February 18th 2023. Manvers, Rotherham.
Fascist organisation Patriotic Alternative called for a demonstration outside the Holiday Express hotel which was housing a number of refugees. This was following from a small protest in Mansfield and a large, violent protest in Knowsley in the preceding week.
A counter protest was organised by Rotherham TUC and the wider trade union movement alongside anti-fascist and anti-racism campaigners.
Over two hundred people attended the counter-protest outside the hotel with no more than 75 racists who largely gathered on a roundabout a short-distance from the hotel. In keeping the bulk of the fascists away and by turning up in much larger numbers, the counter protesters could claim victory.
I covered the event live on Open Nottingham and in a subsequent round up of the racist protesters.
From a photojournalism perspective, my role was to capture pictures which captured the spirit of the event. In the live thread, I was facing the challenges of shooting, editing and reporting the images in real time, all via my phone. After the event I was able to review and edit the photos in a more meaningful way.
I can’t say any of the images were great, at least from a photo-journalism perspective, with none of them matching national newspaper quality. Though reviewing the coverage in local press and on the regional BBC, my photos were not significantly different.