RIP Blanket Man Ben Hana

Last Sunday Blanket Man (Ben Hana) died in the Wellington Hospital. Blanket Man spent the last 10 years living on the street in Wellington wearing nothing but a loincloth and an old blanket. If you have ever been to Wellington and walked along Courtenay Place you would have seen him. The memorial that has sprung up where he used to sit is nothing short of amazing, unfortunatley it is getting taken down/cleaned up on Tuesday as the city gets ready to host the Rugby 7’s in a couple of weeks.

As a street photographer I walked past him more times than I could count and always got a nod of acknowledgment… I tended to not take his photo and respect what he was doing (Wellington is too small a place to piss off anyone living on the street by shoving a camera in their face) so the only images I have of him are from a long way away or when he was asleep 🙂

Walking along Courtenay place will seem empty without him…

Rest In Peace

Here is one of the shots I did have of him…

Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.