The Faces of Occupy: Elijah

 Elijah.
Click to enlarge
©2012 Paul Davey

I met Elijah a couple of weeks back when I started shooting images at the Occupy LSX camp at St Paul’s Cathedral. I was photographing Indigo, his girlfriend as she sat in the entrance of their tent. Elijah was inside, in the shadows, embellishing some of Indigo’s answers to my questions, as I took shot after shot of her. He was like a colour commentator, allowing Indigo to do most of the talking, to tell their version of the truth. Eventually, he emerged into the daylight and we chatted together for a while. I was more interested in getting pictures than what we spoke about. I photographed them together and separately, but had no real idea of exactly what I was going to do with the images.

  Elijah and Indigo.
Click to enlarge
©2012 Paul Davey

I visited the camp several more times and on occasion spotted Elijah or Indigo in the distance, but I was busy with other photographs and didn’t approach them. Clearly they were long-term residents in the camp.

Finally having decided to do a series, The Faces of Occupy, I came back to the camp with the intention to photograph and interview my subjects. I arrived at the camp to find residents dismantling the kitchen and parts of the “Tech Tent” and loading their precious, mismatched, disparate components that most people would classify as junk, into a van.

The day before, February 22^nd, the camp had lost its High Court appeal against eviction and were packing up some of their more valuable items and moving them offsite.

I wandered around the camp snapping off the occasional image – there are rich photographic pickings to be had.  I came across Elijah and Indigo sitting beside the Tea Tent in camping chairs.  They remembered me – and greeted me warmly – as warmly as eighteen year-olds greet any forty-something from the same generation as their parents.

Elijah obliged and agreed to my five-minute interview. 

First name: Elijah.

Age: 18

How long have you been in the camp?

Since day one.

What were you doing before you joined the Occupy camp?

I was travelling in Germany and joined the Occupy Berlin camp. Before that, I was studying in Australia.

Do you have a specialist role in the camp?

I help facilitate camp-related meetings.

What compelled you to become an Occupier?

The tyranny of the rich over the working class, and the impoverishment of the third world by the powerful.

How will you as an individual make a difference?

Through honesty. Through speaking my mind, as a spokesperson for the oppressed and sharing my personal views.

Who is your Enemy Number One?

The greedy upper class

Why?

They hoard wealth whilst their workers are impoverished.

Who do you admire?

Jeff Buckley

Why?

Too many cat stealing all the bread

What is the best part of being in Occupy?

It’s the all-encompassing work experience. You meet anyone and everyone. I’ve learnt a lot of lessons – we all have – and there are mistakes we’ve made that won’t be repeated.

What is the worst part of being in Occupy?

Fighting within the community.

Is Occupy making a noticeable difference?

Yes.

How so?

It has sparked hundreds of conversations. Issues are being discussed.

Anything Else?

People need to communicate more.  We need more honest conversations. We lack the willingness to communicate.

Elijah, like any good young revolutionary, plays guitar. His song was obscene but funny, about being in love with a crack whore.

Click to enlarge
©2012 Paul Davey

Copyright © 2009 Paul R Davey. All photographs, text and artworks in this portfolio are copyrighted and owned by the artist, Paul R Davey unless otherwise stated. Any reproduction, modification, publication, transmission, transfer, or exploitation of any of the content, for personal or commercial use, whether in whole or in part, without written permission from the artist is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

More faces from Occupy London

Bombadil.
Photographed at Occupy London's Finnsbury Square camp. Click to enlarge.
© 2012 Paul Davey Creative

I have been making progress as a portrait photographer. Or should I say, a reportage-style portrait photographer. In my previous post, I told you how I "had to overcome a secret fear that I have: photographing people". Perhaps I should have been clearer. I have made quite a large proportion of my income from photographing people - particularly people at work - in what I call "Industrial Portraiture".  I have no fear of photographing them, because I know that they have been prewarned of my arrival. I also think I am good at getting them to relax and to do exactly as I ask, posing them and carefully building the shot. I get some pleasing results.

With street shooting, like the work I have been doing at Occupy, I take people by surprise. They are not really expecting me and are certainly not expecting me to stop them and ask them to allow me to make the images. It is that initial encounter where I am uncomfortable, but I'm getting used to it now and will soon have enough experience of working amongst people who sort of know they might get photographed as part of a news event, to taking things a step further and working with people who will be taken completely by surprise.

Around the Fire.
Left to right: Joseph, Leo, Paul
Photographed at Occupy London's Finsbury Square camp. Click to enlarge.
© 2012 Paul Davey Creative

So: Occupy London Finnsbury Square.
I arrived at the camp just after lunchtime on a freezing afternoon.  The first person I encountered was Joseph, who was building his shelater out of scrap wood. I asked him if I could take some photographs and he was kind enough to say, sure.  He was a bit shy, but I clicked a few of him - fairly wide shots - sawing a piece of board. It always takes a few shots to get my mojo up and running, so I decided I'd come back to Joseph later and walked around the perimiter of the camp taking (mostly bad) general shots of the tents and shelters.

The camp has a lot of tents but there weren't a lot of people in evidence, save for a group of three around a fire in a metal bucket. I asked their permission to take some pics and Leo, an Irishman with a gift for swearing that only an Celt can have, was most welcoming. "Take all the fecking pictures you want. Who are you working for?" I explained I was working for myself and was still a bit in the dark as to what I would eventually do with the Occupy images.

Leo

Photographed at Occupy London's Finnsbury Square camp. Click to enlarge.
© 2012 Paul Davey Creative

With Leo were Bombadil, a (retired, I think?) English teacher and and other bloke, a jobless Engineer, also called Paul. "Croist! All the feckin' Pauls in this feckin place! This feckin' camp should be Called St Paul's! Feckin' hundreds of you c**ts!" Leo helpfully pointed out.

Paul

Photographed at Occupy London's Finnsbury Square camp. Click to enlarge.
© 2012 Paul Davey Creative

I got down to shooting and as the boys relaxed, started listening to their banter and joining in. Topics were wide ranging, from the trivial to the intellectual. Bombadill was talking about sonnets, in particular Shakespear's genius with them and Leo was talking about feckin' Saabs which he feckin' loves. Paul recounted an anecdote that had something to do with helium-filled blow-up sheep attached to a scaffold, attached to the church in his village in Linconshire.

What they weren't talking about was any sort of activism. I got the impression that they're just hanging out, ready to take part in any protests (for whatever cause) should they arise in the future. They were camping. With their mates.  I don't doubt for a minute that they all have deeply held convictions, but once again, Occupy's lack of any concrete core message seems to have taken away any chance of them really doing something. When I pointed this out to Leo, he said something about "at last someone who's fecking honest enough to say what they think".

 Ash
Photographed at Occupy London's Finnsbury Square camp. Click to enlarge.
© 2012 Paul Davey Creative

Men came and went, sharing the warmth of the fire, taking turns at splitting scrap timber with a hatchet for the fire, joking and telling me about various scrapes with the law, the bailiffs etc. I was having a good time, constantly shooting, listening, trying to keep track of my notes (I failed in the end) and being introduced to new feckin' people. There was Raffy, a skinny young bloke with the world's most unruly hair, apparently the camp's accommodation bloke. Ash, an artist whose shelter was brightly painted, festooned with found objects and decorated with stenciled art. He showed me inside his place - his "dreamspace" where he had further atworks and carefully collected items. It was pin neat. There was another feckin' Paul whose role I wasn't sure of - he's a very pleasant Scotsman.

Raffy

Photographed at Occupy London's Finnsbury Square camp. Click to enlarge.
© 2012 Paul Davey Creative

Every now and then Leo would disappear inside his shelter to check on his feckin' wife. Loud violent shouting, thudding and crashing would ensue from within as he "disciplined" his "wife" - a carboard cut-out of (I think) Cheryl Cole. "Where's me feckin' tea, ya lazy fecker?" Clearly the camp clown, but equally, no one's fool. These protestors are not the mindless ne'er-do-wells many would like to imagine them to be.

I shot until my camera shutter button started showing signs of its age again, refusing to allow me to autofucus or check exposures, so, with the light befginning to fade, stinking of woodsmoke and frozen to the bone, I headed back to Old Street tube station, Lightroom bound.

Another Feckin' Paul

Photographed at Occupy London's Finnsbury Square camp. Click to enlarge.
© 2012 Paul Davey Creative

Say what you like about Occupy as a movement. But once again, I found the individuals to be fascinating, kind, obliging and excellent, willing photographic subjects.

Copyright © 2009 Paul R Davey. All photographs, text and artworks in this portfolio are copyrighted and owned by the artist, Paul R Davey unless otherwise stated. Any reproduction, modification, publication, transmission, transfer, or exploitation of any of the content, for personal or commercial use, whether in whole or in part, without written permission from the artist is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.