Acclaimed British photographer Rankin has said that the Queen is “really funny” as he recalled working with her on a shoot in 2002.
The 48-year-old photographed the Queen as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations, and revealed how pleased he was when meeting her because she was just so – normal.
“I watched her walk down this long corridor at Buckingham Palace with a guy who must have been at least 6ft,” he told The Telegraph. “She’s tiny, and she was looking up at him, smiling and chatting, and I thought, ‘You’re exactly what I want you to be. You’re a real person.’”
Rankin’s 2002 portrait of a smiling Queen Elizabeth II and (right) the photographer himself.
With only a short amount of time to take the portrait, Rankin said he was desperate to make her laugh, and in the attempt of getting a chuckle out of her, he took on the voice of Austin Powers.
“I started saying ‘Ma’am’ like ‘jam’. ‘Ma’am, you have to smile, please’. And she just laughed at me.”
“She was really funny, making a lot of jokes – very dry. Photography is all about collaboration – and she gave it to me.”
The Queen gave her approval on the end result, which was an iconic photograph showing her grinning in front of a Union Jack Flag which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.
“She wrote back to me, having seen the shot, saying ‘I love the stitching on the flag’. That’s the Queen’s way of not having an opinion. That’s classy. It’s like saying, ‘I like the photograph, I’m just not commenting on myself,'” he told the Telegraph.
The Queen seems to be a hit amongst photographers, with Harry Benson, who captured the Queen for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and described the honour as “truly a highlight” in his career.
