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[title]‘As a Londoner, I felt an urge to visit Buckingham Palace on the evening of the Queen’s death,’ says London photographer Orlando Gili. ‘The atmosphere was one of uncertainty and excitement. Lots of people had brought flowers, pressing them into the palace gates. It’s something I’d never seen before.
‘In the following seven days, I returned with my camera to photograph the constant stream of people who felt compelled to leave flowers for the Queen. It wasn’t just Londoners who wanted to pay their respect to the Queen.
‘There was a broad sweep of people, young and old. I met eightysomething lifelong friends in cardigans, teenagers in uniform straight from school, workmen who had spent years tending to the gardens next to Buckingham Palace, couples and families, a retired pilot from the United States, and two friends who felt compelled to steal two single flowers from outside Nando’s.
‘For a great deal of people in Britain and beyond, the Queen was special. She represented a reassuring constant in increasingly turbulent times.’
Orlando Gili is a photographer based in London.
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