Pictures of Protest

Political activist Bob Iddon recently staged the first public exhibition of his photographs of the G8 demonstrations and the anti Iraq war marches. Colin Serjent caught up with him at the Kif.

A collection of seventeen of his resonant/heartfelt images - “…images to inspire hope in the hearts of nations,” as he describes them - were recently shown at the Kif Gallery in Parr Street, Liverpool.
“I go on these marches to help try to stop war and famine in the world,” said Iddon. “More people should get up off their arses and go and do something about it. Unless we do this we are never going to change things.
“Every demonstration I have been on I have met a lot of nice people - who care about other people - in their thousands,” he added, “but it is never represented in the press. You never see the good side of these demonstrations.”
Iddon has been a political activist since he started work as a teenager in Liverpool: “I have always seen injustices around me – I have always wanted to have my say.” He became interested in documentary photography ten years ago after getting increasingly angry about certain issues in the world.
“Images on television come and go from day to day, but images in a frame do have an impact which people can look at time and time again.”
He still uses the ‘old fashioned’ way in producing his photographs, with a medium format camera with 120 roll films.
“I love printing photographs, actually physically,” Iddon commented, “but I also now use a computer in manipulating my pictures together with a pretty good digital camera.”
He spoke about several of his favourite photographs taken at various demonstrations.
“I have had a lot of good feedback from people who have seen the ‘Red Bus’ image. The bus was at the head of a procession of vehicles trying to get out of the camp used by demonstrators in Gleneagles prior to the G8 summit in Edinburgh.
“I managed to get a lift in a car driven by a journalist from The Scotsman which was behind the bus, and I took the photograph through the windscreen as we followed it through the countryside. I then digitally enhanced it.
“The reason for the scenery being in black and white and the bus in bright red is that someone mentioned the film ‘Schindler’s List’. I remembered the little girl in red and the way it had a striking impact on people – I tried to recreate this.”
Iddon also spoke about the photograph he took depicting riot police with shields at the camp.
“This happened on the day of the July 7 London bombings, and they would not let us out of the camp at all. Anyone stepping over police lines would be arrested under new anti-terrorist laws. The police surrounded the camp and stayed there all day and night.
“We were also intimidated by military helicopters overhead during the night - knowing there were children there - and also knowing that we were peaceful people who were trying to stop this bloody war.
“The way the police were dressed was very intimidating. This is shown in this picture as well as in the ‘Police and Candles’ photograph.
“On the same night we had a candlelit vigil in the camp car park for those who had died in London. The police started doing training exercises in front of these candles while we were singing ‘We shall overcome’. In the background, police were shouting at other policemen, marching up and down, etc. They were told to march up to the candles and that is when I captured the image.”
As well as his politically influenced shots, Iddon - who used to work on cruise liners fitting carpets - often takes abstract type photographs of ships being dismantled and put together again in a dockyard, for example. He also likes taking pictures of landscapes, people and live music.
“Wales is one of my favourite places for landscapes, where the light can change from second to second,” he said.
“I have also taken over twelve thousand photographs of various local rock bands and tribute bands during the past ten years, but it is not very lucrative!”
A future project Iddon has in mind is photographing different kinds of security cameras and making a big collage of them.

You can view many examples of his photography on his website: www.digi.webeden.co.uk
His photos are also on our website here: Anti-racist march, Anti-war protests, Unity Festival