When I went down to 7th and Olympic in West Los Angeles I was looking for a guy I’d heard gave food to the homeless there every afternoon. I was going to see if he could give me any leads on people living in their cars. He wasn’t there that day but Charles and his wife Delores were.

As I spoke to them they told me very openly and simply how they had ended up on the streets. They told me how they had been living in their van for the last 6 months after they lost their home they how they had to keep moving around town every few days to avoid their vehicle being towed. How Charles had to go round with a gas can at filling stations begging people for a little petrol to keep the van running.

The van was old and barely ran, doors were held shut with a bungee cord. A window on the side was missing so at night they draped a sheet over the side of the car for some meagre privacy and protection from the weather. The back was packed with all the clothes and belongings they could fit.

They told me how Charles earned a small income as a carer for his sick wife, Delores, and how they looked through the free newspapers every week for medical trials to take part in to earn some extra cash.

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A month or so ago I travelled to Los Angeles for 3 weeks to photograph stories around the recession, as well as any other stories I came across while I was out there. Over the next few weeks I’ll be blogging the different stories I shot. This first instalment is from the Prop 8 protests that started up soon after I arrived on election night. 

Within days of arriving the movement surrounding the ‘No On 8′ campaign erupted into large street protests after a narrow defeat at the polls.  The new law meant that same-sex couples could no longer marry in California.

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

- Proposition 8, California State Constitution

The ‘No On 8′ campaign had been organising lots of protests all over the state at very short notice using the internet, specifically the social networking site Twitter As I watched the morning news I cursed myself for missing a large demonstration the night before in downtown LA, just a few blocks from where I was staying, where a protester had jumped on a cop car they mentioned there was another protest later that day outside the Mormon Temple.

Eager not to miss out again I grabbed my lonely planet guide and frantically flicked through it hoping it would be listed, thankfully it was, I worked out which busses to get, grabbed my kit and made the 2 hour trip across town.

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Quite a few new sets of photos up in the gallery. First off we have a march in Newham over the Forest Gate terror raids, with some rather angry people, rightfully so. Then there are two sets from Elephant and Castle, first of a brilliant audio tour of the area that was part of Architecture week. Swiftly followed by a marching band through the subways and supermarket there, all very bizarre but quite genius.

And finally is a small set of pictures of the Guerrilla Gardeners in the more-upmarket-than-usual surroundings of Knightsbridge. Instead of the usual ruble, creditcards and crisp packets found when digging around they turned up a small pot of honey, posh peoples rubbish indeed.

Today I was at the Free Palestine march/speakers in Westminster. Yet again the weather wasn’t sure if was rain or shine, although it eventually settled on a constant dizzle.

The pictures will eventually be part of my Muslims in Britain project which was kickstarted by the cartoon protests earlier this year. I hope to move the project forward from just protests, but for the moment I’ve got other things on that require my attention more urgently.

Also up are (yet) more gardening shots, including some from a daytime mission that I’ve done in B&W, it’s been a while since I dabbled in mono and I’m quite pleased with the results.

For Mayday I started off with the march (more picnic, there were only 8 or so protesters) to parliament Sq. the police followed alongside in a van and ‘observed’ when they got to the Square everyone sat down and had some lunch, dissidents indeed.

I then went off and found the Space Hijackers outside the Bank of England, where they had a Police victory party which included anarchist pinata, bash the pacifist, pin the blame on the anarchist and a Mayday maypole. The pictures are up in the gallery.

More gardening this week, with a dig in Stratford on Thursday. Last night’s pics are also up in the gallery now. – J

Two new shoots are up, A third dig with the Guerrilla Gardeners and the Love Music Hate Racism gig. I want to get a few more shots of the gardeners before I make it into a single project, next week they’re in Stratford so a new location may prove interesting.

The LMHR gig was a blast, my ears still hurt… must get some earplugs. There are over 30 images in the gallery at the mo’ and I may add/rejig them around a bit as I’m not entirely happy with structure of the thing yet.

Tomorrow is Mayday, there’s a lot going on and I’m torn over what to cover. There’s the main TUC march in Trafalgar, but there’s also a Critical Mass at the same time. The Space Hijackers are up to no good outside the Bank of England as well. Finally ‘People in Common’ will be trying to defy the exclusion zone around Parliment Sq. A risky move and one likely to be met with resistance by the police. We shall have to wait and see, til’ then. – J.