‘Know your boxes” I was once told by a photographer, meaning know what you’re photographing and how it adds to what you’ve shot before, know what projects you have on the go and how it all fits together. So it was this weekend as I photographed Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in Glasgow.
Last week in collaboration with Craig Atkinson at Café Royal Books I published a zine of my black and white photographs taken twenty years ago over the weekend of the Golden Jubilee. That work had been shot on assignment for The Sunday Times Magazine, but the story and images never ran in the magazine sadly. The images then sat slightly ignored in my archive for the last two decades until this new publication. That’s the beauty of Café Royal Books, bringing unseen and forgotten documentary photography from Britain back into the fore, bringing it back to life and giving it new audiences, and at the same time building a huge published archive of post-war Britain though documentary photography.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
‘Queen’s Golden Jubilee, Scotland 2002’ published by Café Royal Books.
in Glasgow, Scotland, 31 May 2022.
Whereas twenty years ago I photographed on black and white film on my Leica cameras, this past weekend I was out with my Fuji camera shooting colour digital. Times have changed, as I’m sure Her Majesty, a Leica user herself, would agree.
‘Fuck the Jubilee’ graffiti painted on a bridge on the Forth and Clyde Canal, ahead of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, in Glasgow, Scotland, 30 May 2022.
Jubilee celebrations at the Balmanno House nursing home for elderly, in Kelvindale. – Weekend of Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee celebrations, in Glasgow, Scotland, 3 June 2022.
Jubilee celebrations street party in Nottingham Avenue, in Kelvindale. – Weekend of Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee celebrations, in Glasgow, Scotland, 3 June 2022.
Jubilee celebrations at the Bristol Bar in Duke Street, which for the Weeknd has been renamed the Queen Elizabeth Arms. – Weekend of Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee celebrations, in Glasgow, Scotland, 3 June 2022.
Street party at the Rutherglen West & Wardlawhill Parish Church. On the weekend of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, in Glasgow, Scotland, 5 June 2022.
Street party at the Rutherglen West & Wardlawhill Parish Church. On the weekend of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, in Glasgow, Scotland, 5 June 2022.
Street party at the Rutherglen West & Wardlawhill Parish Church. On the weekend of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, in Glasgow, Scotland, 5 June 2022.
Street party at Possilpark Parish Church. On the weekend of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, in Glasgow, Scotland, 5 June 2022.
Street party at Possilpark Parish Church. On the weekend of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, in Glasgow, Scotland, 5 June 2022.
The Drumchapel Protestant Boys band play in the Bristol Bar, which for Jubilee weekend has been renamed the Queen Elizabeth Arms. On the weekend of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, in Glasgow, Scotland, 5 June 2022.
The Drumchapel Protestant Boys band play in the Bristol Bar, which for Jubilee weekend has been renamed the Queen Elizabeth Arms. On the weekend of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, in Glasgow, Scotland, 5 June 2022.
This past weekend Glasgow city council had declined to mark the Platinum Jubilee, but as I found as I crossed the city many locals were still providing their own entertainment. From the Bristol Bar (a well known Rangers FC supporters’ bar) surprising many by renaming itself as the Queen Elizabeth Arms, provided time for families and children within the bar, and then latterly entertaining their clientele with music by local flute bands, or local churches catering to their congregation and anyone who wished to partake in the celebrations, there were celebrations taking place. You just had to maybe search for them, unlike in London.
I saw local communities get together to meet the neighbours and hold street parties, a nursing home entertained their elderly residents, and churches held street parties and gave out meals and at these I could sense some of the participants were there for the free food, such is the current society we live in. Good people working hard in their communities to help others, People Make Glasgow.
