Rankin thinks Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is "really funny".
The acclaimed British photographer – whose full name is John Rankin Waddell – worked on a portrait of the monarch as part of her 2002 Golden Jubilee celebrations, and has described how pleased he was when meeting her because she acted so normally.
He recalled: "I watched her walk down this long corridor at Buckingham Palace with a guy who must have been at least 6ft. She’s tiny, and she was looking up at him, smiling and chatting, and I thought, ‘You’re exactly what I want you to be. You’re a real person.’"
The 48-year-old artist also revealed how he acted like comedy spy Austin Powers in a bid to make the 88-year-old royal laugh during the shoot to create the iconic image in which she grins at the camera.
He confessed: "I started saying ‘Ma’am’, like ‘jam’. ‘Ma’am, you have to smile, please’ – I was like Austin Powers. And she just laughed at me. She was really funny, making a lot of jokes – very dry. Photography is all about collaboration – and she gave it to me."
Following the unveiling of the photograph, Rankin admits she gave her approval of the image but didn’t mention her own face; a move he thought was "classy".
He told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper: "She wrote back to me having seen the shot, saying, ‘I love the stitching on the flag’. That’s the Queen’s way of not having an opinion. That’s classy. It’s like saying, ‘I like the photograph, I’m just not commenting on myself.’"
Rankin: Queen Elizabeth II is ‘really funny’
