Photography is not a crime

At the risk of getting all political, it is with increasing fear and horror that I keep reading reports of photographers being harassed by the police, security guards and members of the public when out taking photos. It's even made the cover of today's Independent.

It reflects a wider change in our society and culture, the result of multiple factors including concerns ranging from terrorism to health and safety (tripod trip). In the UK at least, there has also been rising fears over paedophilia and a change in how many perceive their personal privacy, not least because of tabloid newspapers and celebrity magazines.

I've been stopped by the police on several occasions (luckily for nothing more than a brief chat) but also got involved in a scary incident at Bexhill-on-Sea earlier this year with some members of the public, when I was shooting the De La Warr Pavilion as part of my CABE Sea Change project.

There are many reports of the police exceeding their powers (particularly community support officers) and one of the biggest issues is that many police forces have been granted use of Section 44 of the 2000 Terrorism Act, which allows them to use "stop and search" without any requirements of "reasonable suspicion". However, due to fears of providing information for potential terrorists, it is nigh-on impossible to discover the "authorised areas" where these powers are being used.

According to the British Journal of Photography, Derbyshire is the only county where police officers have never used S44 for stop and search. So I think my next photography project will be about the Peak District, or something to do with Chesterfield.

The BJP has set up a visual campaign at www.not-a-crime-com

I believe that photography is an essential tool to help us to understand ourselves, our society and the places where we live. It will only be after documentary "street" photography is no longer possible - and Martin Parr thinks that day isn't too far away - that we will realise what we have lost.

Maharaja at the V&A, designed by Urban Salon

Relatively hot off the presses, here are some of my images of the V&A's latest exhibition blockbuster Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts.

Urban Salon designed the show, working with the V&A's curators as well as lighting designer DHA, graphic designer Wood McGrath and sound artist Janek Schaefer. 

The ravishing design looks far more substantial than your usual temporary exhibition space, and manages to combine lots of objects (more than 250, from a pearl carpet to a 1927 Rolls Royce Phantom) with enough space so you don't suffer a panic attack when it gets busy.

The shoot took place on three early mornings, as we only had restricted access in narrow time slots. However, the repeat visits really gave me the chance to experience this magical exhibition to the full. It's not a subject that I know much about, and in particular found the Art Deco and modernist pieces fascinating.

The exhibition runs until 17 January 2010.

Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy

A trip with the Knit Nurse yesterday that included the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy.

The show is well worth a visit; some works really draw you in and play with your senses of perception and orientation. Others are visceral and violent, yet at the same time strangely beautiful.

Despite the dismal weather, we were still able to enjoy Tall tree and the eye (pictured) which is on display in the courtyard.

Chiswick House Café, London, by Caruso St John Architects

Some images taken today of the new café at Chiswick House, which looks pretty complete and is due to open in the Spring.

One of the pleasures of having a studio at Pavilion Studios in Chiswick is my walk to work, which takes me through the grounds of Chiswick House. For those of you who haven't visited, it's a beautiful neo-Palladian villa that was built by the third Earl of Burlington in 1729 to display is art collection (as you do).

The house itself is pretty spectacular and well worth a visit, but equally wondrous are the gardens, which are considered a seminal piece of landscape design. Designed by William Kent, it features formal Italianate elements, including temples and exotic statuary, which were part of the house's original landscaping scheme. Kent subsequently redesigned parts of the garden in a much more naturalistic style, and the results are regarded as the birthplace of the English Landscape Movement, and inspired such significant parks and gardens as New York's Central Park and the grounds of Blenheim Palace.

The gardens are currently being restored, in a major project that includes a new café building designed by architect Caruso St John. It features huge floor-to-ceiling windows and a stone colonnade, which has apparently been inspired by the "arcaded facades of the stable wings of country villas in the Veneto". While this may sound rather inappropriate for grey London, a visit to the house and gardens – with their avenues of exotic statues and cyprus trees – really feels like a trip to an Italian palazzo, especially on a summer's day.

On a bright day like today, the render and Portland stone facade of the new café really gleams in the sunshine, with lovely shadows of trees playing across the walls.

Now I just have to wait until the café opens - hopefully a good place to get a decent coffee and sarnie at lunchtimes.

The Bugworld Experience, Liverpool, designed by MET Studio

And now for something completely different...



The Bugworld Experience is a new visitor attraction at Liverpool's glorious Albert Dock. It's not for the faint-hearted, with its spiders, millipedes, ants and other creepy crawlies.

Designed by MET Studio, the attraction opened earlier in the summer. Being arachnophobic, some of the shots were quite challenging, even if the varmints were behind glass.