'I photographed the reaction to our dying Queen - it was like nothing else'

ok.co.uk:

Award-winning photographer Samir Hussein has been photographing our royal family for more than decade, and captured some of their highest - and lowest - moments.

As well as photographing joyful occasions like the King's Coronation, and the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, he was also behind the lens during some of their darkest times, including the death of the late Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. "It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced,” he told OK!. “When it became clear she wasn’t going to make it, I went straight to Buckingham Palace to photograph the reaction there, and didn’t stop for the next 10 days." The Queen died at her Scottish residence, Balmoral, aged 96, a year after the death of her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip.

She was the longest reigning monarch in British history. "I went to Scotland to capture her coffin leaving Balmoral and making its way to London, and was wearing a black suit every day.

If I went home, it was just to sleep for a few hours before going back out again. It was incredibly intense, surreal and very sad.” Despite the intense emotions of the day of the death and the days that followed, Samir says he felt fortunate to have played a role in proceedings. “The Queen was probably the most important historical figure we’ll have in our lifetime, so I wanted to embrace it and capture as much as I could.