Our photographer this year is Scott Hortop, aka Scotty H. His first involvement with WNBR was as a marshal at the London ride in 2013 and then as guest photographer of the Tower Hill start of the 2014 ride. He is currently helping with the organisation of the Brighton Naked Bike Ride, an event he participated in originally in 2013 from a body positivity angle but now he is mainly motivated by it being part of the diverse climate protest movement.
Having photographed at nine rides now, Scott is acutely aware of the challenges of photographing people wearing little or no clothing, most of whom do not know him. He shuns the big black cameras with big lenses that he once used professionally, and this certainly helps, but most people will only feel truly comfortable if they know how their image might be used.
Scott sees his role as guest photographer to get images that fulfil two needs:
- The need of WNBR as a protest movement to have images to help publicise the causes that are important to us
- The desire of many riders to be able to have a place to remember the event and perhaps find images of themselves
Along the route of the ride there will be photographers from news agencies who will be looking for images to appear in the Sunday and Monday editions of the newspapers and online. Many participants in the ride are quite happy to get featured and from our point of view that is great, their body painting, slogans and demeanour cry out for coverage. If you are not that sort of person, then don’t be put off participating, we can’t guarantee anything but if there is one place where it’s possible to be low key while naked it is among the huge numbers of the London World Naked Bike Ride!
There are some tips about photography policy and how to avoid unwelcome attention on our Photography Policy page.
Scott will be at the Tower Hill start, at the finish and at the Afterparty. At these venues he’ll only be taking photos where he’s clear he’s got permission – he may additionally ask you if the image can be added to our library to use in our publicity. We hope that you’ll help us in this but if not that’s fine.
Scott will also be out on the route at two or three locations away from crowded areas getting photos of riders as they pass. If you see him then a simple smile and wave makes for some of the best images. As for any other photographer, if you do not want to be photographed, hold up your hand in a stop gesture or shake your head. Like it or not there will be thousands (mainly excited spectators and tourists) taking photos of the ride but he’ll be easy to spot in a bright pink tabard (poor chap). Why bright pink? No dodgy or pro photographer is going to be wearing bright pink!
The day after the ride, Scott will be busy at the Brighton WNBR (not taking photos) and he’ll be working to edit his images as the following week progresses. He’ll put the best photos on his website and they will carry a watermark that will deter people who may wish to steal images but which should not ruin your enjoyment of them. If you want a print they will be available at a reasonable cost with 50% of money made coming into London WNBR coffers. If there’s a picture of you that you want removed you only have to ask.
Married with two grown up children and now more or less retired, in previous lives Scott was a professional commercial photographer with a focus on party photography and capturing people in the workplace.
His website is at www.ScottyH.com and his photos from various naked bike rides are hidden away at https://www.scottyh.com/-/galleries/events/world-naked-bike-ride