The Crown Prosecution Service has admitted it was wrong to press on with a case against a news photographer arrested as he tried to lawfully take pictures at a crime scene.
Judge Walters at Swansea crown court described the case against Dimitris Legakis, which was dropped on the eve of his trial, as “disturbing” and said it seemed “the high point” of the prosecution was that a police officer “took offence” against someone whose job was to take photographs.
Legakis went to the scene of a car fire in Swansea on 22 September last year. It later turned out that a man called David Clarke, 80, had beaten his wife, Helen, 77, with a hammer as she sat in their car and then set fire to her.
There was a crowd of people and an altercation began. Legakis’s barrister, James Hartson, told the court his client believed he was singled out by police because he had a camera, was arrested “with considerable force” and detained for 15 hours. He was charged by police with assaulting an emergency worker.
His trial was due to start on Tuesday but the case was dropped on Monday after the prosecution said no evidence would be offered.
A CPS spokesperson said: “In a review prior to the recent hearing, we decided that there was no longer sufficient evidence to continue with the prosecution and it should be stopped. We acknowledge this should have been done sooner.”
South Wales police said: “We note the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service not to offer any evidence in this case.”
Legakis, who runs Athena Picture Agency and works for the Guardian as a freelancer, said: “I feel numb, not better or worse as the impact it has had to my mental health is still evident. I suffered nightmares and my sleep has been disturbed.
“My human right of freedom of expression was disregarded and instead of being protected by the police, I was victimised by being arrested and held in custody for 15 hours.
“My gear was seized and kept for over two months and I had to notify clients of mine of the ongoing legal process which caused me immense embarrassment.”
College of Policing guidelines say: “Reporting or filming from the scene of an incident is part of the media’s role and they should not be prevented from doing so from a public place. Police have no power or moral responsibility to stop the filming or photographing of incidents or police personnel. It is for the media to determine what is published or broadcast, not the police.
Editor’s Note: This feature is part of CNN Style’s series Hyphenated, which explores the complex issue of identity among minorities in the United States.
In one photo, Julo stares down the camera dressed in a tie-dye t-shirt, dreadlocks and a red snapback cap. In another, Adbul wears low-waisted jeans, a motorcycle jacket and a decadent fur scarf. Candace is pictured in a pair of Nike Air Jordans, her long platinum hair stark against her black shirt. These are some of the faces featured in “Muslims in America,” an ongoing photography series by British artist Mahtab Hussain.
“I grew up always being told that Islam is a way of life, but I didn’t really know what that meant,” Hussain told CNN over a video call. “But going to the US and meeting all these communities, people from all walks of life, all over the world, it’s really interesting how this Islam fits in with the culture.”
Like an intricately woven tapestry, the series stitches together the many people who share his identity, which is underrepresented in the US. In 2017, the Pew Research Center estimated there were 3.45 million Muslims living in the US — and projected that by 2040, Muslims would replace Jews as the country’s second-largest religious group after Christians. By 2050, the same study also predicted that the US Muslim population would grow to a total of 8.1 million, or 2.1% of the total population. Despite these figures, the experience of Muslims today can be misconstrued or entirely lacking from the cultural conversation.
According to the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, just 1% of all speaking characters across 200 popular TV shows in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand were Muslim. The visibility that does exists has often perpetuated harmful stereotypes. In another study that focused on the portrayals of Muslims in movies, also by the USC Annenberg, nearly 40% of primary and secondary Muslim characters across 200 top-rated films were depicted as perpetrators of violence. “The representation of Muslims on screen feeds the policies that get enacted, the people that get killed, the countries that get invaded,” wrote actor and producer Riz Ahmed, in an accompanying call-to-arms document called “The Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion.” The project outlines ways to boost Muslim representation in TV and film in order to help combat anti-Muslim hate, erasure and stereotypes.
Hussain, who was born in Glasgow to first-generation immigrants from Kashmir and Pakistan, felt compelled to challenge the misconception of Muslims in America, particularly after Islamophobia rose after the 9/11 attacks. He began the project in 2021, two decades on, as a way to visually commemorate the anniversary from another perspective. “When 9/11 happened, so many people in the communities in the US and the UK shut down, because they were fearful of being seen as being Muslim. The religion was hijacked, their narrative was completely hijacked, a lot of interesting filmmakers, musicians and cultural creatives stopped,” he said. “But in the last 20 years, I’ve seen a new wave of pride emerge about being Muslim.”
So far, Hussain has documented subjects living in New York, LA, Baltimore and Toronto, Canada. His sitters are a mix of people responding to open casting calls as well as ones he spots while riding his bike through city streets. Some wear hijabs and kufi hats, others are dressed in tank tops, hoodies, cargo pants and mini skirts. As a British Pakistani Muslim, he says he’s noticed that the makeup of the community across the pond is more diverse. “The major difference is diversity. I’ve met people from all over the world in the US who are Muslim: Palestinians, people from all over Africa. LA has one of the largest Iranian populations. It’s not the same in Britain.”
The result is a rich portfolio, capturing people of different ages and ethnicities as well as their clothing choices — some appear covered up, while others show more skin and tattoos. Not only do Hussain’s photographs visually challenge the way American Muslims have been portrayed, he has also offered space for his subjects to share their experiences. In transcribed interviews printed alongside the images, they open up about issues such as the balancing act of embracing aspects of US culture and honouring their faith. Whether to wear a hijab or not, for example, played on the mind of some of the women he has lensed, while others reflected on the stigma of dressing modestly in a Western society. “There’s no narrative that I’m trying to push through,” he said. “It’s about what the community is saying, and who these people are. That’s how I’ve always made my work.”
According to Hussain, many of the people he met saw Islam as something forgiving and evolving, rather than strict and fundamentalist. “I’m learning so much from the people I meet,” he told CNN. “The LGBTQ community in New York City absolutely schooled me with regards to what Islam means to them. There’s a narrative that says if you’re gay or queer, you can’t be religious. But they (embraced) their journey and struggle.”
His next installment will take place in Dearborn, Michigan, a city with the largest population of Muslims in the entire nation. In 2022, Democrat Abdullah Hammoud became Dearborn’s first Arab American mayor, and has been in the spotlight recently for raising concerns about US President Joe Biden’s response to the conflict in Gaza.
“I worry Biden will be remembered not as the president who saved American democracy but as the president who sacrificed it for Netanyahu,” the mayor wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times in February.
Many members of Dearborn’s Arab American and Muslim American communities have openly rejected Biden for his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Hussain, who typically tries to keep the project as positive in tone as possible, is planning a trip to the city in order to capture Muslim residents in this politically-charged atmosphere. (Michigan is a key state in the 2024 election).
“I think it’s really important there’s a chapter in the work that talks about this,” he said. “Yes, this (series) is about looking positively at a new identity that’s formed in the US, but October 7 shifted the conversation again.” This month, the Pew Research Center published a survey that found 70% of US Muslims believe discrimination against Muslims has increased since the Israel-Hamas war began, and over 50% say they feel afraid of news around the war.
“It just shows how delicate this all is, especially for Muslims in the US.”
Hussain says the response to the series has so far been affirming, with many participants celebrating his mission to broaden Muslim representation. “Everyone was really open to being part of the work,” he said.
“Strangers would come up to me and hug me. The love that I received, it absolutely changed me as a person.”
More of Mahtab Hussain’s work can be found here.
Every year, the United States Postal Service launches several collections of new stamps that are dedicated to holidays, art, famous people and more.
This year, Iowa’s own Phil Roeder, spokesperson for Des Moines Public Schools, is one of the artists bestowed with the honor of having their work featured on a U.S. postage stamp.
The collection of 10 stamps that Roeder’s photo is featured in, “Carnival Nights,” features scenes of fairs and carnivals — full of vibrant neon lights, rides and fireworks against the night sky — from across the country. Roeder’s stamp will include an image of the Ferris wheel at the Iowa State Fair.
Roeder originally took the photo to be used on the stamp in the summer of 2014.
“I’m pleased that they even included at least one photo of the Iowa State Fair,” he said. “I don’t think you could do a series on carnival nights and ignore the State Fair.”
Roeder regularly works with royalty-free website Getty Images, which is how U.S. Postal Service found the photo.
“These will probably end up mostly in the bottom of people’s garbage cans after they open their mail, but it’s still a nice way and rewarding way to share something that you made,” Roeder said. “If nothing else this shows my photograph is first class.”
Stamps are selected by the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, members of which are appointed by the postmaster general. The group selects subjects for future stamp issues.
“Whether young or young at heart, everyone loves spending a summer evening at a carnival,” a brief on the “Carnival Nights” stamp collection from USPS says. “The stomach-twisting thrill rides, the indulgent snacks and sweets, and the general spirit of light-hearted fun make America’s carnivals and fairs a place for visitors of any age to enjoy.”
Roeder’s photo was chosen because it fit the “Carnival Nights” theme and the USPS’ criteria for stamps.
“We chose to use this photograph of a Ferris wheel because it, along with the others, captures the color and lights and motion of the carnival,” USPS art director Greg Breeding said in a statement to the Register. “The perspective is from the ground, almost like someone who might be waiting in line for a ride. It’s a little intimidating but also fun, so it very much captures the spirit of the Carnival Nights issuance.”
The “Carnival Nights” collection won’t be available until June 6 but will be available for preorder at the beginning of May on the USPS website, store.usps.com.
Customers who preorder will not receive the stamps in the mail before June 6.
Once they are fully released, they will be available to purchase at the USPS website or at your local USPS location. They will cost the same as an average stamp — 68 cents a piece or $13.60 for a book of 20.
Roeder, the director of communications and public affairs for Des Moines Public Schools, does more than handle media requests and maintain the school district’s website and social media presence. He also is a photographer, having his work in publications like the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time, NPR, Forbes and other major news outlets.
Roeder went back to school in 2023 and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography at Arizona State University. He is currently pursuing his master’s in photography from Falmouth University, which is based in England.
“I guess, in a way, I’m practicing what I preach with my day job with my position at the school district,” Roeder said. “It was a rewarding experience not only what I learned in my (photography) program, but also to have that vantage point of being a student again.”
Kyle Werner is a reporter for the Register. Reach him at kwerner@dmreg.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowan will have his Iowa State Fair photo featured on a new stamp
NERD Productions are delighted to introduce Manos to its continuously expanding talent roster. With his remarkable portfolio featuring delectable food photography, captivating portraits brimming with purpose, and the mesmerising landscapes of the Mediterranean, Manos brings a unique creative flair to our team. In an exclusive interview, NERD had the pleasure of discussing Manos’ portfolio, his award-winning image for the Portrait for Humanity, and the diverse array of influences that shape his distinctive style.
Manos Chatzikonstantis is a photographer inspired by good food, fascinated by light, captivated by elegant and appetising compositions and also passionate about the smallest detail in each of his carefully crafted images. His food shots, be they in the studio or on location are natural, inviting and always entice you to wonder about the story behind them. Manos showcases a distinctive ability to connect with places and people. His Mediterranean cultural roots are evident in the richness of textures, skilful play with shadows, and the use of colour. These elements collectively contribute to the unique and distinctive character of his work.
His extensive portfolio includes contributions to numerous award-winning food and travel books worldwide.
Manos has crafted for various clients like Quadrille Books, Departures Magazine, Atlas Magazine by Etihad, N Magazine by Norwegian, Murdoch Books, Vogue (GR), Kyle Books, Smith Street Books, ECM Records, Linwood Fabrics, Ink Global (UK), Pepsico and Ouzo Plomari.
Manos> Creative expression comes from diverse parenthood. So many things in one’s life, many of them unconscious, contribute to one’s style. I suppose growing up in Greece, being familiar with strong light and shadows plays a role. Warm sun, reflections, the softness of the evening. These kinds of things. Working with great people as an assistant is also quite formative. Observing art plays its role, I suppose, as does literature. One resonates subconsciously with certain elements, with certain techniques. I believe in observing the world closely and photography is pretty much the profession to follow if you are like that and a horrid draughtsman at the same time.
Manos> What’s important is to understand the food itself and what the shot is for. It’s like a portrait really, where you have to connect with the person at some level and convey something. I need to know what the food is about, where it comes from, and what traditions it’s connected with. Then comes the technical part. Chat with the team if this is part of a production. Which bits need to be highlighted, how this particular food reacts with light and colour? And in the end, one has to have a story going. Where are we, where is this dish supposed to be, whose place is this? Even if it’s just a white background where the food is placed, it should bear the soul of the people involved in preparing it.
Manos> I believe that one’s style has to be true to oneself to have some significance. I’m equally fascinated by the South as I am by the northern crisp sunlight or the shadows of an object lit through a window on a gloomy day. Maybe having lived in Germany and the UK, being originally from Greece. I somehow came to understand and appreciate the southern narrative elements better and learn how to combine them with the northern ones. That might be one thing. And the other might be that I don’t particularly care for stereotypes and try to avoid them. Removing elements usually works better than adding.
Manos> Oh, I love this image. The great thing about living in London is that you rub shoulders with all those cultures, all those different people. The shot was made in Stamford Hill, where most of the Jewish Orthodox community lives. I was working on a book about Jewish kosher cuisine at the time and Purim was going on, a religious celebration similar to carnival. People get totally bonkers there during the festival. It’s a wonderful thing to observe and interestingly not many Londoners know about it. I was roaming the streets, camera in hand and these kids were just coming out of their place to join the festivities. I took a shot, then they noticed me and as they gave me a shy smile I managed another two shots. One of them made the Portrait of Humanity competition. A lovely moment.
Manos> Here’s two:
I love Superbad.
When I edit photos I listen to weird, modular, glitch music. Or Frank Zappa’s mad guitar riffs.
See more from Manos here.
I met Steve McCurry at a gathering at Punahou School last week.
No sooner had I introduced myself when we got into a funny and heated conversation over whether he was a photographer or an artist.
I thought he should call himself a photographer. He said he was an artist. I said, no he was a famous photographer. And so it went, back and forth, laughing, until we were asked to sit down to a fancy bento box lunch of roasted vegetables and sauteed kajiki.
McCurry was at Punahou April 1-3 as part of the school’s Creative Greats, a program to introduce students to legendary figures in the arts. For more than five decades, he has traveled the world as a photographer/artist capturing scenes of humanity and beauty to connect viewers to people and events they might never experience themselves.
He is famous, very famous, for his photograph “Afghan Girl,” the 12-year-old refugee with penetrating green eyes whose face in June 1985 became one of the most widely viewed National Geographic magazine covers ever.
McCurry photographed the girl in 1984 — without recording her name — coming across her in a makeshift girls’ school in a tent in a refugee village near Peshawar, where he stopped to take photos of the students and noticed her stunning face.
She had escaped with her siblings and her grandmother after walking for two months over high mountains to get to the Pakistan refugee camp after Russians bombed her village during the Soviet-Afghan war.
McCurry is renowned today not just for his image of the Afghan Girl but for hundreds of other pictures taken in places stretching across the world — depicting people in wars, natural disasters, celebrating important cultural festivals or just living their daily lives.
His photos evoke surprise and wonder mainly through the direct gaze of many of his subjects who make a viewer feel at one with them.
During a presentation on April 2 in the Punahou chapel for students, faculty and alumni, McCurry was asked by Punahou alumna Marcia Kemble how he approached his subjects to get them to relate to him so he could take such close personal photos. It was a question many other people asked during his visit.
McCurry said he learned to gain acceptance over time by trial and error. In 1983, he said he was photographing a family in Old Delhi, India when a man started screaming at him to give him the film. A crowd gathered. “I knew they would kill me if I didn’t give him the film. I did not want to ever have that happen again. I always try to understand, is this the right thing to do? Is it respectful? I always try to treat people with dignity and respect.”
He said he tries to make conversation with a person he hopes to photograph and when there is no common language between them, he said he even uses gestures or a tip of the head. A smile can go a long way.
A student asked about the danger of his work.
He said he came close to getting killed in Mumbai, India in 1993 while taking pictures of people in a festival carrying large statues of the Indian god Ganesha into the water. He was in the water himself to get the pictures at twilight when a group of men attacked him, pushing him under.
“They were pounding on me, holding me down,” he said. “I lost every piece of camera equipment, but the film was OK in canisters.”
He also nearly perished in a two-seater airplane taking aerial photos of a lake in Slovenia. The pilot flew too low. One of the planeʻs wheels hit a wave in the lake and it crashed, flipping upside down in the water. McCurry was trapped underwater until he figured out how to wiggle out of an elaborate safety harness and heavy helmet holding him down. “It was the worst experience in my life,” he said.
He was asked how much of his work is technique versus art and how he knew when he had a great photo.
“As time goes on, you learn how to translate what goes onto paper. In the early days when I got back to the darkroom with photos I thought were great, I saw I had not paid attention to the background in a picture and how it should fit together with the foreground. You learn to pay attention to the quality of light. You learn to hone your eye,” he said.
At an earlier event at Punahou, McCurry talked about the Afghan Girl, Sharbat Gula, a singular photo considered by many to be a work of art.
He said he came across her when was covering the war, traveling back and forth across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in 1984 and stopped to visit one of the many refugee camps in Pakistan.
In the camp, he said could hear the voices of children in a tent that turned out to be a girls’ school taught by a woman who had been injured in the war.
The teacher gave him permission to photograph the students in hopes that it might draw the attention of the outside world to the plight of the refugees.
When he saw the girl with the green eyes sitting in a corner, he found her face astonishing. “I knew I had to get a picture of this girl,” he said.
She was shy, he said, but when she saw him photographing the other girls, she became more comfortable. “It was almost like she felt excluded if I didn’t take her picture,” he said. He took photos of Gula both with her shawl covering half of her face and her full face.
McCurry said at the time he knew it was a great picture. But the most important photo shoot of his life was over fast. Gula jumped up and ran off to play with the other girls, just like that.
After her face appeared on the National Geographic cover, McCurry said not a day passed without dozens of readers writing or calling the magazine asking how they could help her with money, food, goods. Men even wanted to marry her. She became the symbol of the suffering of Afghan villagers caught in the middle of death and destruction not of their own making.
In 2002, McCurry and a film crew from National Geographic returned to Pakistan where they launched a difficult search for her, initially not even knowing her name.
“So many people pretended to be her. They swore up and down they were the girl,” he said. Men pretended to be her husband. When they finally found Gula in a village in the mountains on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, she of course looked much older, a married woman with four children.
Gula now lives in Italy, where she was granted asylum in 2021 after the Taliban took over Afghanistan. She had been welcomed back to Afghanistan in 2017 after she had been arrested and threatened with deportation by the Pakistani government for using forged identification papers — a common practice by hundreds of Afghan refugees in Pakistan as they struggled to remain in the country. The Afghanistan government at the time welcomed her back with a large new home and a stipend.
But when the Taliban seized Afghanistan, Gulaʻs supporters knew she needed to leave for her own safety with the government cracking down on women, especially celebrities in a country where Taliban officials wanted women to be invisible.
McCurry still lives in Philadelphia, where he grew up. He said when he was 19, he took off from his family’s home to live in Europe for a year, which made him realize he wanted to travel for the rest of his life.
“I started to realize there is a big world out there. I wanted to see it all but I realized I needed a purpose. I couldn’t just travel. I went back to school,” he said.
After he graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in film and fine art photography, he worked for two years as a news photographer at the now-defunct newspaper, the Philadelphia Bulletin.
When he had saved enough money, he took off for what he expected to be six-week trip to India, which turned into two years. After that trip, he kept returning to India as his career as a photographer flourished. In the years since, he has worked in dozens of other countries.
He urged the Punahou students to put down their devices and get out to see the world, “to enjoy the adventure of being human. To experience life happening right in front of you. To see the commonality of humanity no matter where you are. You can really learn a lot.”
At age 74, he doesn’t intend to stop. After the Punahou visit, he headed home to Philadelphia to regroup before taking off on assignments in Italy and Cambodia.
“If you are doing what you love, why stop? This is what energizes me,” he said. “This is what gives purpose to my life.”
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