Beginner Controversial Subjects.

Oldbones

Oldbones

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Today, I went down to the local town, in order to photograph an Orange march and some of the demonstrators who are against the march.
Only because its been the speekalation over the last couple of weeks.
In saying that it could be any emotive subject that I am writing about here.
Staying a respectable distance I took quite a few shots, I also was surprised by the amount of police in attendance.
There was a bit of shouting and swearing from the demonstrators and a few in reply from the Orange Order members.
Is it ok to post photographs on here, I was quite taken aback by the reaction of some of the public, they were proper angry and upset.
I don't want to anger anyone but I do want to photograph what I saw and show it.
What are your opinions on this.
Thank you in advance.
Ps, I am not attached to any of the groups that I am writing about.
 
It's an Orange/Apprentices' march.

Probably one of THE most controversial political stand-offs in the entire UK.
They make EDL/AntiFa stand-offs look like a polite tea party.

What on earth did you expect?
 
British law is, unless I've misunderstood it for more than 60 years, "in public, your face is public".

That said, it's up to the admins what they they will permit here.
 
Photography at some protests/demos can be fine as long as approached with care. You always risk getting caught up in some aggro though if you are not very ‘aware’.
However there are some ‘events’ that are off the scale for the potential for a bad outcome and this has to be at the top of the tree. Personally, I wouldn’t even be there, let alone take photographs that would more than likely really upset some possibly very volatile people. Just my opinion!
 
being an Orange march I guess Northern Ireland ,so no wonder you have concerns about posting photos of the march. Personally I would not seeing how volatile it can get. Back in 1971 I was in Belfast attending my best mans wedding. Few weeks later the reception venue was bombed. Staying with the brides family was not safe as a local newspaper office nearby was blown up
 
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Oldbones said:
Today, I went down to the local town, in order to photograph an Orange march and some of the demonstrators who are against the march.
Only because its been the speekalation over the last couple of weeks.
In saying that it could be any emotive subject that I am writing about here.
Staying a respectable distance I took quite a few shots, I also was surprised by the amount of police in attendance.
There was a bit of shouting and swearing from the demonstrators and a few in reply from the Orange Order members.
Is it ok to post photographs on here, I was quite taken aback by the reaction of some of the public, they were proper angry and upset.
I don't want to anger anyone but I do want to photograph what I saw and show it.
What are your opinions on this.
Thank you in advance.
Ps, I am not attached to any of the groups that I am writing about.
Click to expand...

This is a photography forum so I would post the pictures.
 
realspeed said:
being an Orange march I guess Northern Ireland ,so no wonder you have concerns about posting photos of the march. Personally I would not seeing how volatile it can get. Back in 1971 I was in Belfast attending my best mans wedding. Few weeks later the reception venue was bombed. Staying with the brides family was not safe as a local newspaper office nearby was blown up
Click to expand...
There are Orange Order marches in England and Scotland.
 
The politics behind the Orange Order/Apprentice Boys marches is delicate, but they are marching in public and the bigger ones are shown on TV, both national (UK) and local. There is no good reason not to show them on TP so long as you do not overtly attach a political statement to them,. I'd say the same about the pro=Palestine demo's we are seeing occasionally here (in NI) too. For balance. And because we are photographers on a photography forum. If you choose to also post on FB groups, that's another matter nothing to do with us.

Indeed we are in the marching season now so there'll be plenty of this and they are great opportunities - I'll be doing the same, after sussing out the degree of local feeling.
 
DemiLion said:
It's an Orange/Apprentices' march.

Probably one of THE most controversial political stand-offs in the entire UK.
They make EDL/AntiFa stand-offs look like a polite tea party.

What on earth did you expect?
Click to expand...
I did expect there to be some negative reactions between the marchers and the demonstrators, and that is about all that happened, 8AM in the morning in a sleepy town in NE Scotland it was all over by 8.45
 
DemiLion said:
Oh and get some proper local advice. Photographing that sort of stuff can be a little dodgy for your health.
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I have been watching the situation for about 2 or 3 weeks, heavy police presence did actually encourage people to shout and the marchers to shout back. (I think because everyone felt safe with all the police being in attendance). Some of the protesters were shouting at the police, but that is another story.
It was very noisy with the drums, I doubt if they could have made any more noise.
Dodgy for my health, I did not feel threatened, plenty people with cameras and phones were there doing the same as I was.
 
The camera isn't really a neutral recording device when operated by a human. I don't know much about the orange marches, so will use the recent far-right marches as an example.. I've seen photographers share pictures from those marches that make the protesters look stoic, patriotic, friendly, etc.. while other photographers have shown them to be drunks, ugly, racist, etc.. it's probably quite hard (or impossible - i don't know) to make a truly objective photo. So you might find, by sharing the pictures you're also sharing your politics - would that put you at risk in your local community if people viewed them and made it an issue?
 
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