The Queen, the King, and Holography

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (the Queen) died peacefully at her country estate in Balmoral, Scotland on 8 September 2022. Simultaneously, her eldest son, Charles, became king and was proclaimed King Charles III at St James’ Palace, London on 17 September.

During her time on the throne, the Queen’s highly recognisable features were captured in several holograms and other heightened reality imagery – but does Charles share the same interest in the medium?

God bless the Queen

In 2004, Chris Levine was awarded a commission by Jersey (the largest of the so-called Channel Islands located off the coast of France but a self-governing dependency of the British crown) to produce a hologram portrait of the Queen. This formed part of the celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of its decision to swear allegiance to the English King John (see HN May 2004). Chris worked with Rob Munday and Jeffrey Robb of Spatial Imaging, who undertook the photo shoot to create the digital originals, which were then transferred to a holographic stereogram by John Perry at Holographics North.

Spatial Imaging built a special video linear rail system to take to Buckingham Palace for the film shoot. To avoid introducing distortions, the camera had to be rotated so that it was constantly pointing in the correct direction as it moved along the rail. Spatial combined the images created with graphics of the Three Leopards crest of Jersey to produce the finished portrait in the form of a 50 x 60 cm transmission hologram.

After several sittings, the pose that was settled on as being the most fitting for a monarch was that of the Queen wearing a white ermine robe, which also became the subject for Chris’s photographic portrait The Lightness of Being (2004).

Of course, all 29 billion coins in circulation in the UK have the Queen’s portrait on them. The most recent design dates from 2015, when she was 88 years old. It was the fifth coin portrait created during her reign – none of which are holographic as current holographic coin stamping techniques are not robust enough to withstand the constant handling of coins in general circulation.

Above: 2015 Royal Canadian Mint Northern Lights front and back. Below: 2017 New Zealand Southern Lights front and back.

But the Queen’s head did appear on the front of the 2015 Royal Canadian Mint Northern Lights1 10 oz coin and the 2017 New Zealand Southern Lights Proof2 coin. The Queen’s portrait was not itself holographic, but the reverse of both coins uses holography to great effect in depicting the Northern and Southern Lights respectively.

Earlier this year, the Queen marked the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne in a series of celebrations. The high point was a Platinum Jubilee Pageant parade, with the original Gold State Coach following the same route taken to her coronation in 1953. Unfortunately, Her Majesty, who was suffering from what her doctors referred to as ‘mobility issues’, was not able to attend the parade in person.

Instead, a heightened reality projection (dubbed by the media as a ‘hologram’) taken from the original footage of the young Queen at her coronation was projected onto a window of the Gold State Coach to give the illusion of the Queen-to- be, waving to the public, on her way from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey.

God save the King

The Queen’s son, now Charles III, has taken a more modern interest in the technology. The King is well known for his long-standing commitment to environmental and sustainability issues and avoided generating the 20 tons of carbon waste it would have cost to transport him (when he was Charles, Prince of Wales) and his entourage to Abu Dhabi for the World Future Energy Summit (January 2008) and instead attended the event in 3D holographic form.

The six-minute speech was pre-recorded at his London residence, Clarence House. Sean Reel, the Commercial Director for Connecta Group, who produced the image said: ‘the prince was keen on using the hologram to show his commitment to reducing the carbon footprint. He was walking back and forth and gesturing with his hands. It looked as though he was right there.’ 

There is a trend for celebrities (notably Tupac Shakur and Michael Jackson) to be posthumously immortalised as a ‘hologram’, using film and video footage shot during their lifetime and then digitally manipulated after their death. Whilst the results of these displays might be acceptable to the fan base of the subject, the footage was not recorded under the very technically demanding measures necessary to make a hologram with convincing realism.

So, unless the Queen has secretly recorded holographic-quality footage, or there is an already existing holographic portrait hidden somewhere in Buckingham Palace, let’s hope that we don’t see any mis-judged attempts to bring the Queen, holographically, ‘back to life’.

As for the King, long may he continue to transmit his holo-presence around the globe!

‘Hologram’ of the Queen in the Gold State Coach.

1 - https://bullionrt.com/product/2015-royal-canadian-mint-20-a-story-of-the-northern-lights-the-raven-1oz-pure-silver-coin/. 

2 - https://collectables.nzpost.co.nz/2017-southern-lights-silver-proof-coin-pid-cu7cspcn/.