Legendary photographer David Bailey, 83, recalls how Princess Diana had ‘terrible, plastic hair’ – while the ‘girlish’ Queen has ‘beautiful’ skin
- Legendary fashion photographer David Bailey, 83, discussed snapping the royals
- Explained how his assistant dropped a light on Diana’s head during photoshoot
- He explained he told her she was ‘magnanimous’ and she ‘asked what it meant’
- Also said late royal had ‘terrible hair’ while the ‘girlish’ Queen has ‘beautiful’ skin
He is best known as the kooky photographer who snapped epic shots in the Swinging Sixties.
However legendary snapper David Bailey, 83, has now revealed the secrets behind some of his most famous photographs of the Queen and the Princess of Wales.
The photographer, who pictured everyone from supermodels to the Queen during his lengthy career, said Princess Diana had ‘terrible hair’ while the ‘girlish’ monarch’s skin was ‘beautiful.’
Speaking to The Telegraph, he recalled how his assistant dropped a light on Diana’s head during a shoot in 1988, adding: ‘I thought, “Oh f***!”. She said: “Don’t think about it; it was a terrible accident”.
Legendary photographer David Bailey, 83, has revealed how an assistant dropped a light on Princess Diana during their 1988 photoshoot
‘I told her she had been very magnanimous – that’s right, because she asked me what magnanimous meant.’
David is known for his eye-catching black and white portraits and among his images is one taken in 1989 of Diana, Princess of Wales, then aged 27.
English portrait photographer Norman Parkinson was initially suggested to take photos of Diana, however the royal herself chose Bailey – who had previously shot Princess Margaret’s husband, the Earl of Snowdon.
Elsewhere in the interview he explained how Diana’s hair was ‘solid as a plastic dummy’ because of the ‘hairspray.’
Meanwhile the 83-year-old also revealed how he asked the Queen if her ‘jewels’ were real when she sat for him in 2014 to mark her 88th birthday
One of David’s photographs from the shoot has just been released for the time by Kensington Palace, but he claimed to know nothing of the exhibition.
Meanwhile the 83-year-old also revealed how he asked the Queen if her ‘jewels’ were real when she sat for him in 2014 to mark her 88th birthday.
Recalling the conversation, he explained: ‘I said: “I bet that cost a few bob, girl”.
‘It just came out. I call everyone ‘girl’. But she was girlish. Made a real effort. We had a laugh.’
The photographer has pictured everyone from supermodels to the Queen during his lengthy career
During the interview, David recalled how one of his assistants dropped a light on Diana during the shoot (pictured, at work in the Vogue studio in an undated picture)
He continued: ‘Beautiful skin, the Queen.’
His low-key interview was a far-cry from his 1960s heyday when he bagged some of the world’s most beautiful women including Julie Christie and Marie Helvin.
The rough-talking East Ender is renowned for his insatiable appetite for the opposite sex.
Marriage to his first wife, typist Rosemary Bramble, lasted five years ending in 1964. He then married the French actress Catherine Deneuve in 1965, which ended in 1972.
The photographer (pictured in 1984 with former wife Marie Helvin) has come to define the Swinging Sixties with his iconic black and white images of pop stars, models, politicians and royalty
David is known for his eye-catching black and white portraits. Pictured is his snap of Mick Jagger and Chrissie Shrimpton
Mr Bailey found fame after working for Vogue in the Sixties, pictured are two of his cover snaps
Then he wed American model Marie Helvin in 1975, which lasted ten years. Bailey has clocked up 35 years of marriage, so far, with model Catherine, who at 59 is 24 years his junior.
They met when she was just 19, on a fashion shoot for Italian Vogue on the Isle of Skye, and they have three children.
He is currently married to his fourth wife Catherine Dyer, who is 23 years his junior, and the pair have three grown-up children together.
David was appointed a CBE by the Queen in 2001 for services to art, and went on to snap the monarch for her birthday in 2014 (together in 2010)
Helvin was later the subject of a series of nude photos, published by her former husband in his 1980s book Trouble and Strife.
Rolling Stone Mick Jagger’s ex-wife, the model and actress Jerry Hall, is another to have been one of Bailey’s subjects.
Other famous subjects of Mr Bailey’s work include Ronnie and Reggie Kray, George Michael, Mick Jagger and Bob Geldof with Paula Yates.
David was appointed a CBE by the Queen in 2001 for services to art.
Source: Read Full Article