The last official portrait of the Queen – and the story behind it

The portrait is a stunning image, capturing not just the Queen at an important moment, but also her love of horses and a sense of her personality in a beautiful composition.

“We had planned the photograph carefully for a particular Magnolia to come into bloom,” Henry, who lives near Chichester, recalls. “It was only in bloom for a very short time so we had to time it well. The photograph was going to be used for the Platinum Jubilee celebration but then unknown to me it was released as her choice as the official portrait for her 96th birthday.

“As a photographer you have to create the image, the mood, the spirit and the first portrait that I did of Her Majesty was for the Golden Jubilee and then the Diamond Jubilee and they always involved her holding horses. So you have to think what background do you use. For the 90th I did a portrait of Her Majesty in a sea of golden daffodils and then with this one, it being the platinum jubilee, we thought that the colour of the blossom would represent that but then I thought that we needed to add some contrast and that it would be good if Her Majesty wore a dark coat. The message was conveyed that it would be better if she wore something dark. I did a recce the day before and it was pouring with rain but I could visualise the two horses and how the coat needed to be a dark colour. And then on the day she wore this lovely dark green.

“I believe that the portrait was actually the final portrait of her. It is iconic. It is in the National Portrait Gallery now. I feel very proud. You just think ‘Wow!’”

For nearly 25 years Henry has been at the heart and soul of British pageantry with his camera. His stories and his images are full of life, humour and unique insight. Inevitably, he felt compelled to cover the Queen’s funeral.

“I just had to be there. I had to experience it. I had to do whatever I could with my camera over that two-week period or however long it was. And I also did the state funeral. You have to choose your locations very carefully but I would say that the state funeral to me was one of the most outstanding displays of pageantry you could ever see, with the music being played by seven or eight marching bands all playing the same note at the same time. Every so often you'd hear the chime of Big Ben and then the firing of the guns plus the drum beat that had to be much, much harder to keep everybody in place. It was absolutely beautiful – and so was the Coronation.”

As ever it was about preparation and about knowing your subject: “You have to know your subject really, really well. I had done two of the midnight rehearsals for the Coronation. In doing that I knew where I wanted to be and then it was a question of getting access to the various points and then getting the clearing beforehand.

“I have been photographing British pageantry for 24 years. I started with my first book on the Household Cavalry. I just fell in love with the ceremony and with the horses. It is a magnificent ongoing tradition. I just think it's outstanding and to me it is really beautiful.”

But for his Chichester talk Henry will go back further and go wider: “As a photographer I have been lucky enough to travel all over the world. I love adventure. I've done a lot of mountaineering and climbing around the world.”

Henry began taking photos at just nine years old with his first box brownie in the mountains of his native Iran. His mother taught him how to ride a horse when he was a child, and, as his interest in mountaineering and man's companionship with horses developed, so too did his passion for photography.

Since those early days, Henry has journeyed to remote areas to portray the splendour of rarely-seen landscapes and to capture the beauty of the unity between man and horse through his camera lens. He came to the UK as a 23-year-old after the Iranian revolution. Since then his work has been exhibited worldwide with diverse subjects ranging from the nomadic tribes of the Turkaman Steppes to the Household Cavalry in Knightsbridge.

“When I came to England I just fell in love with the Household Cavalry and I just thought ‘Wow!’ It was 20 years later that I was able to start photographing them.”

British equine pageantry has been key to his work ever since – and was key to his meeting the Queen.

“Because the book I was doing was on the Household Cavalry I was introduced to their commander in chief who is the sovereign and at the time 24 years ago that was the Queen. She was special. To me she was the Queen but she was also a person and when you have horses around and you are chatting to a person that just happens to be the Queen, there's a relaxed atmosphere.”

Henry would meet her at equine events – and from there his portrait work with the Queen evolved. Henry will share his inspiring journey in his Chichester Festival Theatre talk and also reveal unpublished portraits of the late Queen and royal events in a one-off event.

Tickets are strictly limited and include a glass of English sparkling wine. Tickets are available from Chichester Festival Theatre.

Henry is passionate about sharing his photography with others and has self-published a number of coffee-table books including Desert Pageantry, The Royal Cavalry of Oman; Pageantry and Performance, The Household Cavalry in a Celebration of Pictures; Horse Warriors, India’s 61st Cavalry; Addressing Climate Change; The World Met In Paris; The World Came to Windsor: The Diamond Jubilee Pageant and The Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebration Home Park Private, Windsor Castle. He has also contributed to numerous other books including Qatar: Sand, Sea and Sky, Endurance, Magic of Monaco, Horse Gunners: The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, Diana: Flowers In the Park and Horses.

His work has been exhibited worldwide and featured in publications internationally. He has been honoured with commissions to photograph senior world figures. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Alpine Club Member, he is also a board member of the Hamdan International Photography Award (HIPA) based in Dubai.