Protest Pen

Whitehall, London

Ongoing

1st zine in series available here.

Protest Pen explores a photographer’s journey into the Truth Seeker or Truther movement through a group occupying a fenced-off, protest-permitted area, known as the Protest Pen, directly opposite Downing Street.

Known as conspiracy theorists to some, the movement is a loose, informal community that resists labels and generalisation, subsequently making the analysis of such groups difficult. As such, the project attempts to work with a bottom-up approach, using excerpts of informal interviews with Truthers to build an overall narrative. These individuals are undoubtedly varied in character and life experiences. The beliefs they share are often based on the most tenuous or tangential of evidence, relying on one’s own internal logic and anecdote — you must only cast doubt on the status quo for a theory to become worthy of discussion.

Protest Pen stands out due to the unparalleled access afforded by the months of groundwork with members of the community. The project intends to shed light not on specific theories – often too convoluted to easily discuss – but instead on the humanity of the Truthers. Social isolation, family tragedies, and mental illness: the community is not simply a fringe political group: it is a refuge for those who, like so many of us, have felt lost and scared in a world that is quite clearly broken.

The difficulty of depicting often abstract beliefs is circumvented through the use of interviews and photographs. Subjects are allowed to shape their own narrative, while both the photographer’s scepticism and the evidentiary nature of the image keep the more outlandish claims in check.

Ollie G. Monk