Coronation: An exploration of a national holiday during lockdown. Black and white images shot on Ilford Delta 3200 pushed to 6400 with a Nikon F4 + 50mm f/1.4. The colour images were shot on Kodak Gold 200 with a Hasselblad Xpan + 45mm f/4. All images were shot on Kingsday (27-04-2020) in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands the lockdown started on March 13th. The celebration of the birthday of the king is one of the major national celebrations and happened just six weeks after the start of lockdown. Normally the night before Kingsday (‘Koningsnacht’) would see incredibly filled streets with people dressed out in national colours and partygoers partying until the early morning. On Kingsday itself people sell their second hand goods on a ‘vrijmarkt’ and the Dutch flag is flown in the streets.
This year none of that was possible. But people still proudly wore the national colours, decorated streets and tried to be together as best as possible. It was as if people needed an outlet from spending time inside and to instill hope in others. Still, people seemed more wary of other people and kept distance from those they did not know. This day during extraordinary circumstances needed to be captured and documented.
I wanted to contrast the emptiness and darkness of the streets in the night before Kingsday with the feeling of unity and national pride on Kingsday itself.
The feeling of national unity I tried to capture in the colour photos is hopefully an antidote to the emptiness, and even feelings of hopelessness, that the dark nighttime photos try to evoke.
About the author:
I like the feeling of control and simplicity analog photography gives me over the end result. Controlling only focus and exposure instead of working against the automation of a modern camera brings me closer to the photographic subject. The unique formats available in film format suit my creative vision.
Do you have a story to tell, too ?
Project DOCUPAN is driven by the analog community, striving to record a history of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic through the lenses of analog photographers all over the globe. Click below and become a part of a project we don’t know yet how large it will grow.
Tell and share your story and help to record history in a project that has never been done before.
Do you have a story to tell, too ?
Project DOCUPAN is driven by the analog community, striving to record a history of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic through the lenses of analog photographers all over the globe. Click below and become a part of a project we don’t know yet how large it will grow.
Tell and share your story and help to record history in a project that has never been done before.
More from Project DOCUPAN:
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