London Santacon with Hasselblad Xpan
Santacon in London. I had no idea it was a thing. As soon I’d heard that potentially hundreds of people dressed as Santa would be kicking about the city centre as a charity Christmas Parade my slow morning walking around Brighton was immediately in the bin, and I found myself on a train to London to march the streets with many Santas.
Keen to get some rolls through it, I took the Xpan as it was new to me only the day before. I also brought the M6.
I guess the inevitable thing with events like this is that there’s always a pile of photographers and is anyone really doing or offering anything original? In a way, probably not, but it all comes together afterwards, be it on social media… blogs… youtube… in one huge pool of slightly varying perspectives which naturally become almost a collaboration of sorts.
I don’t really know what I am trying to say with that other than I feel like it can be overwhelming trying to find a purpose documenting… anything, but doing it for yourself regardless is plenty enough.
I’ve seen plenty of vibrant and colourful offerings from other photographers so far, but surely I can’t be the only idiot that shot it all in black and white? Here’s my tiny contribution from the 3 hours or so I was in attendance, spaffed onto the internet.
The meeting point was Floating Pocket Park, before walking along the Paddington Basin and down into Paddington Station.
The sound of all the Santa’s making their way through the station was a particular highlight. Cheers from the Santa’s and spectators bellowing down the tube. Seeing station staff welcome the chaos rather than shitting their pants was a pleasant surprise, pretty much everyone was in good spirits.
The walk between Farringdon to Blackfriars was particularly entertaining, including a stop off for a brief rave under some offices before continuing on to Blackfriars.
Turns out I was in good company, as I clocked some faces I recognised. Joseph Lockley and Mark Luke Grant who I’ve followed online for a while now. And of course Joshua E. Cole who informed me of the event happening. You should check them out. I recommend checking out their actual websites (they have zines and books availabe), though I’ve linked their IG for most peoples convenience.
So, I did have one roll of colour film with me. And I was waiting for a specific moment to load it. I thought it would be nice to grab some Xpan portraits on a roll of Ektachrome E100. Alas, the battery on the Xpan died just as I’d loaded it and I couldn’t find a shop that stocked the CR2’s required to get it going.
Though looking at these last couple of frames in particular, I can’t say I’m dissapointed that I didn’t get to shoot colour.
Kentmere 400 pushed three stops and the Xpan. Dream combo.
Shout out to Joey who obviously shares my impeccable taste with a silver chrome M6…
By this point I was completely fucking done in from the prior day of walking, so after we crossed Blackfriars bridge that’s where I broke off and took the train back to Brighton.
Maybe I’ll be down again next year.
Oh, and quick photo deets for the photographers out there:
Hasselblad Xpan + 45 f4 + Kentmere 400 (pushed to 3200)
Leica M6 + 35 f1.4 + Kentmere 100 (pushed to 800)
All film dev & scanned at Gulabi.
If you were there and recognise yourself (or others) in any of these photos, feel free to drop me a message. More than happy to fling you a copy over!
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