|
|
|
Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales by Mario Testino £19.99, Hardcover, 136 pages, Taschen www.taschen.com In my generation, I’m now 60 years old, the big question that everyone knows the answer to is: What were you doing when President Kennedy was shot? For the people of this present generation the big question is: Where were you when you heard the news that Diana, Princess of Wales had died? I know where I was. I was in my car with my wife, driving home from a disco. We were both tired as the disco had been organised by us and so we were the last to leave after clearing up. We were nearly home, the radio was on, when the programme was interrupted with a news flash. "At 12.26 this morning in the Pont de L’Alma road tunnel, just below the Eiffel Tower in Paris, a car carrying HRH the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed was involved in a serious crash. Reports are not yet confirmed, but it would seem that Dodi Al Fayed was killed in the impact. We have no news yet as to the condition of HRH, but we believe that she is still alive, but in a serious condition. We will interrupt our programme again to bring you the latest news as we receive it" You see, I can even remember the news bulletin; such was the shock of hearing it. When we arrived home I remember switching on the television, every channel was carrying the story with live broadcasts from the scene. Since that fateful day, scores of so called ‘Official photo books’ have been released. A number have just been a tacky collection of shots that were so bad in quality that they could easily have been photocopies from newspaper photographs. Some have been excellent, but reproduced purely to try and grab the emotional state of the nation who was in mourning. So, it’s refreshing at long last to find a new book filled with fresh, hitherto unseen photographs of this world famous personality. Mario Testino had the unique privilege of being able to photograph Diana at Kensington Palace just a few months He seems to know the exact moment when his subject’s eyes are being lit up from deep in their soul, which he has managed to capture with Diana in just about every one of the shots in this book. Very wisely, he decided not to publish his photographs during the mad frenzy that was going on with publishers in the months after the tragedy, deciding instead to hang fire with his remarkable collection of our much loved fairytale Princess. You can feel and see his professionalism in every shot. Diana looks relaxed and really seems to be having a ball if the twinkle in her eyes is anything to go by. Now that the publishing frenzy has died down and we are now able to peruse the bookshelves at leisure, leaving emotion at home, I really believe that this is one book that Diana fans will want to get hold of. Gerry Rigley http://community.webshots.com/user/gerryrigley/ |
(above: the review in issue 1)