Peter Fetterman is a huge fan of The Crown television series. To celebrate the arrival of the new season, it presents these images of Queen Elisabeth II taken by David Montgomery, one of her regular photographers. Here they are as well as the texts of Peter and David!
When I first saw these images I had to meet their creator. I tracked David Montgomery down and so began our long collaboration and friendship. David first came to London as an assistant to a photographer in the early 1960’s and decided that he wanted to make London his home and started his own career there. One day he gets a call from “The Observer” newspaper for a special assignment to photograph Her Royal Highness with the brief to show The Queen as a real living person who can do everyday things. He was so terrified that he initially turned the job down and after being screamed at by his wife he called back and agreed to do it.
The rest is history. I have never seen any other photos of The Queen that show her “normalness.” I am always awestruck by this first image. One would think The Queen with her large household staff would be sitting in front of a beautiful handmade log fire. Why is she in front of a $20 drug store electric heater? – Peter Fetterman
“The Queen came in and she was very sweet. At that point there were just the three of us. The Queen, myself and my assistant. The dogs were there, four or five of them, but no other people, no guards, nothing. “Where do you sit when you’re here?” I asked. And the next thing I knew she was on the floor in front of the fire. I thought I don’t believe this.” – David Montgomery
Peter Fetterman Gallery
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