The 22 Most Iconic Photographs Of Diana, Princess Of Wales

On 4 March this year, two white-gloved curators hung a portrait of Diana, Princess of Wales on the walls of Kensington Palace. While photos of the late royal aren’t rare – in the 1990s, she was one of the most photographed women alive, and 30 years later, her image is all over the internet – this one had never been on public display before. 

Taken by David Bailey in 1988, the black and white portrait is striking in its minimalism. A simple image of the princess in profile, staring steadfastly ahead, it lacks the formality and grandeur of royal portraits past, like those by Cecil Beaton. Whereas several other photos from the same shoot were acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in the ’80s, this one remained for years in Bailey’s private collection. The Historic Royal Palaces, a non-profit committed to maintaining Kensington Palace, secured the photo for the Life Through A Royal Lens exhibit, which focused on portraits of the Windsor family.

And so, a new view of Diana was added to the cultural canon. The late royal was known for her impactful image-making: a photo of her shaking hands with an AIDS patient in London, for example, helped destigmatise the disease, while a picture of her walking through a landmine field in Angola helped to raise global awareness for a pressing human rights issue. Then, there are the pictures of her that epitomise glamour and, well, scandal: take the little black dress Diana wore to a high-profile party as her estranged husband Prince Charles admitted to an affair on national television, cemented now in pop culture as the “revenge dress”. (It even has its own Wikipedia page.)

Below, in addition to Bailey’s portrait, we revisit some of the most famous photographs ever taken of the late Princess of Wales.

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9 Photos

By Ellie Pithers

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