Marching with Pride

Taken at London Pride ’25, this moment still stops me in my tracks. I am a Veteran and we were forming up to march with those serving. I asked this group of sailors to stand against the rainbow backdrop — first in an “informal stand at ease,” then to loosen up and be a bit silly. The second I looked through the viewfinder, I knew I’d caught something rare.

I served in the armed forces, and I was forced to leave under the LGBT ban which was not lifted in the UK until 2000. To stand there years later, camera in hand, watching military personnel serve openly and proudly as their full selves… it hit me with a kind of pride I can’t quite put into words.

This photograph is the best I’ve ever taken — not because I’m technically skilled, but because it captures something I never got to experience, something I fought for without knowing it would ever arrive. It’s joy, freedom, and belonging in uniform. And for me, it’s healing.