This Other Eden: Photographing Queer Royalty During the Platinum Jubilee
In the summer of 2022, while the country was draped in bunting and the streets filled with the pomp of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, I was doing something quietly different — photographing 27 of London's most vital LGBTQ+ creatives for a portrait series called This Other Eden.
The project came together through Temporal Shift creative studio, conceived by Fayann Smith and Jim Warboy. From the moment I heard the idea, I knew it was something I wanted to pour myself into completely.
Another Kind of Royalty
The title says everything. While the Jubilee celebrated one kind of legacy, This Other Eden asked a different question: what about the other royalty? The artists, musicians, performers, activists and designers who have shaped culture from the margins — often without the recognition their influence deserves.
The cast spoke for itself. Munroe Bergdorf, Bimini, Fat Tony, Princess Julia, Lady Phyll, Woody Cook, Ryan Lanji, Mark Moore, Ayishat Akanbi — 27 individuals, each one a world unto themselves. Getting to spend dedicated time with each of them, building enough trust to make a portrait that felt genuinely true to who they are, was one of the great privileges of my career so far.
The Work of a Portrait
Portrait photography, at its best, is a collaboration. You're not just pointing a camera at someone — you're creating a space in which they feel safe enough to be seen. That's especially true when the subjects are people whose visibility has so often been contested, politicised or denied.
What struck me most across those shoots was how generously each person showed up. There was a seriousness of purpose to the whole project that everyone felt. These weren't just portraits — they were statements. Records. A document of a community and a moment in time.
Why It Matters
This Other Eden was released in support of The Outside Project, London's LGBTIQ+ community shelter, centre and domestic abuse refuge — an organisation doing vital work for some of the most vulnerable people in the city.
That context gave every frame an added weight. When you know the work you're making has a life beyond the gallery wall, beyond the screen, beyond the press coverage — that it might actually help someone — it changes how you approach it.
Looking Back
I'm sharing some behind-the-scenes footage from the project now, a few years on, because I think it captures something that the finished portraits.
This Other Eden remains one of the projects I'm most proud of. Not just for what ended up in the frame, but for what it stood for, and the extraordinary people who trusted me to tell a small part of their story.
This Other Eden was a Temporal Shift production. Photography and creative direction by Luke Nugent. Makeup by Callista Lorian. The series supported The Outside Project.
