© Jeff Pitcher

Every Pitcher tells a story

Ben Thompson introduces us to photographer Jeff Pitcher who is part of this weekend’s Sunday Afternoon at the Mint House.

Jeff Pitcher is one of the most familiar – and instantly recognisable – figures on the Hastings music scene. If you’ve seen a great photo of Hot Wax or Otti or Ye Nuns, the chances are it was Jeff who took it. And his signature personal style – described in the introduction to a recent collection of his photos as “Scandal-hit basketball star’s lanky frame topped off with a Burmese warlord’s beret” – can’t camouflage his restless hunger for the shots no-one else could have got.

In parallel with his developing profile as East Sussex’s answer to Pennie Smith, Pitcher has also built up an important portfolio of work detailing the many political protests he’s attended in the twelve years since the Balcombe fracking protest defined a new direction in the former Spitfire heart-throb’s life and work (for anyone who doesn’t remember the band who gave Jeff his big break in showbiz, they were garage rock n rollers also featuring Aircooled and The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Justin Welch). At the time of that landmark incidence of direct action, Pitcher was coming to the end of a tricky domestic situation “to a point where I actually felt safer confronting the heavy-handed policing than I did staying at home”, he laughs drily.

Balcombe fracking camp © Jeff Pitcher

“I ended up living in Balcombe anti-frack camp (then Barton Moss, Salford camp) for nearly four months in 2013”, Pitcher continues. “I loved the passion there and was welcomed with open arms from day one. People knew i was there for the right reason. So many of the photographers were there for work and the money. I would post my images daily – I never saw anything by the others. They all went off to Getty or news agencies, I guess, and we never saw anything they shot.The mix of anarchists/hippies/radicals and older posh Conservative locals all fighting the same cause was something very special. It’s definitely where these teeth got cut. I learned so much from Balcombe: clever direct action, lock-ons, a heavy MET police presence and violent arrests of peaceful protesters were daily occurrences, but it was also a mad pantomime. It was shocking, depressing but exhilarating – reminiscent in many ways of the recent Palestine Action protests. We got the nation talking about it, they couldn’t frack under the radar, that was the victory, Britain knew what was going on because of what we all did there”.

I think the main question I wanted to ask Jeff was about the relationship between photographing gigs and demos – something he’s very good at in the first is capturing people at the exact moment they (at least subconsciously) most want to be immortalised and I wondered if that’s the same with a protest?

“Well, I personally actually hate being photographed and I genuinely don’t understand anyone who likes it. That felt like a massive hurdle when I started taking photographs and I’m still confused by it.

I’m in no way a pushy person – watching the old press photographers demand Dylan ‘suck his glasses’ in 1965s ‘Don’t Look Back’ had a huge influence on how I act as a photographer, so I went in completely the opposite direction. But I do understand style – and what looks good. And, weirdly, not all photographers seem have that basic ability anymore.

© Jeff Pitcher

I treat every situation and almost every photograph I take very differently. And my emotions are heightened when I hold that camera. You have to feel what you are doing to be good at anything. Sadly I’m someone that feels way too much. It’s quite exhausting”.

“Everything I photograph has a different dynamic, especially protest”, Jeff continues. If I believe in what I’m seeing the people I photograph seem to genuinely know that – and trust me. It’s well known I can’t shapeshift, I can’t act. That is both a positive – and in the case of the far-right / Farage stuff a massive negative for me. But I have grown into this person that’s quite fearless (just don’t ask me to talk about my work.)

I’ll stand with – and up to anyone. I’ve always been like that – but that became even stronger with a camera in my hand 25 years ago. The camera became a powerful weapon and an impenetrable shield”.

Are there any differences between the etiquette of shooting live music and political protests? Presumably the fact that someone is playing a gig means you can take for granted that they want you to photograph them, whereas that might not be the case on a demo?

“Not really – people want to be seen, they are proud to be there. In fact gigs are much harder to shoot in this strange country – you have lights, smoke and a hundred people standing pissed off because you’re in their way – to think about. There’s a rough and tumble with protest that has been lost in rock n roll. I find protest incredibly easy to photograph and I don’t question my skills of knowing and understanding. It’s a rare super-power and I’ve not got too many of those right now.

Palestine, Trump, Russia, the white noise these new flag-wavers (and painters) are making is getting much louder; the links between thugs and supposedly mainstream politicians desperately need to be called out. Ignorance has become celebrated – I noticed that starting when I was still at school in the 1980s. And look at today – war crimes and Israel’s horrific genocide of journalists in Gaza are actually normalised and we’re told ‘justified’? – and the camera is the weapon Israel fears the most…
Protest is about to get quite nasty again.

© Jeff Pitcher

Dark times need the sharpest light to illuminate them and Pitcher’s camera is a powerful force for good. See his political protest photos exhibited for the first time under the banner “Silence is Deadly” at this week’s Sunday Afternoon at the Mint House event in Pevensey, which Faber author Richard King has dubbed “a harvest festival for the soul”.

You can read more about the event at The Mint House here.
Tickets are £20 (+ booking fee). Capacity is only 50, so booking your tickets in advances via Eventbrite is recommended.

Also in: Photography