Meeting Alf Morris

As a photographer one of my greatest pleasures is meeting interesting people and being given the opportunity to photograph them. On this occasion I was accompanying my sister, the author Miriam Halahmy, who is conducting research for a new book.

Yesterday I met a real old "east-ender" with an extraordinary story of human triumph over adversity: Alf Morris. On the night of March 3rd 1943, at the age of 13, Alf became an unfortunate victim of a civilian disaster at Bethnal Green Tube station which for many years was barely acknowledged by the authorities. Alf survived the disaster and kept the secret of that night for over 50 years before relating his experiences to his family and becoming a founder of the 'Stairway to Heaven' project to build a permanent memorial to the 173 people who died: men, women and children.

I met Alf in Nico's cafe, a well known feature of Bethnal Green, literally a few yards away from where the events of that terrible night took place. Alf is a most animated relator of the events of that night which I hope my photographs communicate. It was a real privilege to hear his personal story and of his desire to see a proper memorial created for the dead.



Alf has collected a great deal of documentation and evidence to explain what happened on that terrible night, in this case an architectural drawing of the tube station layout



Alf describing the events of 3rd March 1943





At this point, Alf is relating how he was pulled out of the crush by his hair by Mrs Chumbley who was the station Air Raid Warden




Alf in a happier mood discussing his memories of an east end childhood



Donations to the 'Stairway to Heaven' can be made here.

A full description of the events of that night and its aftermath can be found at Spitalfields Life.

On a technical note: my camera of choice for this type of reportage for many years has been Leica rangefinders and for the last three years my Leica M8 DRF. However, recently I have increasingly been using my Panasonic GH-2 micro 43rds camera. It is light, it is discrete and in reportage it has another useful advantage: the touch screen display.

With this feature is possible to tap the focus point and fire the shutter at the same time. Rangefinders are good for reportage because they are small and rarely intimidating to the subjects. Using the GH-2 takes this a stage further where the subject may not even be aware of the photograph being taken which avoids the occasional 'self-aware' moment that happens in photography - where the subject 'freezes'.

For this particular occasion I used the Lumix 20/17 and Leica 45/2.8 lenses. I was shooting at iso1600 using the 'Dynamic B&W' jpeg setting (although I was actually capturing the images in RAW).

There are many detractors of m43rds ("sensors are too small", "noisy", "expensive", "not APC" etc) but my philosophy is that the camera is to a large extent and irrelevance. If you like the tools you work with and know how to use them then all the arguments are superfluous in light of the results.

I doubt my pictures would stand being blown up larger than 16x12 without IQ issues becoming visible. But then in reportage, how often is that even required? Even a full page magazine shot is not that large and I suppose a double page spread might just approach it. For that reason I think the GH-2 with its interchangeable lenses, unique touch screen technology and high portable size is an ideal reportage camera.

And in any case, as I always tell people who ask, it is not the camera but the photographer that makes the picture.

Winner 2010 LU-RSPB "Life Between The Lines Competition"

I was delighted to be informed by London Underground this week that I had won the adult category of the 'Life Between The Lines' photographic competition for my picture, "Hunting For Pollen In An Artichoke".

The photograph was taken in my front garden, within a stone's throw of a nearby tube station - hence its interest to the competition which reflects the biodiversity of animal life within the area of London covered by the railway transport system.

The photograph came about because of a concern my wife and I shared after the reports in the news of the recent reduction in the bee population of the UK. This phenomena has also been recorded in other countries, as well. Anyone, with even the most rudimentary understanding of biology understand the importance of bees in the cycle of pollination and therefore reproduction of most plants. Bees are absolutely fundamental to the process and the most important 'pollinators' on the planet.

My wife and I had noticed a fall in bees in our garden, so I was delighted one July afternoon to discover the the flowering heads of my wife's artichoke plants were full of bees. What was fascinating was to see them burrowing deep into the plant as they hoovered up the pollen.

For some time now my macro photography has been largely undertaken using my Panasonic GF-1 and a Panasonic Leica 45/2.8 macro lens. The latter is a Leica designed lens made under license by Panasonic. It has a maximum aperture of f2.8 and stops down to F22. Now traditionalists like to stop down to quite small apertures when doing macro photographs, to maximise depth of field. What I discovered early on is that when opened up to f3.2 this lens produces the most wonderful and etheral glow and a diffuse depth of field. It is not macro photography in the strict scientific sense but it can, as evidenced here, lead to some marvellously artistic effects.

To get this photograph I was standing on a step ladder (the plants are about six feet tall) so I was poised above the head of the plant. I set the ISO speed to iso1000, very fast for a shot in daylight but that in return gave me an action-stopping-shake-reducing 1/1000 shutter speed. Unfortunately, I do not have a tripod which is six feet tall(!) so I had to have as much speed as possible to avoid camera shake. In fact the lens does have its own anti-shake system built it, as well.

I focussed exactly on the delicate structure of the bees wings and fired off about half-a-dozen shots. The result is above. There is a narrow plane of focus across the back of the bee and the tips of the surrounding flower 'petals', on which you can see little clumps of pollen. But the area of focus gives way to a diffuse bluey-purple glow.

My picture prooves an old saw in photography that it is not the camera but the photographer - the kit is consumer level without any of the expensive bells and whistles that dedicated macro-photographers use. On top of that it also prooves that the most important aspect of photography is to be there!

School Work: one day in the life of an outstanding secondary school

About 7 years ago I decided I really had to change my life. I was in my late forties and my corporate career had hit the skids. I was out of work, living off my savings and completely uninspired at the thought of taking another souless job in industry. My wife first planted the seed that flowered into my second career. She suggested I consider going back to 'school' (quite literally), undertaking a PGCE and becoming a teacher. I would not have taken the idea that seriously if it had not been for the fact that when I approached the Institute of Education and met with Jacek Brant, who runs the Business Studies PGCE programme, he was immediately enthusiastic about the idea of taking on someone of my age and experience as a teacher. The result is that after a year's PGCE course, and six years of teaching I am now approaching my mid-50s as Head of Sixth Form at Swanlea School, in the heart of the historic Whitechapel district of London's East End.

Now, I have a confession to make. My industrial career involved working for some of the largest corporate companies in the world, including Citicorp, Reuters and Dixons Stores Group. I'd even run (not too successfully) a rather bold internet startup which had flourished and been sold on in 2000. So, my expectations on arriving at Swanlea School, rather naively, was that I had better prepare myself for a culture shock in terms of the quality of management I would experience.

Nothing could be further from the truth and I can honestly state in the 6 years I have worked at Swanlea that the level of management, enterprise, creativity, teamwork and problem solving would put your average triple-A rated global corporate to shame. It was out of this salutory realisation that the idea for photographing and writing "School Work" was born.

My central thesis in "School Work" is that I want to tell the world about what really happens in a school in the period between 8:30 and 4PM which swallows up the life of our youngsters and which to most parents is a vague and distant memory. We remember the teaching but in fact we are profoundly ignorant about the organisation and operation of a school. So, my purpose in creating "School Work" is to inform and make much more widely understood, "how a school works".

I had already produced my first book "Walk to Work" which covered my daily commute on foot through the rich historical hinterland of Whitechapel which was well received by my Head Teacher, Linda Austin. When I had the opportunity, I sounded her out about the idea of "School Work" and to her credit (Linda, is a remarkably shrewd professional) she immediately identified with the idea and gained approval from the school's governors to proceed. The rest, as they say is history.

Below are some of my favourite pictures from the book - with an explanation of why they are important to me. I hope I inspire you to look further and purchase a copy - not for reasons of crass commercialism, because as many of you will know photography books make little or no money - but because I really do want people to be better informed about the enormous professionalism, dedication and hard work of all staff who work in an inner-City secondary school, judged to be 'outstanding' by Ofsted.

07:45AM: Ros, the Catering Manager, prepares mushroom sauce for today's lunch. Swanlea feeds over 800 pupils a day, 68% of whom are entitled to free school meals. Ros not only manages the daily process but must also manage the day-to-day of staff, planning, recording, etc.




08:12AM: Andrew, a NQT (in his first year of teaching) is preparing lessons using his PC and his interractive whiteboard. You can see cardboard castles the students have made in their history lessons on the Normans on the far side of his classroom.

11:47: Monica, an Advanced Skills Teacher of Modern Foreign Languages has carefully organised the work in her class, so that while some students are working in pairs on a comprehension exercise she can provide personal tuition to one of her students. This kind of micro-planning is the hallmark of an excellent teacher and manager.

12:31 Onder, the Network Manager, trouble shoots an in issue with the school's network infrastructure. Swnalea has a PC and communications estate which rivals that of a fair-sized PLC and requires significant expertise to keep it running. Lesson times are particularly critical as there is nothing worse than losing the opportunity to use a computer room due to network downtime.

12:49: "Dinner Ladies", or more appropriately nowadays, "Midday Meal Supervisors" are essential to keep the flow of hungry students moving through the dining hall. Carol and Evelyn are examples of the dedication amongst Swanlea staff having worked at the school almost since its beginning in 1992.

13:10 In a quiet classroom, Andrew - an Associate Head Teacher (deputises for the Head Teacher in her absence) is conducting a School Council meeting. Andrew is responsible for 'Student Voice' in Swanlea, which compliments his calm and respectful manner. I have learned a lot from observing his approach to defusing situations where students are angry or upset.

14:26 "Employer Engagement", Shane Anderson - an independent web developer - has a long association with the school having developed one of the first Virtual Learning Environments, the "Learning Eye". Here, he is working with Year 8 pupils, teaching them a technique he uses in his consulting work to design web sites. Bringing the world of work into the classroom is exceedingly valuable and much appreciated by the students.

16:44 Cleaners at work; each day the 11,000 square metres of space in Swanlea must be cleaned. This takes a significant team of cleaners. Of particular importance are areas like this, the restaurant.

These pictures are only a handful of the almost 100 full colour pictures in "School Work" which tells the story of a typical day in the life of an inner-City secondary school. The book will be of use to all stakeholders with an interest in, or influence over school activities in the UK and in similar environments throughout the world.

Copies can be ordered online from my web site

Technical Note:

School Work was entirely shot using my Leica M8 Digital Rangefinder camera. In terms of lenses the pictures of Ros, Andrew and Onder were taken with my Leica 16-18-21 WATE. The pictures of Monica and the "Dinner Ladies" were taken using my Leica Summilux 35 ASPH. Shane Anderson was shot with a Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.1 whilst the picture of Andrew Goodmnan was taken with my Voigtlander 50/1.5.

All pictures were processed in Adobe Lightroom and the soft-proofed in Photoshop Creative Suite 3.

All individuals have given permission for their photographs to be used in the book and promotional activities.

City Skyline

City Skyline, originally uploaded by louisberk.

Managed to get on the roof of one of the building I teach in, the Wessex Centre in Hadleigh street in Bethnal Green. Very nice views towards the city and over Bethnal Green itself. It looks like Heron Towers is going to be at least as high as the Gherkin when it is finished but possibly not as eyecatching.

A very special public convenience

What  has happened to the great British public convenience? Nowaday, you are more likely to find them closed or even obliterated from the landscape. Thankfully, there are some town planners who have a soul and this can be seen in the renovation and continued use of the public conveniences in South End Green, Hampstead. These wonderful Edwardian sub-terranean pit stops were brought back to their original grandeur by Camden Council. The interiors are beautifully tiled, and the flanks are clad in wood. Each stall is a reminder of the glorious past of British manufacturing industry (even if it was all done on the imperial rather than metric scale).

I decided to photograph the conveniences using film rather than my digital camera. These are all taken with my Leica M7 and Summilux 35-ASPH on Kodak Portra 160VC.

Well worth a visit if you are in the area, whether or not you need to use the facilities!

Banksy Ambushed

It's hard being an anonymous guerilla artist. There is always the danger that unfeeling public servants will overpaint your masterpiece, or that other artists will alter their meaning. Just before Christmas last year (2009) the residents of Camden Town woke up to a visit not by an early Santa Claus but by the equally enigmatic Banksy who overnight painted 4 new pieces on or near the Regent's Canal.

The first piece was a incisive political comment on the Copenhagen Climate summit. The two other pieces, one of a boy fishing (in the canal?) and the other of a rather dapper rat in a dinner jacket (in my mind a comment on our favourite group to hate: bankers) are more whimsical. The appearance of original gems drew a significant crowd, so much so, that the residents of the canal boats contrived to block to the towpath to turn back sightseers. Below I've reproduced my photographs from the time, which were taken a few days after the works appeared.

However, Banksy's gift to the world in Camden has clearly not met with universal delight. According to the graffiti cogniscenti Banksy violated the work of another street artist, "Robbo", when creating the Camden 'graffs'. This has lead to reprisals by "Team Robbo" who has altered all of the new Banksy's.

To fully appreciate the nuances of all the alterations the following video report is enlightening.

So, Banksy the guerilla artist has himself been ambushed and his works altered. Some might call this poetic (or is it artistic?) justice? Or is it just fishing for street cred?

Darth Viewfinder

Darth Viewfinder, originally uploaded by louisberk.

Taken at the 'Photographer Not A Terrorist' gathering at Trafalgar Square on Saturday 23rd January. Over 2,000 amateur and professional photographers attended the event to demonstrate their growing anxiety at the way the Police indiscriminately apply the anti-terrorist laws. This gentleman attracted a lot of attention and was pursued by two fake police officers. I hope the fact that so many people attended gets the message through to our boys and girls in blue that photographers are not a threat and rarely (if ever) break the law.