Philip Dunn’s Silliest Photography Assignment

I’ve covered lots of rewarding photography assignments in my career – and I’ve done some very silly assignments, too.

Perhaps the best contender for the silliest job I have undertaken was one for You Magazine, The Mail on Sunday Magazine. The art editor called me and said he would like me to go to Fiji. He knew I was a rugby fan and he also knew of my reputation for getting people to do things they might not do for other photographers.

It was the time of the Rugby World Cup, and England, captained at the time by Will Carling, were likely to play Fiji.

The fertile minds at You Magazine had come up with the extraordinary idea of having a picture of Fijian Rugby players sitting around a cooking pot containing a boiling head of Will Carling.

Yes, I know… but things were a little less PC in the early1990s. And it has to be remembered that just a couple of generations previously, Fijian natives were still knocking people over the head with heavy clubs and eating them – they were cannibals!

At great expense, the magazine had a pot effigy of Will Carling’s head specially made and the plan was for me to take this to Fiji for the shoot.

There were some serious negotiations on fees for such an assignment, especially when I was told that the magazine had made no previous contact with the Fijian ruby players as to whether they would agree to wear their grass skirts and sit around a cooking pot while looking savage and boiling Will Carling’s head. Success would depend entirely on my powers of persuasion.

I should point out here that the Fijian rugby team was made up of some highly educated people. Most were professional men: lawyers, architects, doctors and journalists. As it happened, they loved the idea – but I’ll come to that.

Negotiations with You Magazine involved a package of assignments that included stopping off first in Los Angeles on the way to Fiji then moving on to New Zealand when the Fiji job was done.

If you think US Customs officials are unsmiling, humourless automatons, then you should try taking a straw-lined wooden box containing a human head through US Customs Control. It’s not easy.

No disrespect to Will Carling, I’m told he’s a lovely bloke, but I came to loathe his head.

It was surprisingly easy to sell the ‘cooking pot’ idea to members of the Fiji rugby team. The truth is that many Fijians are tremendously proud of their cannibalistic forefathers. Some members of the team even produces old photographs of their grandfathers carrying human victims back to their village to be cooked and eaten.

It rained in Fiji and it was very hot. It hardly stopped raining.

I have an abiding memory of sitting in the back of a taxi between two of the biggest men I have ever met in my life. They were dressed in full tribal regalia – their grass skirts were sodden, the decorative leaves tied to their biceps dripped onto my shirt. Compressed between their massively muscular thighs I felt like a Lilliputian between two giants. It was a deeply unpleasant taxi ride.

We were going to a heritage site that celebrated the history of Fiji – including its links with cannibalism. Here they even had the archetypal village huts – and cooking pots, much praised for cooking missionaries, although real cannibals mostly used a ‘lovo’, or underground oven for the larger joints of meat.

The players really got into the idea of cooking Will Carling’s head and posing with their clubs, grass skirts and rugby balls.

It was all terribly civilised and after the shoot we headed back to the Suva Rugby Club for a pint.

And Will Carling’s head?

I have never been so pleased to part with anything. I left it in the cooking pot. I suspect that some lost tribe in the remote hills of Fiji is still wondering why it was so damned tough to eat.

In the Rugby World Cup, England reached the final but were beaten by Australia.

 

Digital Economy Bill almost Law

The Digital Economy Bill gets its third and final reading in the House of Lords toady, March 15th. It is now almost certain that this Bill, which will seriously affect photographers’ copyright to their images, will become law within the next few weeks – certainly before the General Election.

This law, which will make seriously adverse changes to the present Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, has been forced through parliament without a vote by the unelected Minister Lord Mandelson.

Photographers’ main concerns are about so-called ‘orphan works’, a government term for copyrighted material whose owners cannot be traced. In effect this law will make it very easy for images to be used legally without the consent of the copyright owner – legalised theft.

The Digital Economy Bill also makes provision for Mandelson to set up a quango where, if photographers wish to retain any form of control over their own images, they will have to register those images for a fee.

Make your views known to your MP now!

Street photography on Menorca Photo Holiday

High demand for Philip Dunn’s Photography Holidays in Menorca mean that an extra holiday has been arranged for 3rd – 10th September this year.

The overall theme of the photography tuition will be Travel Photography – and all that might involve: architecture, landscape, seascape, interiors and, of course, people and street photography.

The freedom to take pictures in public is a right that will soon be lost in Britain if the present government gets its way.

Delightfully, the restrictions and paranoia that affects the UK do NOT exist in Spain. Here you are free to relax and learn the art of capturing beautiful, natural and unposed photographs of people in the street. No one objects, no one gets uptight – people have common sense and photographers are made welcome.

I made my living from travel photography for more years than I can count – mostly on assignments for The Sunday Times but also for many of UK’s top magazines and newspapers. Travel Photography is an art that needs to be learned – and is best learned from experience.  I am able to pass on countless tricks of the trade that can ensure you always get the picture you want.

If you are considering a career in travel photography, these Photography Holidays are essential learning. Not only will you have a wonderful holiday, but you are likely to learn more in one week than you will pick up in months or even years of book or college study. I am always astounded at the lack of real first-hand professional experience behind so many college photography courses.

When booking a photography course or holiday – ALWAYS ask what practical photography experience your tutor has achieved – paper qualifications do not necessarily make good photographers – or good teachers.

If you are wanting to take better travel photographs before you set off for more exotic destinations, then Menorca is the ideal place to learn before you go. It is highly photogenic, there is lots to photograph, and the people are helpful and sensible.

The two pictures above are were taken in Menorca by one of my students Peter Metcalfe, who came on a Photography Holiday last year with his wife Jennifer. These wonderful photographs speak volumes for the joys of photographing people in public and, sadly, the sort of photographic art that will be soon lost for ever in Britain.

This is what Peter and Jennifer said about their Photography Holiday:

“Just a note to say, once again, how much Jennifer and I enjoyed our photographic holiday. It is probably one of the best holidays which we have ever had, and much of this is down to the hard work and careful attention to detail undertaken by you both.”

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY HOLIDAYS IN MENORCA

Happy Birthday Christian

It is my son Christian’s birthday today.

If you happen by our stand (L47) at the Focus on Imaging Show at Birmingham NEC today today do wish him a Happy Birthday – he’s feeling a bit down about getting old now that he’s 29.

Mind you, when I gave the lad a mug of tea in our hotel room this morning, it was a sight that only a mother could love

Come and see us on Stand L47 at Focus on Imaging Show NEC Birmingham

Loss of Photographers’ Rights – a personal view

The Digital Economy Bill is being railroaded though Parliament by the unelected Minister, Lord Mandelson. This and other government legislation will severely affect the rights and freedoms of photographers in Britain.

Mandelson’s Digital Economy Bill will legalise the theft of photographers’ copyright and enable the setting up of a government quango to make photographers pay money for the privilege.

Meanwhile, in another governmental attack on the rights of photographers, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has deemed that a photograph taken in a public place may now be considered to contain ‘private data’. This will mean that if you take a photograph in a busy street, any one of the people in that picture will have the right to prevent it being published.

I have posted about this subject before . There was so much interest that the PhotoActive server could not cope and the post had to be placed on Online Journalism Blog. The PhotoActive website has now been moved to a bigger server and my  campaign against the legislation can now continue.

These disgraceful proposals will soon become law unless we object NOW. Please write to your MP.

Photography is a hugely rewarding, creative and innocent pastime for countless thousands of hobbyists. These regulations will affect deeply all law-abiding, honest photographers, who will be criminalised by unjust laws and ridiculous regulations.

I have posted below a short piece written by my friend Carl Dania. Carl’s personal viewpoint represents that of a great many more perfectly decent British citizens.

Loss of Photographers’ Rights – we are all in this together
by Carl Dania

I have no political affiliations whatsoever. But I will not be voting Labour under any circumstances come the general election. Simply because Peter Mandelson is a Labour peer – an unelected Government Minister. I have never liked the man, he is a self-serving politician of the worst possible kind. But he has never sought to meddle in my life before, so I have been quite happy to let him get on with it. All this has now changed. Lord Mandy’s Digital Economy Bill, and other government proposals by this government, will meddle in my life in a big way. This is now personal.

Visitors to ‘PhotoActive’ will be aware of The Digital Economy Act now being rushed through Parliament. Philip has already posted on this same subject, and I’m sure he’ll be posting again. It should be at the top of every photographer’s agenda – we must all get together to fight these proposals. Nothing must be left to chance. It really is THAT important.

If you are new to photography in the UK you may have the impression that it is ‘owned and driven’ by a large group of professional photographers, with powerful governing bodies to look after their interests. Nothing could be further from the truth. The huge increase in photography in this digital era has largely involved amateurs and hobbyists. But whatever your level of interest, Copyright Law has been there to protect you. Nothing to join, no forms to fill in, no fees to pay.

Professionals do not have a special level of protection as regards Copyright, nor do they have special hidden resources to draw upon. So there can be no help and rescue from that direction. We will have to deal with this ourselves. That means all of us. Together.

You may be wondering what my own qualifications are. Well, I am certainly not a full-time professional photographer. I would have starved to death long ago.

I spent most of my working life as a police officer in a very busy area. I was forced to retire after 25 years service. I had suffered a severe nervous breakdown. For some years I felt like a character in a film where everyone else had a copy of the script except me.

One day I was rooting through the attic when I came across a Nikon F3 camera. Photography has been a life long interest, and I had bought the Nikon secondhand many years previously (I could never have afforded a new one). I had not used it for a long time. Film and processing costs were prohibitive. That and pressure of work. I latched a lens onto the body, thumbed the film advance lever, and pressed the shutter. ‘Click’. As smooth as silk. I carried on until the near dead batteries died altogether. But something else was going ‘click’. Something inside my head. Some still functional part of my brain grabbed a word out of thin air and clung onto it. The word was ‘digital’. I had heard that same word being applied to photography, and knew that I needed to be part of it.

I am now 63 years old and looking to put my first print exhibition together. It sounds very grand – but it isn’t. I am doing it for the sheer joy of it, and because it is there to be done. It might be a disaster, but it will be my disaster. It might even be a success – whatever that is! I really have no way of knowing. But what I DO know is that if one of my pictures goes missing, leaving a gap on the gallery wall, some serious questions will be asked. The fatuous excuse – ‘I came across it on this wall and took reasonable steps to trace the owner, but without success’ – will not convince me it hasn’t been stolen.

And I see no reason why my virtual images on Flickr or elsewhere should be treated any differently. The only difference is that there will not be a gap on the gallery wall. I will not even know the picture has gone.

Someone could download an image, strip out the EXIF and pass it off as their own. At present, under Copyright Law, they have immediately committed an offence by doing this, and the penalties can be severe. But under the Digital Economy Bill, anyone could take their chances. Provided that they have ‘taken reasonable steps, etc.’ I’m sorry, but wrangling over that word ‘reasonable’ has been lining barristers’ pockets for years.

I know that my experience is not typical, but there is no such thing as a typical photographer anyway. We come in all shapes and sizes, from all age groups, and from all sorts of backgrounds. The affordability and convenience of the ‘digital age’ has seen to that. It has produced a huge and welcome increase in photography, particularly at an amateur level. If you have read this far you will realise that I owe photography a huge debt, and I know it. And that includes a tremendous number of people who have helped and encouraged me on the way.

By comparison, I owe Mandy’s Mafia precisely nothing. Not one penny. For what exactly? Making my life more difficult? I think not.

And thereby hangs the tale. We are not isolated individuals to be picked on by Mandelson or anyone else. Professionals, amateurs, hobbyists – whatever. Collectively, we are all photographers. A huge body of people – there are a hell of a lot of us . And yes – we are all in this together.

If you have already found the links and signed the petitions, then a massive ‘thank you’. If not, please, please – do it. Please do not make the mistake of believing that your voice does not count – it does. Please do not make the mistake of believing this will not affect you – it will.

We are all in this together, so please – just do it – write to your MP and object.

Join Philip Dunn on a Photography Holiday in Menorca – where photographers are always made welcome

PhotoActive’s Twitter from Focus on Imaging

Well, Christian and I are off this morning to set up the PhotoActive stand (L47) at the Focus on Imaging 2010 Show at Birmingham NEC. Don’t expect anything grand! Our stand will be in the same place as last year and the same size – very small.

But the welcome will be a big one if you come and say hello.

We’ll be Tweeting on our Twitter page www.twitter.com/philipdunn as often as possible throughout the show.

Do come and see us.

PhotoActive website up and running again

The PhotoActive website is now on a new, bigger and more powerful server based in UK. I’m very sorry that you may have been unable to access the website during the transfer.

This means that the problems caused by the huge surge in traffic when I post about important matters like the loss of photographers’ rights to take photographs in public places, and the dreadful legislation proposed by the unelected Minister Lord Mandelson in his Digital Economy Bill, will no longer blow up the server.

The post that created the interest had to be removed and re-posted on the Online Journalism Blog thanks to Paul Bradshaw who runs the site. Follow the link to read it.

My campaign against government-sponsored theft of photographers’ copyright and loss of freedoms can now continue.

PHOTOACTIVE WEBSITE DOWNTIME

In order to cope with recent high demands in traffic, the PhotoActive website is being moved to a new server.

This mean it will be offline for sometime very soon.

Please be patient and come back again

Thanks

New home for post on Photographers’ lost rights

My post on about the loss of photographers’ rights – both freedom to take photographs in public, and the loss of their automatic copyright – created such volume of traffic that Hospapa, who host the PhotoActive website, shut this site down last night.

Thank you so much to all those generous people who offered to put the banned blog on their own website. The attitude has been that the information about the outrageous legislation proposed by this Government should not be dumbed down.

So I have accepted a very kind offer from Paul Bradshaw to host the post on his extremely popular ONLINE JOURNALISM BLOG

Thank you all who have emailed and contacted me through Twitter – and I’m really sorry about this hickup. It will not stop me camapigning against this freedom-grabbing legislation.

Don’t forget – write to your MP NOW

Go to Philip Dunn’s post now on Paul Bradshaw’s Online Journalism Blog

Post had to be removed

LATEST NEWS… The banned post has now been hosted by Paul Bradshaw at Online Journalism Blog

Interest in my latest post ‘Photographers to lose  copyright and Right to photograph in public’ was so great that HostPapa could not cope. The server was closed down and my account suspended. HostPapa told me I must remove the post. Over 5000 visitors read that post yesterday afternoon and in the first two hours of March 2nd, over 500 people visited. This shows the level of interest and concern in the Digital Economy Bill and other moves by the British Government to remove photographers’ rights.

This post has been removed temporarily and I apologise for any inconvenience. Meanwhile if you need more information about the Digital Economy Bill, please go to:

Copyright Action

Royal Photographic Society

Digital Economy Bill

Philip Dunn will be at The Focus on Imaging Exhibition Stand L47 at Birmingham NEC next week

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