The Queen is dead (The film edition)

There are a few inconvenient living close to Buckingham palace, one good thing is that its easy to drop buy when something is happening, even an unfortunate event as the passing of queen Elizabeth II.

It was easy to go a couple of times over the fatal week end, shoot a bit of film, with the M6 and the Summicron 50v5.

Oh we are 20th of October 2022 today, so from now on I have to specify that my M6 is an original classic one with alloy body, not the new version with mate paint over brass body, as it seems these things matters to camera makers.

This is part of a roll of Ilford HP5, hand rolled from the 30 meters spool I bought nearly 2 years ago, processed at the usual Analogue Films Lab in Shoreditch.

The two days were quite different, the Friday being is, may I say, more interesting and laid-back, we could even see the King getting out of the palace. The area before the palace was easy to access, and I circled it a few times.

Saturday, the place was packed to the point of not being accessible (no interest if you ve been here the day before), and the crowd was mostly laying flowers in Green Park.

It was a heyday for photographers, even for smartphotographers from Asia.

Talking about the event with my wife we remembered that we witnessed the passing of King Baudouin of Belgium in 1993 while we were living there (sorry I don have any pictures) and the one of Lee Kwan Yew in Singapore in 2015 (you can find some of my pictures here), but don’t go imagining things.

The Philippino ladies kindly agreed to have their pix taken

Are you ok?

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Good bye Mister Lee – Day one

So that Monday morning the news broke out : Lee Kuan Yew had passed away. The historical leader, the father of the country was no more. I have been living in Singapore for 8 years now and we call this place home, but I am just a foreigner after all and cannot judge in one way or another the the legacy of the man. I must admit I did not had the courage to queue to see him resting, but I went in the streets that week and tried to capture the event.

The first day, the body is Mister Lee was laid in the Istana, the residence of the Singapore president (which he never was). A condolence book was set outside the residence and people start coming and queue and sign,

And bring flowers.

Another condolence book was set in front of parliament house which will be the final destination of the body before the funerals.

All Hasselblad 500CM, Planar 80mmF2.8 Kodak Trix400 and Ilford Pan 50; first shot is SMRT public transport company screen shot with Leica M4 and Summilux 50mm1.4 wit Kodak TriX 400.