Occupy London
Published on 16/11/11
© Ed Thompson
On the 15th of October 2011 a number of people from diverse backgrounds and ideologies came together to dispute the culture of greed that exists in the current financial system. They are part of a global movement that is currently ‘Occupying’ over a 1000 cities worldwide, most famously, Occupy Wall Street. Although the mass media continues to brand the movement ‘Anti-Capitalist’ in reality the majority of the protestors think that Capitalism is the best system, it’s just been left unchecked and become bloated and corrupt. Originally the protestors planned to ‘Occupy’ the London Stock Exchange (LSX), however, they fell short of that goal and ended up occupying the space outside it, on the edge of land between the LSX and St Pauls Cathedral.
© Ed Thompson
With this work I aimed to show another side to the Occupiers, to illustrate the level of organisation and compassion that is happening. There are no villains in this photo-series; the only city worker I photographed is depicted donating cheese to the occupiers. Instead I want the images to provoke a wider respect and understanding for what the occupiers are attempting to accomplish, which is draw attention to the inadequacies of our current financial system. From the start I photographed the Occupation only at night, there was something quieter about the place when the tourists and bulk of the media had gone home, the camp really came to life then, despite what some journalists reported.
The spoken word poetry that accompanies the slideshow is of a young black occupier I met called J.J, he’d never had any of his poetry recorded before, and there is something cool about the fact the first and only poem he has ever had recorded was in a tent outside St Pauls Cathedral.