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Just like any millennial couple, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry discovered their wedding photographer on Instagram.
When Alexi Lubomirski was called out of the blue by Kensington Palace in November 2017 and asked if he would like to work on a ‘special project’ together, the photographer had no idea that six months later he would be documenting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s royal wedding, capturing some of the most memorable photos from the day, which have been viewed by millions worldwide.
The once in a lifetime collaboration came about after a friend of Markle’s suggested she look up the New York-based photographer on social media. ‘Harry and Meghan immediately went on my Instagram and looked at my stuff – and I had just posted some cool pictures of Julia Roberts,’ Lubomirski revealed in a new interview with the Evening Standard. ‘So Instagram got me the job.’
He went on to explain the strict rules surrounding shooting members of the royal family, revealing he had limited time to capture the wedding photos – just 25 minutes to capture six different set-ups. ‘You can’t have them kissing, you can’t have them screaming and running through the garden and obviously you have to see the ring,’ he explained. ‘But I think it’s within those guidelines that the creativity happens.’
The photographer previously said that he had just three minutes to capture the now-iconic ‘steps’ photo, showing Meghan Markle and Prince Harry sitting down laughing, saying that both the newlyweds wanted their images to be authentic.
‘The Palace official was looking at me saying “we’re going to have to turn around soon” and I was like OK, OK “just sit down on these stairs”,’ he said. ‘And they literally just sort of slumped down, laughing. Sort of looking at each other going “oh my god, we’re married”.’
‘He would be talking and she would look at him, she’d be smiling at what he said and then he’d look at her and there’d be this spark between them,’ he recalled. ‘I get tingles just thinking about it. They were a young couple in love and it was so cute.’
‘And I said “I’m sorry but this is so adorable, you guys are obviously so in love, and this is what I want to capture”.
The photographer said that he ‘burst into tears’ following the brief photo shoot when he finally had time to view the images, partly due to relief but also because he was so happy with the results. ‘I’m a cheese ball, I love love,’ he said.
