I'm A Photographer Not A Terrorist 23/01/2010

Enough Is Enough!

Following a series of high profile detentions under s44 of the terrorism act including 7 armed police detaining an award winning architectural photographer in the City of London, the arrest of a press photographer covering campaigning santas at City Airport and the stop and search of a BBC photographer at St Paul's Cathedral and many others. PHNAT felt that now was the time for a mass turnout of Photographers, professional and amateur to defend our rights and stop the abuse of the terror laws.

We arrived at around 11:50 and left at 13:00, the event was still going, but as we left we found we were being monitored by a CCTV car!

The only other thing that was a bit off was the Security Guard at the British Museum who seemed to have no idea what was going on.

Shortly after this and some booing by the gathering he turned into a beetroot and retreated to the safety of the Museum.

Unfortunately Yola's banner widget is a bit touchy on rescaling, so here is the panorama unedited.

Some images from the event, I really enjoyed the atmosphere.

The above set of images are from early on around noon as people began to arrive.

Even disabled photographers were represented as the masses gathered. Around this point I was interviewed by a Russian Magazine reporter.

It was also arount this time when I had my brush with the security guard, and a second interview this time by winkball.com.

Photographer Jess Hurd on her step ladder preparing the crowd for the mass "everyone say cheese" moment. Heard later she had flown in from Haiti earlier in the morning.

A few random images from the event, including the Freedom Warden in his mask, and the "I'm a dog not a terrorist" on a lead. I must be the only one with a bad shot of this as I was distracting him for others to photograph.

Overall it was a great afternoon in London.

If you want to know more about "I'm a photographer and not a terrorist" visit their website http://photographernotaterrorist.org, follow them on twitter under #PHNAT or on Facebook.

Somehow I doubt this will be the last "Mass Gathering" of photographers in the UK.

Photographs and images Courtesy of RTB2 Photographic and I'm a Photographer Not A Terrorist

I'm A Photographer Not A Terrorist! 23/01/2010