I first became aware of Hackney Wick over the last year or so and went once or twice for lunch. Last year I went to the Hackney Wicked arts festival held there and was struck by how raw the place felt – none of the normal sensibilities of any London arts event I had been to. The event had an energy to it which for some of the time didn’t feel entirely comfortable.

I went for a wander last weekend to have a look at the place and take some pictures – I was interested in this enclave of artists nestling so close to the massive modern structure of the Olympic park.

As soon as I got out of my car I could see two young men painting a mural on a wall – not an everyday sight on London’s streets – but it looked entirely normal. In fact when I got close to them I could see another couple of artists doing the same thing further up the road.

Artists are attracted to the area because of the relative cost of space and Hackney Wick now boasts the most densely populated area for artists in London. Between the artists studios there are warehouses, factories and churches.

The place is bustling with people from all over the world, but because it has no through road you have to be going there for a reason. As a result it feels peaceful – like a massive industrial village in the heart of east London.

I left the Occupy protest camp at St Paul’s cathedral in London to go to Starbucks to file the pictures that I had taken. As I walked through the door I saw this man sitting there; of course it made me smile. I took a few images of him and then a member of staff put their hand over my lens. I knew that I had something, so it was fine. I sat close to him, got his name (Adam Murray) and sent the picture in. It was with the office a few minutes after I took it – I wish they were all that easy!

About 40 prisoners took part in rioting at Ford prison near Arundel, southern England, that began around midnight (7 p.m. EST) on New Year’s Eve, the Prison Service said.

More than 12 hours later, scores of prison officers in riot gear escorted two fire engines into the prison to protect firefighters while they fought a blaze consuming a wooden accommodation block in the sprawling rural prison.

Television footage showed several other recreation buildings turned to charred rubble by fires lit during the night.

The trouble started when prisoners began smashing windows and starting fires, forcing staff to retreat, the Prison Service said. There were no reports of injuries to staff or prisoners, it said in a statement.

Around 140 extra prison guards were brought in to quell the trouble, it said. One of two affected wings had been brought back under the authorities’ control.

A Prison Service source said there would be an investigation later into the cause of the riot.

Ford is an “open prison” where inmates are not generally confined to individual cells and may work outside. Several hundred prisoners are believed to be housed there.

Mark Freeman, deputy general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, the prison guards’ trade union, said the trouble began when guards tried to breathalyse some prisoners suspected of drinking alcohol and they refused.

Freeman sought to link the incident to public spending cuts that Britain’s coalition government has embarked on to cut a budget deficit of around 10 percent of national output.

“We understand management have been trying to reduce the amount of prison officers working here (at Ford) and I think that this should be a stark reminder of just how dangerous even open-prison condition prisoners can be,” he told Sky News.

“We say we are 1,000 prison officers short and yet they (the government) want to look to make people redundant over the next few years,” he said.

The Ministry of Justice, responsible for prisons, must cut spending by an average of 6 percent a year over the next few years. The Prison Officers’ Association is fighting the plans, which it says will endanger its members’ health and safety.

I approached it in the usual way and made sure I had a couple of clear head shots of him talking. I walked around the scene a few times and noticed that I could see Kristinn through the reporters spectacles. I was shooting with available light which was the light from the TV camera set up. I was shooting wide open as that was really all the light that was available to me. I didn’t want to use flash because it would have killed the feel of the picture.

This is a picture that has been done many times before but I thought that given the covert nature of the WikiLeaks story that it was good way to take what is essentially a head shot.