Rob munday ‘I PRAYED the system WOULD WORK PROPERLY’
Back in 2003, Rob Munday was the only holographic photographer in the UK and he was asked to produce the first-ever official 3D holographic portrait of the monarch.
During the shoot for the portrait, he and collaborator Chris Levine captured the Queen’s “quizzical expression” in a relaxed test shot, after she reacted to something her personal dresser Angela Kelly had said in the room.
But as it was a test shot, the image remained unnoticed in Rob’s archives for 18 years. Luckily, it was rediscovered by him and then unveiled this summer to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Another portrait from the same session – Equanimity – was projected on the BBC’S Broadcasting House during the two-minute silence the day before the Queen’s funeral.
“It was very difficult because there’s no technology for doing holograms. I wanted to do my absolute best,”
Rob says of the shoot.
“I built the whole system programme in just six weeks, and then prayed on the day that it would work properly.
“Three days before the shoot, I had to take the equipment to the palace in a transit van. We just drove in and parked it under the Queen’s bedroom window.
“Then we had to carry it all up to a drawing room. We had to get six porters to carry it, manhandling this huge two-and-a-half metre long machine. They manhandled it up the main staircase in the middle of Buckingham Palace, past all the
‘We parked under the Queen’s bedroom… it was incredible’
royal paintings and everything.
“I was petrified they were going to drop it or someone would accidentally nick one of the paintings as we carried it up the stairs! It was an incredible experience.”