Unseen photographs of Queen Elizabeth II clicked by top Kenyan photographer

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Nairobi: Queen Elizabeth II smiling at children waving Kenyan flags and the Union Jack, alighting from the "Royal Train" or shaking hands with a curious little boy - are all previously unseen images from an enormous archive taken by celebrated photojournalist Mohamed Amin. Image Credit: AFP

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The black and white photographs of the queen, shown exclusively to AFP, reflect a level of access that is unheard of today, with Amin capturing candid shots of the monarch chatting with three Kenyan presidents. Image Credit: AFP

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Amin covered all her trips to Kenya as monarch. Image Credit: AFP

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A prolific journalist whose heartbreaking images of the Ethiopian famine in 1984 brought global attention to the crisis, Amin shot some three million photographs. He spent decades leading his company Camerapix - which supplied video and pictures to several news outlets - before his tragic death in a plane hijacking in 1996, aged just 53. Image Credit: AFP

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His son Salim Amin now runs Camerapix and manages his father's enormous private archive in Nairobi - filled with photos which have never gone on public display. Despite being "a child of colonialism" - born to a South Asian family in Tanzania - Amin rarely expressed an opinion about the royal family, his son said. "He couldn't afford to have an opinion because it would affect his job," he told AFP. Image Credit: AFP

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A self-taught photographer, he often encountered racism in the field, with officials automatically deferring to his white colleagues. But he also saw his identity as a source of strength. He realised "the fundamental reason he was successful was because he was local... (because) he knew the continent inside out", his son said. Image Credit: AFP

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In 1992, Amin was honoured by the queen and made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Image Credit: AFP

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Last year, Google Arts & Culture established an online archive to catalogue his work in collaboration with the Mohamed Amin Foundation. Image Credit: AFP

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Over 6,000 photos have already been uploaded to the digital archive. More may follow, including those rare shots of Elizabeth II. Image Credit: AFP

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Unseen photographs of Queen Elizabeth II clicked by top Kenyan photographer

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