Mario Testino: Princess Diana Is My Favorite, Took My Career To Another Level (PHOTOS)

The Telegraph quickly caught up with Mario Testino, whose 30-year oeuvre was celebrated at El Museo's annual gala in Manhattan on Thursday night. The Peruvian photographer told the British newspaper that "so many people" have asked him to name his favorite subject over the years, and "It would have to be Princess Diana, it took my career to another level."

He added, "England is the country where I learned my profession. They are the ones that trained me, they are the ones that believed in me. I owe a lot to your country. For me, photographing the Royals is my way of giving back to the country: documenting this tradition and the history, which for a Peruvian (apart from Paddington Bear) there are very few of us that can be a part of it. I feel very attached to the English."

Princess Diana isn't the only member of the firm to sit for Testino. Most recently, he was enlisted to shoot then-Prince William and Kate Middleton's engagement photographs last year. He told Vogue about the experience, writing:

When I had photographed Prince William's mother, I brought along a CD of Dalida, a French singer, that we played on set all day to relax everyone. I decided to do the same thing for Catherine and William. The contrast of the contemporary informal music playing in the beautiful rooms with so much history caused a lot of laughter. There is something about Prince William and Prince Harry that brings real modernity to the British royal family. They are also very open, human, and kind, and this is what I have tried to capture in the pictures I have taken of them as well as in my pictures of Prince William and Catherine.

Take a look at some of Testino's work. And read the rest at Telegraph.co.uk.

Comments

[Midori Greene]

10:28 PM on 05/29/2011

Princess Diana.. always!

[agness nutter]

11:12 PM on 05/28/2011

You can really see the resemblance to William in the picture on the left of Testino. I've never seen it quite so clearly.

[riverhouse]

03:08 PM on 05/28/2011

She was gorgeously photographic and graceful. Prince Charles' cavalier treatment of her is unforgivable, as is the behavior of Camilla, who trespassed on another woman's life and destroyed it.

[JaneQCitizen]

09:18 PM on 05/28/2011

Yeah, you certainly don't see photographers following Camilla around. Eek.

[legshingle]

04:00 PM on 05/30/2011

You don't see the media in England pretending that she is a fashionista. Wish our media would be as honest.

[by-the-sea-]

01:28 PM on 05/28/2011

She'll always be my favorite too. I loved her as a kid, and am still sad that she was taken away too soon.

[sunshineislove]

12:13 PM on 05/28/2011

I really loved Princess Diana,she also is one of my favorites xx
www.nancytoussaint.org

[Perla]

09:53 AM on 05/28/2011

such a lovely, lively woman she was.

[Kittenesque]

01:38 AM on 05/28/2011

Right on! The real Princess

[Lynda Filler]

11:29 PM on 05/27/2011

I can never look at a photo of Princess Diana without having tears in my eyes. She would have loved her son's wedding and I think she would have adored her daughter-i­n-law Kate. We miss your big heart Diana.

[legshingle]

04:02 PM on 05/30/2011

Can you picture what she would have looked like at the wedding? I'll guess that she would have aged so gracefully, with little of that bizarre plastic surgery. And she would have kept her lovely figure. Now she really was a fashion icon...Like Jackie O. Sad to think about what might have been.

[Assumed Name]

09:44 PM on 05/27/2011

I don't really remember her well...only that I was irritated that the paparrazi that chased her car until it crashed weren't prosecuted. However, I just checked Wikipedia (that baston of all that is accurate and true :* ) and it says that it was the chauffeur's fault.

Whatever the case, it was quite tragic.

[leskataus]

12:38 AM on 05/28/2011

That's the official ruling on the crash. The driver of the car, Henri Paul, was legally drunk. While the paparazzi likely contributed to the accident, he was too impaired to drive through a narrow tunnel at high speed. I may not agree with it but that's what was ruled.

[verycold]

09:31 PM on 05/28/2011

As I recall, they dragged him off the bar stool. So they were asking somebody to do something he shouldn't have done. People that are drunk can't make the decision not to drive. That should be left up to those around that person to make that determination assuming they aren't drunk as well. I have told many people in my life that they were too drunk to drive me. Somebody should have said that to Henri Paul that night.

[Lucille]

08:43 PM on 05/27/2011

Seeing these pictures of Princess Diana made me cry a little. It seems like another era, I still miss her though.

[littlebrowngirl]

08:32 PM on 05/27/2011

She was a beauty inside and out.

[ABXNOMORE]

09:52 AM on 05/29/2011

That is where her true appeal lies and why she captured the hearts and minds of so many.

The only heart she did not capture was that of her husband Prince Charles as he was selfish and involved with someone else and should never have married her as his intentions were never well meaning. He acted as a true cad and is not the first man to do such a thing but to take a loving innocent girl of her age and care not about her or how his actions were so callous and hurtful to her, is sickening even all these years later.

[legshingle]

04:04 PM on 05/30/2011

Yeah...I've not been a fan of Charles. Bad, bad behavior on his part.

I do give him credit for raising his sons well. They seem like good people and I'll tip my hat to Charles for their upbringing.

[mannequin]

07:09 PM on 05/27/2011

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

I think his are the best of all the photos ever taken of her.

[amaboss52]

06:47 PM on 05/27/2011

She is one of the few well knowns I have ever cried over when they passed. It's good to see the beautiful pictures of her again. She did a good job of raising those boys. Wish she were still with us.

[Flor Arellano]

05:44 PM on 05/27/2011

He took some of the most beautiful pictures of Diana. I'm not at all surprised that she was his favorite. This lovely woman was very photogenic.

[YeahAnd]

04:31 PM on 05/27/2011

In the 80's, I lived in London