London

Well election day was very long but highly productive. I spent the day with Brian Haw and his supporters. They started by driving around the district he was running for in a rented van with megaphones attached. Brian harangued Tony Blair, called for peace in Iraq and encouraged voters to come out and support him.


An Election monitor watches the results come in. ©Damaso Reyes

At the end of the day about 200 people voted for Brian.

We waited for the returns at a local community center where I alternated with hanging out with the extremely bored press corps holed up an a small room upstairs and spending time with Brian and his friends and family.


Waiting with reporters. ©Damaso Reyes

For them it was an emotional day. No one, not even Brian really thought he would win but I think there was part of him that was hoping against hope for a better showing. If nothing else Brian got to spread his message a little further.
Read the story I wrote on his campaign


Brian and a supporter after the results are announced. ©Damaso Reyes

London

So London is an interesting town, no doubt about that. I have spent much of my first two weeks wandering about, getting to know the city and shooting on the street. Remember what I said about the English being polite? Well that was clearly a delusional fantasy. In New York when I get bumped into on the subway people actually say “excuse me.” Here they just carry on, stiff upper lip and all that. In general I have found people a bit distant but that’s neither here nor there. I am doing some interesting work. One of the things I find most amusing is that you can drink on the street here and a few days ago I photographed some soccer fans who took every advantage of that fact.


©Damaso Reyes

I also found an interesting character across the street from Big Ben. Brian Haw is an anti-war activist who has basically been protesting 24/7 against the UK’s and America’s involvement in Iraq. He is brusque and not all together intelligible but very interesting. I think I might take a few days and follow him around, as it turns out he is also running for a seat in Parliament and he could be the person that I follow around.


©Damaso Reyes