During her lifetime, Princess Margaret was one of the most photographed women in the world. In fact, on Getty Images—one of the world’s most extensive online image collections—there’s over 8,000 to sift through, a remarkable feat considering that she was born well before the site, the internet, and digitalisation technology existed.
Sure, part of it was due to her role as a working royal, a job that requires public appearances at everything from museum openings to galas and state visits to Commonwealth countries. And sure, part of it was due to press coverage that comes with being in the spotlight, exacerbated by Margaret’s rocky romances. (In 1978, all hell broke loose when the British tabloids published paparazzi pictures of Margaret frolicking in Mustique with gardener Roddy Llewellyn, who was 18 years her junior.)
But all this attention was also due in part to her magnetism. She pouted and posed for the artists of the moment, including Cecil Beaton, Slim Aarons, and her own photographer husband, Lord Snowdon. Whereas most other royals served as a mere photographic subject, Margaret also doubled as a muse.
How else would you explain her intimate 29th birthday portrait, shot by Anthony Armstrong Jones before he became Lord Snowdon, where she gazes coyly into the camera? (According to Anne de Courcey’s Snowdon, the shoot served as an excuse for the two to further their flirtations.) Then there were Slim Aaron’s candid snaps of Margaret at leisure, everywhere from Mustique to Costa Smeralda.
Below, we share 23 iconic photographs of Princess Margaret, from her World-War II era childhood, to her London wedding at which she wore the Poltimore Tiara, to her adult years hanging with Mick Jagger.
This story was originally published on vogue.com.
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Margaret accompanies her sister as she addresses the nation’s children in 1940.
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