakers brought together by the Stop The War Coalition.
From the belly of the beast: Hands off the Middle East.
As the speakers concluded, the more musical wing of the protest was getting into full swing.
Keir Starmer, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.
You wait ages for a Labour government, and then when one finally comes, it’s either directly committing, or facilitating and justifying war crimes.
Owain Shaw 