My Nan LOVED The Queen.

I remember one constant in an otherwise turbulent childhood was our annual trip to London with my Nan to watch The Lord Mayor’s Parade, then we’d go to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard.

For me, growing up, London meant The Queen.

In her more elderly years my Nan would come to my house for Christmas dinner but we had to have her home in time for The Queen’s Speech… she could’ve watched it with us but she always wanted to watch it at home by herself where she could give it her full attention and feel like it was just her and The Queen.

To people like my Nan, The Queen has meant so much and honestly this last 10 days has made me begin to realise why.

Now, at this point you’re wondering why I’m even talking about The Queen in my usually photography related newsletter. You may even be thinking ‘ugh I’m sick of hearing about The Queen’… sorry!

Truth is I don’t know why I feel compelled to write about it, but I do.

When it was first announced that The Queen had passed away I was a bit annoyed to be honest, that life was now going to be disrupted or put on hold for two weeks. We’ve had enough of that in the last three years to last a lifetime, so I found that initially quite stress-inducing. I definitely wasn’t happy about football being cancelled, since it’s one of my main escapes from the stresses of every day life (and wedding season)!

The other thing we’ve definitely had enough of in recent years though is division, and my mood around The Queen has gone from one extreme of grumpiness (why should I care etc) to feeling incredibly heart warmed by the collective response of masses of people coming together to honour The Queen in so many positive and respectful ways. At the same time I’ve begun to understand what stability a politically neutral Head of State actually means to us as a nation, and how it shapes the wider world’s view of the UK.

So after almost a decade of extreme division over Brexit and Covid, the feeling of almost complete non-political togetherness across the vast majority of Britain and around the world has ended up unexpectedly having quite a profound effect on me.

I’ve also, (thanks to my preferred choice of news media Tiktok) learned a lot more about The Queen’s life and The Royal Family as a whole – I’ve previously taken this fundamental element of British culture for granted, or just been too ignorant/lazy to learn about it.

And if we were ever in any doubt about what it truly means to be British, look no further than the greatest queue of all time to see The Queen lying in state. A remarkable display of good old fashioned British manners and patience, and our world-class ability to queue on display for the whole world to see!

I also think whatever your views on The Monarchy, however you feel about The Queen and the Royal Family, a historical event is happening live in front of our eyes and whether you agree or disagree with what’s happening, how it’s happening or why it’s happening it’s just interesting on every level and overwhelmingly positive when you pay attention.

Watching live the seamless tradition of transition within the Royal Family itself and witnessing the public reaction to it all is, for me anyway, totally fascinating on a psychological level.

It’s a unique life experience and it’s these unique life experiences and how we react to them and internalise them, that forms and shapes our creativity and how we see the world.

That’s what I think anyway.

Thanks for reading.

Adam

PS – Normal newsletters are back from Thursday.