It is a kind of love-hate relationship or rather fear-fascination relationship. Instinctively, I am afraid of people in police dress, if I can avoid, I never speak to them. In my mind they are representing cruel and brute force. It is for this reason perhaps, that I like taking pictures of them with small children, so that the antagonism between this mental image and their actual gentleness creates a contrast in the picture.
In 1960 my father was jailed because of some anti-government protest. From his notes, I know that I and my younger sister, together with mummy, we had gone to see him. I was six years old at that time, yet I can't remember any thing about that visit, nothing absolutely. Not only, I don't have any childhood memory of such a visit while I think normally, a visit to a jail would be a very strong memory for a child. Perhaps, that visit is behind my fear-fascination of uniforms?
I don't know, but here is a selection of some pictures of uniforms from my travels. The first one is from Quito, in Ecuador. A tourist-information-centre run by a police woman in the central square of old Quito.
The one below is not a very good picture. It is from Pelorinho, the old part of Salvador in Bahia (Brazil) with the military men taking part in the annual city parade.
These are military men on a free afternoon at the lake in Geneva.
Finally, one of my personal favourites - London bobbies at Trafalgar square.
