Time Magazine: Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022 Commemorative

Sir Cecil Beaton—a British fashion, portrait and war photographer—took the photograph that appears on a commemorative issue of TIME. Beaton, who died in 1980, had a long history of photographing the royals, and his images of them, simultaneously grandiose and intimate, helped to mold the image of the monarchy in the mid-1900s. He was first invited by Queen Elizabeth to photograph the royal family around 1939, when he wrote in his diary: “In choosing me to take her photographs, the Queen made a daring innovation. It is inconceivable that her predecessor would have summoned me—my work was still considered revolutionary and unconventional.”