Product Description

Just five months before her tragic death in August 1997, Diana Princess of Wales was photographed by Mario Testino for Vanity Fair. This book brings together the most beautiful images from this last portrait sitting. First serial to Vanity Fair.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53972 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English, German, French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 136 pages

From the Publisher
Candid, tender, poignant, provocative–the photographs by Mario Testino in Diana, Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace allow readers an entree into the private world of a beloved icon where an uncensored view - of a woman who influenced the world - is on display. This book is being launched to coincide with an exhibition at Kensington Palace, opening in November 2005.

From the Author
Peruvian-born Mario Testino is currently based in London, though he travels extensively shooting for Vanity Fair, American, British, French and Italian Vogue and GQ. Other clients include Estee Lauder, Burberry & Versace. Galleries around the globe from Japan to Italy to the USA have featured his solo exhibitions and his work is held in collections of many institutions worldwide, including the National Portrait Gallery in London, V&A Museum in London and New York University. Mario is an Honorary Doctor of the University of the Arts London and has recently received the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award for his outstanding contribution to the world of fashion and entertainment.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Pictures of the softer side of Diana
As a fan of Diana's, I enjoyed seeing a more casual side of Diana. The picutres show a side of the princess that reaffirm how beautiful she was in all settings, not just formal. The pictures however are a little soft in the focus arena.

The People's Princess At Ease
Five months before Princess Diana's death in August, 1997 she sat for what was to be her last photo session with the Peruvian photographer Mario Testino. The results for the most part are quite wonderful. Often shot in natural light, sometimes smiling naturally-- a difficult task for any photographer to capture-- Diana, relaxed and unadorned (she wears no jewelry and is barefoot and seated sometimes on an all-white sofa), seems to be having a very good time and could almost be the exquisitely beautiful woman next door. Having said that, I noticed that in a shot or two she has an unflattering nose. Unlike too many Brits, however, she was blessed with beautiful teeth-- and a smile that would melt concrete.

In an interview with the photographer that accompanies these photos that were shot for a spread in "Vanity Fair" that sold out on the newsstands he reminisces about the day he shot these photographs and the good time that both he and his subject had doing them, commenting on what he calls real laughter, laughter from the inside, that he was able to elicit-- it is obvious in the photographs-- from Diana. In a touching note, he mentions that these photographs became the favorites of Diana's boys.

My two favorites-- at least today as they might change the next time I look at this beautifully printed book by Taschen-- are numbers 33 (Diana is clutching her hands at her ankles) and 54 with 45 (the pensive Diana) as a close third. Other favorites are 42, 43, 9, 10, 36, 10 and 23, where she is most beautiful.

Diana is wearing some of the 79 dresses she auctioned off at Christie's for charity. If you are interested, information about the clothes is included at the back of the book. But this isn't about the clothes. It is about Diana; she is certainly no mannequin here.

Sixty or so photographs, both in black and white and in color, are included in this book; they are reproduced and numbered in the back. Fraydon Carter wrote a foreword; Meredith Etherington-Smith, an introduction.

While these photographs take on a special significance because they are the last formal ones of Princess Diana before her tragic death, had she lived, she would of course have been photographed dozens and dozens of times. I cannot imagine, however, that these by Testino would not have been seen as some of the most beautiful, most compelling and would have held their own with whatever photographs came after them.

Amazing
Stunning pictures, just a beautiful piece of art that will leave you speechless. Princess Diana was beautiful inside and out, there's nothing left to say.