#121 – Chris Levine

Light Artist Chris Levine takes us behind the scenes on his sittings at Buckingham Palace to create the first holographic portraits of The Queen and explains how Her Majesty embraced his innovative and complex techniques. Lightness of Being captures the Queen with her eyes closed wearing the Diadem she wore to her Coronation, while Equanimity hangs in London’s National Portrait Gallery.
Meditation informs Chris’s work, and the Queen told Chris gardening at Balmoral was hers. He talks about being the wild card for the shoot; how he was allowed to choose what Her Majesty wore and their private audiences afterwards to look through the work. He also reveals the Dalai Lama chuckled a lot as he posed for a rare portrait to mark his 80th birthday, recounts talking holograms with David Bowie in a chance conversation, as the rock icon left the dry cleaners and hints at an upcoming major light project at Stonehenge.