Story behind the black-and-white photo used to announce Queen Elizabeth II’s passing

The UK, other Commonwealth nations, and the world is grieving Queen Elizabeth II’s passing away. Britain’s longest-reigning monarch died on September 8, 2022, at UK’s Balmoral Castle — a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland — a little over a year after the death of Prince Philip, her husband, and the news was officially announced on social media with a statement from her son Prince Charles, who now becomes the King, and a stunning black-and-white photograph.
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The text accompanying the photo read, “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”

In the photo, the late monarch has a soft smile on her face as her piercing eyes look away from the camera. She wears her statement pearl jewellery — a necklace and a pair of earrings.

According to People, the photograph was clicked more than 15 years ago during a milestone event in the queen’s life. It was clicked at Buckingham Palace in February 2006 for the queen’s 80th birthday late photographer Jane Bown.
Bown was 81 at the time and the photo was also featured in her 2009 book ‘Exposures‘. A different version of the photo is available on the website of National Portrait Gallery, in which the queen appears to be more relaxed as she looks directly at the camera and grins.

A description of the photograph the Royal Collection Trust (RCT) states, “Queen Elizabeth II selected Jane Bown to take a photographic portrait at the start of her eightieth birthday year. Bown (a fellow octogenarian) worked as a professional photographer since the late 1940s.”

Per the People report, the photo was also a part of the Royal Collection Trust’s exhibit ‘The Queen: 60 Photographs for 60 Years‘ that celebrated her Diamond Jubilee in 2012. The Trust is said to have recognised Bown for her “unpretentious technique, working at speed, using only available light, and for working in black and white rather than colour”.

Bown died in December 2014, at the age of 89. She was once quoted as telling The Independent, “I spent my whole life worrying about time and light. If I had time, it was something, but if I had light it was even better.”

The photographer was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) in 1985 and a CBE (Commander) in 1995, along with an honourary fellowship at the Royal Photographic Society in 2000.
According to a Guardian report, when Bown was at Buckingham Palace to collect her CBE in 1995, the queen had called her an ‘art’, to which she had replied, “I am not an art. I’m just a hack.”
Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96 on Thursday afternoon. She had not been keeping well for the past several months but managed to make an appearance for the platinum jubilee celebrations in June this year.
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