Candid photography: it's a fair cop

The frequency with which UK photographers are being stopped, searched and questioned by police officers and (especially) PCSOs for Being in Possession of a Large Camera has received a huge amount of media coverage recently. So at an outdoor exhibition at the weekend I was interested to see a few photos on display taken by a member of a police camera club. The photos were mainly candid photos in a busy seaside setting – although not very good (sorry, but then again that portfolio review was completely free).

I like to imagine the police camera club outings involve a bit of photography and then a bit of stop-and-searching of fellow members...

What is England?

I'm currently involved in Stuart Pilkington's 'What is England project', the first phase of which is now online.

Following on from Stuart's 50 US states project, 'What is England' features 50 photographers, each representing an English county through six themes: person (online), group, work, play, urban and rural.

A wide range of photographers are taking part, with the brief to represent their own style of photography as well as their designated county. I am the Dorset participant. On 1 May the responses to 'group' will be published online, on 1 July 'work', 1 September 'play', 1 November 'urban' and then on 1 January 2011 'rural'.

As Stuart says "hopefully by the end of 2010 the 300 images submitted over the course of the year will help to answer the brief 'What is England?'."

The initial images certainly make for fascinating viewing...