In the rat-infested basement of The Public Benefit Boot Company in Leeds City Market, Harry Proctor was sacked. His boss had caught him reading a novel. The tattered pages had already worked their magic, however. It was 1932 and Proctor, …
Reporting fictions: a novel start for journalists Read more »
First published in Amateur Photographer 14 December 2019 A friend of mine has been an enthusiastic photographer for nearly 40 years. The knack of composition has always eluded him, however. In his street scenes, tarmac occupies most of the frame. …
Legend dependent: only the titled achieve immortality Read more »
Eren Keskin is possibly the most striking defendant hauled before Istanbul’s criminal courts today. Dressed in black from head to toe, a quivering beehive of hair towers above her head, and her make up is distinctly rock n’ roll. She …
Cell by date: jail looms for Turkey’s journalists Read more »
Tweets bring little news worth cheering. One last Wednesday from Qatar was an exception, however. Abdullah bin Nasir bin Khalifa Al Thani, prime minister of the gulf kingdom, announced a reform of the country’s employment laws. He promised a “full …
Qatar solo: labour reform leveraged from Gulf state’s isolation Read more »
Review of the exhibition ‘Moon’ at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London 19 July 2019 – 5 January 2020 ????? I was four when I watched the first moon landing with my mother. Not long after Neil Armstrong’s boot alighted …
Far the greatest thrill at Tallinn’s Seaplane Harbour Museum, is the building itself. It has the vast, mysterious quality of a Ken-Adam-designed James Bond film set. Its scale and proportions are those of a modernist cathedral on steriods with a …
Flight of fancy: Tallinn’s Seaplane Harbour Museum is an atmospheric triumph Read more »
A report on the general meeting of the European Federation of Journalists in Tallinn, Estonia 9 – 10 May 2019 Listening to Estonia’s president (pictured above), it would be easy to feel optimistic about press freedom and media plurality. Kersti …
Baltic exchange: Europe’s journalists’ confer in Tallinn Read more »
Journalists describe the critical help that they have received from the NUJ’s freelance office.
Review of As A Man Grows Younger at the Brockley Jack Studio Theatre 19 – 23 February 2019 Calling out resurgent fascism is a recurring trope on the left. Some manifestations uniform themselves unambiguously: the National Front, the British National …
Review of TARO, at the Brockley Jack Theatre 19 January – 16 February 2019 The defining moment of darkroom photo processing occurs in the tray of developer. In to this pungent liquid slides a white sheet of paper revealing no …
Double magnum: the conception of Robert Capa and photojournalism Read more »