Its not often we get a coronation in the UK, and naturally it was a great opportunity to go out and capture some iconic moments of the afternoon prior to the main event, as crowds of people were gathering around the Mall ahead of the procession which would bring the new King and Queen to their Coronation at Westminster Abbey and back to Buckingham Palace the next day.
What struck me the most that afternoon was the eclectic mix of people, shapes, colours, rain, sunshine, tourist, Londoners, Royal maniacs and doubters, protesters of all kinds, flaneurs, police, workmen, photographers, towncriers, flags, tents, TV crews, dogs, young and old; all embrassing the chaos that the impending coronation was creating on the Mall that day.
There was a real buzz around the place and a feeling that people wanted to be there and express themselves extravagantly, talk to people, be seen, and to put it simply: be British.
I will let my Photographs do the rest of the talking, but spending an afternoon capturing all these moments made me fall in love all over again with shooting street on a vintage Leica, in a way that I hadn’t for a while.
All photos where shot with my 1960 Leica M3, paired with a Carl Zeiss 50mm f/2 Planar, and 2 rolls of Kodak Portra… I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them, whilst hopefully giving Martin Parr and Anil Mistry a run for their money…
You can find more of my work on Instagram (@cloud_surfer14)
The photos at their best. You’ve happily been the right place the right time, the sense of a wide holiday and common joyfulness… Lucky Leica!
I love these! Great work. An old friend just offered me an incredible, impossible-to-refuse deal on a Leica M2R and three Leica lenses (35/50/90) for less than the going price of the 50mm alone on eBay. I will pick up the camera and lenses in a few weeks and your photos will give me some inspiration between now and then.
Fun pics! And the perfect time to use colour film! The photo of the man in the black and yellow shirt emerging from his tent reminds me of a moth coming out of a cocoon! I could have said butterfly, but he ain’t pretty enough! 😉
What a unique and singular set of photos! You did a great job of capturing the spirit of the day. It had to be shot in color. The icing on the cake was the M3 & 50mm Planar lens.
I just purchased the Planar for my M2. The results from that lens are great. You confirmed my choice.
Such vitality in those excellent pics.
Thank you very much for posting these superb images. I’d say you had a fantastic day, along with thousands of others. There seems to be so much negativity around, that to see these excellent images showing so many people having fun, being sociable, even the police, well it’s a really uplifting and a joy to see. The one with the police officer stood with two women, another officer ten feet behind them having another officer using a phone to capture the moment is my favourite. The police have taken some stick recently, and rightly so, but in this instance we see that they are just normal people doing a demanding job.
A first class set of images, brilliant stuff.
Fantastic photos, the film and you really captured the colours of the day.