The official photographer for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding is a Polish prince himself. Alexi Lubomirski took the couple’s official engagement photos and has also photographed celebrities like Beyoncé, Angelina Jolie and Julia Roberts.
“CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King spoke to him about the assignment he considers the biggest of his career.
“Three months ago I had the other biggest assignment in my career,” Lubomirski said. “I was more than happy to have done the royal engagement pictures. Then we were, luckily enough, my wife and I were lucky enough, to be invited to the wedding.”
“How is that going to work physically? What’s your – what’s your game plan physically to get that accomplished?” King asked.
“Don’t panic. From the chapel, while they go on the carriage ride around Windsor, we’re gonna run from the chapel to the areawhere we’re shooting, and everything’s already set up,” he said.
As for any nerves? Just the normal amount.
“It’s funny, with the engagement pictures, nobody knew that I was doing the pictures, so there was zero pressure. … This one, everybody knows, and I’m getting lots of wonderfully lovely comments from around the world via social media. But no, just a healthy amount of nerves and adrenaline pumping.”
Since learning of his big assignment, Lubomirski said he’s been looking at past royal weddings — but not necessarily for inspiration.
“We’re trying to do something a little bit different. Now, when I say different, it can’t be completely out there… We wanted to just make it a bit more authentic. A bit more about them. A bit more real,” he explained. “I’ve been throwing the word family around in my head a lot because it’s a historical document, in general, it is quite regimented… There’s not much you can get away from, but again, I’m just trying to sort of soften the edges a bit. So I’m hopefully trying to get that accent in there. That flavor.”
But his mind blanked when he realized the duties would include taking a picture of the Queen of England.
“Are you allowed to ask her to smile?” King asked
“I’m going to try it. You know? See what — I’ll flash a smile at her and see if she flashes one back,” he said.
“I met the couple, a couple of weeks ago, and I showed them some ideas about what I wanted to do. And they were very open to the ideas,” he said. “They’re very at ease with each other. They’re in that sort of agreement with everything. They’re very sort of one vision about everything,” he said.
“Obviously apart from them together, getting that– that magical shot of them together, I’m so looking forward to the group photo because I think that is really such a historical document and having Megan’s mom there….That just gives me goosebumps, the whole thing, about how the royal family has evolved and how it’s moved on and how it’s moving with the times. And I think it’s hugely important and I think it breathes new life into the family.”
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