I was looking at Sergio Larrain’s pictures of London from 1959, which now look as if they come from another world. One of them was clearly at Speakers’ Corner. When I was a student in London I would visit Speakers’ Corner every now and again. I did not go to listen to the speakers, who were generally not very interesting, but to photograph them and their listeners. The images are from 1964 to 1966. I bought a very well used pre-war Leica III with an uncoated 5 cm f/2 Summitar lens from Pelling & Cross on Bond Street for £30 in 1964, and part-exchanged it for a mint Leica IIIf with a 5 cm f/3.5 Elmar lens in 1965. I used one or the other camera for all of these pictures. I have lost the negatives, so these images are scans of prints. The film would have been Tri-X, developed in Agfa Rodinal, in the Student Union darkrooms beneath the pavement in Gordon Street.
Further reading
Sergio Larrain. London 1959. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-54541-6
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