ences. Photographing celebrities, particularly those
involved in the arts, has continued to provide him
with a vehicle for drawing out the particular charac-
teristics of gifted individuals. In contrast, a concern
for the plight of the disabled and the elderly has also
been a recurring theme in Snowdon’s photography
and also in his less well-known film work such as
Don’t Count the Candles, 1968, which won two
Emmy awards. From his seat in the House of
Lords, Snowdon continues to press for reform for
the physically disadvantaged and is connected with
the Helen Hamlyn Research centre in this capacity.
The edition ofVoguefor October 1958 is typical
of Snowdon’s photographic breadth as it contained
a group portrait of the cast of Billy Wilder’s play
Irma la Douce, which headed a 13-page fashion
spread, a group portrait of the English Stage Com-
pany players, a portrait of Lord Harewood who was
at the time directing an arts festival, an announce-
ment for his ski-wear design, and a double self-por-
trait with one image showing him in disguise and the
second image deliberately printed upside down.
Snowdon’s career very quickly gathered momentum
in the late 1950s and early 1960s as he gained com-
missions from a large variety of clients connected
with the arts and with fashion such asVanity Fair
andThe Sunday Times, the latter publication also
printing early examples of his social documentary
work. His first exhibition was held in 1957 at the
Kodak Studios in London’s Kingsway. Thereafter
he began a long and mutually beneficial relationship
with the photographic company Olympus.
In May 1960 he became a household name when he
married Princess Margaret, sister to Queen Elizabeth
II. The marriage took place in Westminster Abbey
with Cecil Beaton as official wedding photographer.
He became the Earl of Snowdon in 1961 and in 1963
Constable of Caernarvon Castle. He quickly abbre-
viated this to Snowdon, a name he has subsequently
retained, although he is sometimes colloquially referred
to as Tony Snowdon. His new connection to royalty
brought him a range of unique opportunities. In 1969
he created a modernised and telegenic form of royal
pageantry for the investiture of the Prince of Wales, a
service to the crown earning him the title of Knight
Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO)
His royal commissions have also included many por-
trait assignments. Some of these portraits have been
used for postage stamp designs, thus ensuring that his
work was very widely seen. The subjects of his photo-
graphs for stamps have included Prince Charles’ wed-
ding in 1981. His portraits of Queen Elizabeth II have
also been used by the British postal system, as was the
case with a postal order engraved by Czeslaw Slania in
1985, which was based on a Snowdon photograph.
Although divorced from Princess Margaret in 1978,
Snowdon’s royal commissions have not ceased, a
recent example being his portrait of Prince Harry to
mark his sixteenth birthday, taken in September 2000.
In his professional activities Snowdon has al-
ways been an active collaborator. He worked with
Cedric Price and Frank Newby on the design of the
Aviary at London Zoo. It opened in 1965 and is
now a Grade II listed building. In the 1980s he was
involved in the design of the Phoenixphone version
of the Trimphone telephone and from the publica-
tion ofLondonin 1958, his books have frequently
featured collaborators with writers.
Although Snowdon has exhibited in a number of
important venues, particularly in connection with
Photographs by Snowdon: A Retrospectiveat the
National Portrait Gallery in London (2000) and at
the Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven
(2001), he has not overlooked the importance of
smaller, more intimate spaces to showcase his
work. October 2002 marked his return to Pimlico
with a set of 30 portraits under the titleInterior
Personalitiesat the Linley Gallery. In recent years
Snowdon has also initiated a number of new depar-
tures in his photographic practice. These include the
production of a series of eight limited edition prints
of wildflowers, created in association with Lon-
don’s Belgravia Gallery. He has also departed
from a previously held conviction to avoid spon-
sored assignments by taking on a project based by
the Open Russia Foundation to photograph con-
temporary Russia. A book of these photographs
was launched in December 2003, and a related exhi-
bition toured a number of important venues includ-
ing the newly opened Alexandria Library in Egypt.
JaniceHart
Seealso:Beaton, Cecil; Fashion Photography; Por-
traitureBiography
Anthony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, who from the
1960s has worked under the name of Snowdon, was born
in 1930, the only son of Ronald Armstrong Jones QC
and Anne Messel. His mother shortly afterwards remar-
ried and became the Countess of Rosse. He attended
Eton, where he revived the school’s photographic
society, going on to Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1949.
He did not gain his qualification to practice as an archi-
tect but went on to work as an assistant to the society
and arts photographer Baron. He soon began to work in
his own right and was popular within many artistic
circles where he received his early commissions. His
work began to be published in 1953, and he soon became
well known for society photography, dance and theatre
work, portraiture and fashion, and travel and topogra-SNOWDON (ANTHONY ARMSTRONG-JONES)