Queen's Guards on a Monday morning

My commute is better than your commute

Cycling to work yesterday I came around Parliament Square to head up Horse Guards road. The police had the road blocked off, and were telling cyclists to walk, not ride. The roads had just a few cyclists and other commuters, busily going to work first thing on a Monday.

I heard some faint brass band music, and looking up birdcage walk, I could see a patch of red amongst the dark green leaves.



The Queen's Guards were marching up the street, as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world. You could see people walking in front, a little bemused, not sure what the occasion was. There were no tourists present to line the route and block the view.



The songs were a medley of old marching tunes, expertly and effortlessly played. I caught a snippet of Rule Britannia.

One man approached and stood in their path. The leading policeman on horseback used his horse to push the man out of their path. You can see him pointing at the man in this picture, warning him to stay away.



The playing continued as they rounded the corner from Birdcage Walk onto Horse Guards Road. There's something in those marches that is both incredibly old-fashioned and yet rousing at the same time. I walked alongside them with my bicycle, grinning from ear to ear.

The image of these guards is so familiar to anyone, even those who have never visited London, that it can be surprising the effect it has to see a group (regiment?) of these soldiers close-up. Unlike Hollywood props and sets, that often disappoint when viewed for real, it's striking to see these uniforms in the flesh - the details, the sharp creases, the whiter-than-whites.



As the band passed, it revealed another regiment (?) of foot soldiers behind them. As they turned again and marched across the Horse Guards Parade, the sound of their boots on the gravel echoed off the walls, along with the music.

And just like that, they were gone.

I walked to the top of the road, marvelling at the things you might happen to see first thing on a Monday morning. I mounted my bicycle, and a fellow bicycle commuter turned to me, smiling.

"You don't see that every day", I said.
"I know. And now I'm so late for work!", she replied, and pedalled off.

You can see a full set of photos here

UPDATE: As it was pointed out to me in the comments: "The band is the Coldstream Guards and the following detachment is from the Welsh Guards." In truth I don't quite know what that means, but it seems like an important detail to correct.

London | Queens Guards | England | Soldiers | Marching | Brass Band | Horse Guards| Birdcage Walk

Tony Bush and Educating Africa

Two photos in today's paper made me want to write about them here.

The first is one of Bush and Blair coming out of the Oval Office yesterday during Blair's 'victory lap' of the world as he steps down from office. I couldn't find the exact picture from the paper but the one below is very similar. The only difference in the published one is that the columns are on the right of frame, partially obscuring Bush.

photo: Getty Images

The solid vertical lines of the columns, looking sturdy and strong, imply a solid structure and institutional strength of purpose. You have the two men, their poses identical, the line of their profiles echoing each other. Their suits and shirts are tonally the same, only their ties distinguish them as separate in any way. You could even believe that they're some form of conjoined siamese twin, wearing one large outfit. Their bowed heads (probably just walking down steps and not wanting to trip), however, can be read as a sign of some internal conversation, or knowing that they are probably the only two people who can agree on each other's point of view.


"Learning her way out of poverty: A pupil takes part in a English class at Chainda primary school in Zambia"
Credit: David Bebber/The Times

This picture is part of an exhibition to coincide with an upcoming G8 meeting to encourage continuing funding of Africa, especially girls' education. A noble cause to be sure and a beautiful image to accompany it, but this photo made me want to write angry letters to whoever decided to use it in their campaign.

The girl, rendered anonymous by the beatific glow around her head that obscures her features, allows us to impose on her some general notion of our own, either about her race, or colour, or gender, or some combination of all of them. Then there are the English words written on the board that she's pointing at, studiously learning. It implies a European education, or at least one based on the study of English. It makes me wonder if that's the education we consider to be of value to her, the kind we want to get support for. Next, it's the word 'White', the word most prominently composed in frame and not obscured by reflections. To me it says that the aspirational message we want to promote is one that advances notions of 'Whiteness' as something that is better than whatever state she is in now. I wouldn't mind so much if the picture weren't being used to push a particular agenda, surely they couldn't have missed the borderline racist message this photo implies in that context?

This is just my interpretation of the pictures... you can blame this on us taking advantage of our work location having major London art galleries within a couple minutes' walk, so we've been exploring them at lunchtime with the benefit of the audioguides (the things you look a complete idiot listening to). It's put me in an image-critical mindset this week.

London | Photograph | Critical Analysis | Composition | Tony Blair | George+Bush | Africa | Zambia | World Can't Wait | Oxfam

Rain

England without rain would be like.. a car with square wheels, an apologetic politician, a sequel to Titanic, i.e. something wouldn't be quite right about it.





My first office at work overlooked Shaftesbury Avenue from the 4th floor, and with the rain on the window I couldn't resist.

London | Soho | England | Rain | Shaftesbury Avenue

Snow

Early after our arrival, we had a couple days of snow, not exactly rare in London, but unusual enough as to cause the entire public transportation system to grind to a halt.



In the first week we had a light settling of snow on the rooftops as seen here from the lovely Travelodge room.





A few weeks later in February a deeper snow fell, as you can see here in Clapham Common.



I don't quite know why the pictures ended up with this strong green cast (I need to re-scan them and colour correct better I think), but I like the ghostly feel it imparts, contrasting with the intense reds from the car and street lights.

You can see more pictures from this set here.

London | Soho | Clapham Common | Travelodge | Snow

London Photos

Back to the beginning

At last! For a while now I've been getting up early in order to scan, fiddle, organise, upload and tag my photographs. There was a big backlog from the move, and it took a while to get them all done. So, to celebrate, I'm going to try and post every day with one or two photos, starting from way back in January when we first moved to London.



We stayed at the Travelodge Hotel in Covent Garden, an old institutional hospital. I'd like to say 'converted' institutional hospital, but all they did was take down the 'X-Ray Department This Way' sign, slap a few corporate logos on the walls, and hey presto - overpriced hotel!

The two nice things about it was this view and the fact that it made us very, very motivated to find our own place.



Despite warnings about the state of the Northern Line on the Underground, we focused our search along it in South London, because of its (relative) affordability and proximity to my family. Every day it seems to be a crush. We've become quite adept at either avoiding it through creative use of other connections, or accepting our fate and enjoying the ride sandwiched between City boys and girls.



It was from the bus that I was lucky enough to capture this nice light one afternoon.

"First Days In London"

Flash Slideshow

A blog I wrote about our first few days is here.

The collection of all my recent photos is here, from where I will be grabbing my photos and blogging about them for the next few entries.

London | Soho | Travelodge | Northern Line | Underground | Parliament Square