Photo by Amy Weston/Wenn.com
Hello Chase how are you? I am Amy Weston and I took the photo of the women jumping at the London riots. I came across your blog, but I could not figure out how to respond to some of the comments posted… [so I emailed you.] Your question was To Shoot or Not to Shoot.
My answer to that is: to shoot!
I live my life looking into my lens, I see a world passing me by and I photograph it.
Although I have said to shoot, I don’t always keep images, I …[sometimes] take the pictures to report a story of sadness and despair, and then I only send pictures of the chaos and the aftermath to a paper to be printed. The rest I delete…
To take a picture of a staving child could save a life. To take a picture of animal cruelty could save an animal. And could stop cruelty.
When I went out that night to photograph the riots, I didn’t want to get a picture of looters. I felt fear from them, it was like they had been put on the planet and were of a completely different mind set to the normal sane reality that comes with common human decency.
It was not the London I have shared for 10 years.
In front off me was a burning fire like nothing I have ever seen before and behind me was a market street bright with street lights but looked like a war zone.
When I turned my head back towards the fire and I heard the shouting that a women was about to jump I looked into my lens and…the world around me went silent. I heard nothing just the clicking off my camera, I knew what I had seen. I knew what was in side my camera, but I had no idea of the impact that it would have.
The moment I took those frames and once she had landed I could see her running away, I held my hand over my mouth in shock at what was happening.
In answer to a comment on the blog, I never hung around to get names, I was in a war zone. After the silence I experienced, it became insane noise of explosions and people screaming at each other. I covered my camera inside my cardigan and ran towards my car to be told by riot police to turn back. So I had to then run via the very road I had just seen behind me full of rioters and people turning on other people. I ran non stop till I reached another road blocked by riot police who again tried to stop me. I showed him my press pass, and he let me go past him to my car.
Getting names and ‘hanging’ around was not a safe option.
I don’t believe this [photo] fueled any rioters or looters. I think this image shows something breath taking, life and death, a moment in time. When I look at the image now I hear the silence I experienced…if that is even possible for anyone else to understand. I have not yet met Monika, the lady who jumped.
I read some very positive comments on your blog, so thank you to all those people and the positive feedback
Love and peace to this wonderful, fragile world we live in. Amy x
Photo by Amy Weston/Wenn.com
In this instance I’m not sure why people are questioning whether Amy should have helped or not.
There are clearly at least 2 people already helping, in what looks like riot gear, police officers or firefighters or perhaps military personnel. In any case, they are likely far more capable of executing a rescue than Amy.
Wow!! great lucky capture,
“I live my life looking into my lens, I see a world passing me by and I photograph it.”
I could quote the rest of the interview but lets face it, it sounds like she is on or needs acid, and needing help.
She got a very lucky image, got it on to chases feed and now deserves worldwide recognition?.
Did she know that image was going to come?, did she plan on the child being passed out of the window?? Please forgive my scepticism (unless this is posed) but are we all now wonderful photographers if we get a lucky shot and get on Chases blog? I love Amy’s Image, and I understand it’s news worthiness, Chase’s post was about shoot or not shoot, that is up to the shooter I suppose.
I say well done Amy for managing to catch the moment in front of her,
For me, I take images everyday and hope for the day that Chase or Joe Mcnally “Likes” one of my Images,
P.S. courtesy of my 8 yr old son, I sponsor 5 Dolphins, an elephant and 2 tigers, I have a 3 legged rescue dog and a 1 eyed rabbit that I rescued from trampling by cows by throwing myself under the path of the combine harvester. I support world Peace and hope that no children wherever they are in the world should suffer from hunger………….. I just don’t use it as a means of self promotion
@Andy
You sound like a bitter, jealous ass.
No, u missed the point, read the whole post, i have already said its a great capture and i’m not dismissing that or having a go at Amy, its the “I love fluffy animals ” and “teddy bears theme” of the email and the presumption that Amy set out to capture this image, she didn’t.
gone quiet?? hmmm
Andy, I too find your comment negative, disparaging and self-promoting. ‘Lucky shot’ it was not, Amy put herself in the situation where she may get THE SHOT rather than surrounding herself with fluffy bunnies.
How can ‘I live my life looking into my lens’ mean she is on drugs or needs to be when you obviously like photography too and shows you have little understanding of the drug you chose to insult her with.
You could just say – Well done, nice photo and thank you for taking the time to explain how it was took.
Andy,
As a former pro photographer in the ’80s, I now make images because I love to make them. I could care less if Chase or Joe McNally ever sees them or likes them.
I photographed some rioters during the Vancouver Stanley cup riots… but all I got was a concussion, a broken lens, and 3 stitches.
http://www.cameronbrown.ca/blog/2011/06/shame-vancouvers-2011-stanley-cup-riots/
Sometimes it’s important to keep your distance
Great shot and it really captured the nation at the time, will be an icon of the riots for years to come.
I am guessing that most readers of this blog have seen the BMW short films from a few years ago called “The Hire” and starring Clive Owen. One was called “Powder Keg” and was directed by Alejandro Inarritu. Just in case, here’s the link to it on youtube: http://youtu.be/22n7TX90vXM
I think Inarritu pegged his portrayal of the conflict debated here.