Jewish Book Week 2014
Having taken photos at Jewish Book Week in 2013, I was pleased to be invited back to cover two or three sessions at this year’s event. Lasting about 10 days (I think they call it a book week because it’s catchier than a book 10 days!) and offering 64 separate events, it really is quite an impressive feat of organisation at King’s Place in King’s Cross, London.
This year I was tasked with photographing a few sessions. The first of which was a talk by William Sutcliffe about his book, The Wall, in the smallest room of the three used for the event. The lighting in the room isn’t great and with flash not permitted, I was quite pleased with the results I got from using the Canon 70-200mm f2.8L II handheld with an ISO around 2000.
The next evening I returned to photograph a talk with holocaust survivor, Otto Dov Kulka and journalist Simon Schama discussing Kulka’s book, Landscapes Of The Metropolis of Death. In the lovely large concert hall at King’s Place, this was a great session. Otto is an amazing man and I really should read his book.
Immediately following that session I moved into the third and final room, where the announcement of the winner of the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Literary Prize was due to take place. An interesting panel discussed the shortlisted books and then proceeded to announce the aforementioned author, Otto Dov Kulka, as the winner for his book which had been featured earlier that evening in the previous session.
I finally returned on one last day to cover a great session featuring Eve Harris, who wrote a book called ‘The Marriage Of Chani Kaufman’ and a Sikh author called Sathnam Sanghera, who wrote a book called 'The Boy With The Topknot: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton’. The books shared similar themes despite coming from two different religions and backgrounds. Following that I caught a little of a session by author Irving Finkel about his book, 'The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood’.
Below are a few of my favourite pics from the event.
AJEX March 2013 on Whitehall London
Each year I head down to Whitehall on the sunday after Remembrance Sunday in November to photograph the AJEX March. AJEX is the Association for Jewish Ex Servicemen and Servicewomen.
I'm very proud to say my grandfather, having served in the Royal Navy, is the parade commander each year, meaning he leads the parade and tells them to stand to attention a few times. I like to go along to take photos of him and all the other men and women who served their country.
I love being a photojournalist on these occasions and documenting all that goes on. This year his Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent was in attendance too with his brilliant white beard.
Last year a couple of my photos were published in the Jewish Chronicle newspaper. Not this year, as they had an official photographer who was able to roam free. Regardless, here are a few of my favourite shots from this year's march.
