Snowdon, Earl of (Anthony Armstrong-Jones; b. 1930), British editorial and portrait photographer. Snowdon took his first photographs while at school, making his own enlarger from soup cans. He first came to public attention in the 1950s with his grainy black-and-white pictures of London theatre productions (his uncle was the stage designer Oliver Messel). But, aged 20, Armstrong-Jones had for six months assisted the fashionable society photographer ‘Baron’, and it was as a portraitist that he became best known. His photographs of eminent and glamorous celebrities have appeared regularly in the Telegraph and Sunday Times magazines, as well as Vanity Fair, American House and Garden, Life, and many others. Many of these portraits show an unusual sense of humour, and he has persuaded sitters to pretend to be a table leg, stick their heads through lavatory seats, be made up as Dracula, and so on. Armstrong-Jones married HRH Princess Margaret in 1960 (they were divorced in 1978), and was created Earl of Snowdon in 1961. He has published nearly a score of books of his work, designed buildings and fashion, made television films and furniture, and worked with disabled and disadvantaged people.
— Colin Ford
Bibliography
- Photographs by Snowdon: A Retrospective (2000)
