The I Heart Street Photo event will take place on 08 April from 7.30pm in central London, with the 30-strong group of photographers, known collectively as "So Shoot Me", staging guerrilla projections.

"From twilight on the evening of Thursday 08 April, the 'So Shoot Me' members will begin popping up in busy spots all over London with their human light show. The impromptu I Heart Street Photo exhibitions will be projected onto a screen of handheld white boards, and show the best of new British street photography, out in the streets where it was made," the organisers say. "The event carries the message that misdirected fears about terror, privacy and child protection could spell the end for [street photograpahy]."

John Easterby, former director of archives at the London office of Magnum Photos, and lecturer in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication, comments: "A society without street photography is a society that ceases to look at itself. The visual database we all carry in our memories is, in part, made up of photographs of 'life' by generations of photographers from the very first day of its birth onwards."

The organisers add: "'So Shoot Me' aim to illustrate that street photography is an important document of the world in which we live, and not a crime."

The event will take place at locations including Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and Hoxton Square in London. It will also run at The Book Club, 100 Leonard Street, near Old Street station. For more information, visit www.iheartstreetphoto.co.uk.

In celebration of street photography, BJP has also launched the Shoot The Street competition, which calls on photographers to submit a street photo project of up to 30 images. The winner will see its images exhibited at the Format photography festival in March 2011. For more details, visit bjp-online.com/street.