Fuji Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red

Lightmancer

Legend
Location
Sunny Frimley
Name
Bill Palmer
The ceramic installation at the Tower of London entitled "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" is only in place until the 11th of November. It is striking in and of itself and all the more memorable for being ephemeral. Each of the 888,246 poppies is individually made, and put in place by hand between August and November. Each one represents a British military fatality during the Great War. They will each be sold afterwards, to raise money for service charities.

At the moment, I'll wager that this is the most photographed art installation in the UK (The Tower of London is the 7th most popular visitor attraction in the country in it's own right). It's free to see, and entirely self-policing - people simply make way for each other. It was fascinating to hear the comments being made, which ranged from "awesome" to "it looks better on telly", from "really moving" to "they could have done something better with the money" - to each their own.

The day we went it was rainy, damp and dank - and crowded. I really wanted to take a photo or two that captured the tone and the mood of the piece, but also was a little different from the hundreds of thousands of other photos already up on the internet. I hope I succeeded.

If you are able, I urge you to go and see for yourself before the 11th of next month; the woman who said it looks better on telly was very much mistaken. I would defy anyone with a shred of humanity not to see it and be moved, especially when you remember that each poppy represents a single human life.

I used my X-Pro1, with the 18-135WR. I was grateful for that weather resistance...

This is a general shot, to give you some idea of scale:
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Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red 24 par Lightmancer, on ipernity

And this, I think, shows that each is an individual flower:
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Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red 28 par Lightmancer, on ipernity

The rest, you can "caption" for yourselves:
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Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red 20 par Lightmancer, on ipernity

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Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red 16 par Lightmancer, on ipernity

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Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red 9 par Lightmancer, on ipernity

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Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red 14 par Lightmancer, on ipernity
 
Very nice job indeed. I have been many times from when it started as a trickle to its current manifestation. We will try to make the ending ceremony armistice day. Think we will have to be really early. It is a shame they turn the lights off in the moat at night after the nightly last post......they didn't used to I am sure. It certainly causes a tear to prick my eye and a shudder to work its way from my scalp down to my shoulder blades. It was always hard to imagine the numbers of dead, it defied me. The number was just a number that would not compute into an identifiable mass or whatever. This has certainly cured that lack of imagination. It is so god damn awful to think. You only have to visit villages and see memorials where obviously brothers or fathers and sons never came back....whole families ripped apart.

Anyway, here is my (early) version. They must switch the lights back on...it makes it all the more poignant.

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Tower of London by petach123 (Peter Tachauer), on Flickr
 
Wonderful monument, really makes you feel the ridiculous number of lives lost... and to think that these are only the British, and several other countries had similar death tolls, and the populations were much smaller than they are today... really saddening.

Apparently the world has been getting gradually more peaceful over the last few centuries and decades (current troubles nonewithstanding), which is undoubtedly at least partly due to lessons learned... I hope they'll remain learned for centuries to come...
 
Wonderful monument, really makes you feel the ridiculous number of lives lost... and to think that these are only the British, and several other countries had similar death tolls, and the populations were much smaller than they are today... really saddening.

Apparently the world has been getting gradually more peaceful over the last few centuries and decades (current troubles nonewithstanding), which is undoubtedly at least partly due to lessons learned... I hope they'll remain learned for centuries to come...

I believe the dead commemorated are British and Commonwealth,
 
I believe the dead commemorated are British and Commonwealth,

British only, according to the website I linked to "...each poppy representing a British fatality during the First World War."

That makes it even more sobering.

According to Wikipedia, total deaths were circa 16 million, of which about 10 million were under arms. 6 million were simply listed as missing, presumed dead.

In contrast the Spanish 'flu pandemic, from 1918-1920 infected 500 million and killed 50-100 million worldwide, predominantly previously healthy young adults. The troop movements at the end of the Great War were a contributory vector in it's rapid spread and reach.

And here we are 100 years later with "low-grade" conflicts in various hot-spots worldwide, and Ebola spreading more rapidly by the day, with a 70% mortality rate. And transport is that much faster and more effective today.

Lest we forget...
 
British only, according to the website I linked to "...each poppy representing a British fatality during the First World War."

That makes it even more sobering.

According to Wikipedia, total deaths were circa 16 million, of which about 10 million were under arms. 6 million were simply listed as missing, presumed dead.

In contrast the Spanish 'flu pandemic, from 1918-1920 infected 500 million and killed 50-100 million worldwide, predominantly previously healthy young adults. The troop movements at the end of the Great War were a contributory vector in it's rapid spread and reach.

And here we are 100 years later with "low-grade" conflicts in various hot-spots worldwide, and Ebola spreading more rapidly by the day, with a 70% mortality rate. And transport is that much faster and more effective today.

Lest we forget...

this is weird, as a plaque at the site says British and Commonwealth. Not the first time I have seen some confusion....I am even doubting myself now.
 
Bill and Pete - thank you both for sharing your photos of such a great memorial. It is really staggering to contemplate the loss of life,, and the visual representation of the poppies next to the Tower really bring this home.
 
It's on telly as I type. Each poppy is being sold for £25 plus postage and packing. The proceeds go to a range of military charities. They have been "planted" by over sixteen thousand volunteers.

So far they have sold over six hundred and fifty thousand... I hope they sell out, and yes, I have ordered one.
 
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