I almost missed Mayday 2000, I was on a plane coming back from Amsterdam when the protest started. I managed to get home, dump my case and head into central London with an M6 and a few rolls of film.
The main body of the protest was in Trafalgar Square which had been sealed off by riot police. A number of protestors were on the outside of the cordon trying to get into the Square, so this is what I started to shoot first.
A few protesters were trying to talk to the police and to persuade them through the lines to join their friends in the Square, there was a little push and shove but no real violence. A protestor approached the police line his arm extended as if to shake hands (frame 21), the police ignored him and his gesture as I fired off four frames (no motordrive on the M6!). The picture came together in frame 23, the laughing children in the background, the stony faced police officer, the riot shields and helmets, and the disembodied arm and hand extending in a gesture of goodwill. A closer inspection of the negative revealed that there was a tiny anarchy tattoo on the protestors hand, a tiny detail which added a lot to the shot.
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