I was reprimanded by my parents for talking during the minute’s silence at Princess Diana’s funeral.
In my defense, I was six years old at the time. Almost twenty-five years have passed since that fateful night in Paris, when the People’s Princess was pursued by the press one last time. In the years since, Diana’s legacy has hung over not just the British royal family, but the relationship between society and celebrity. Her death marked one of the first real moments of global introspection: was our paparazzi too invasive, our press too dogged? We now look back at the media’s treatment of Britney Spears, Whitney Houston and Lindsay Lohan and ask the same questions. But it all goes back to Di.
Late last month, I went to a shopping mall not too far from Washington Dulles International Airport. Here, for some inexplicable reason, is an exhibition about Princess Diana’s life. “For the first time in his 60-year career, Diana’s favorite Royal photographer, tells 50+ untold stories of royal life and the Princess that we couldn’t take our eyes off of,” the website breathily reveals. Presumably they have just omitted said photographer’s name, given that rogue comma.
On the ground floor of Tysons Corner, opposite the H&M men’s section and next door to the Seven/Eleven, you can find Princess Diana: Accredited Access. As the name suggests, the collection consists of large canvas prints of photographs taken by Anwar Hussein and his two sons, Zak and Samir. I was one of three people moseying through the gallery on a Friday afternoon. This was an early disappointment: I was hoping to meet some of the crazed Windsor-obsessives who line the streets of London during royal weddings — who are always overwhelmingly American and overwhelmingly interviewed on American television. Alas.
The audio tour plays the stories of the Husseins following the royals around — climbing mountains, staying up ladders opposite hospitals, doing the utmost to get the best shot. Zak and Samir will regale you, in their Estuary English accents, as to how they were “up all night” and “waiting for hours” in pursuit of a snap that will make the front page or, in modern parlance, “go viral.” These anecdotes are hard to relate to, even for a so-called journalist like me.
The large prints are lit by bars at the top and bottom, and the photos in question are undoubtedly impressive — I suppose my issue is that I’ve seen them all before. In America, when a well-known current affairs magazine needs to boost sales, they run an Abe Lincoln cover because people will pick it up on newsstands. Diana is the equivalent historical figure for right-leaning middle-market British newspapers. But a concerted effort was made to tailor the exhibition, which premiered in the US last fall, to an American audience. They even swapped in “mom” for “mum” in part ten.
The Hussein brothers, who do most of the audio commentary, also work in their own photos to draw parallels between their work with Wills, Kate, Harry and Meghan and their father’s close relationship with the prince’s mother. Of an early picture of Di, from when she was dating Charles, they mention how she “didn’t seem to mind all the attention she was getting.” Later they mention how she “learned to direct how the press and public would view her.” Naturally the photographers present the influence of the media as entirely benign.
A lot was made of how Diana “broke the glass ceiling” for Kate and Meghan after her — presumably as an excuse to shoehorn in more of Zak and Samir’s snaps. One brother mentions how you “never hear much criticism of how Kate and Meghan dress” which therefore “turns the focus” to “causes” the princesses care about. This sounds particularly phony to those of us who’ve recently read Tom Bower’s Meghan Markle biography Revenge and have taken in how hard Markle tried to become a UN ambassador like her idol, actress Emma Watson. “Unreserved and demonstrative,” is how the brothers characterize the Duchess of Sussex. Hardly.
The Husseins also describe how Diana tried to raise William and Harry by “grounding them in the way most people lived,” no small task when being brought up in a series of palaces and attending one of Britain’s most expensive fee-paying schools.
The Windsor hagiography is at its most gauche in the subsection on “touch,” showing Diana holding various hands on her royal walkabouts — with lepers, AIDS sufferers, multiethnic children. “Physical touch was the language she used to connect to the people around her,” one Hussein says. Naturally they don’t tie this back to how she (allegedly) perfected the art of the physical touch during her time at West Heath School and how she (probably) honed it further during her trysts with England rugby captain Will Carling, England army captain James Hewitt and Harrods heir Dodi Fayed.
At the tour’s climax, visitors can treat themselves to a souvenir program for a mere $25, a Diana candle for $40 or a sweatshirt for the princess-ly sum of $60. There’s also a large gold frame with a red carpet and cordon, where you can pose for an Instagram-friendly snap.
As far as Diana retrospectives go, nothing will top for me the Oh Hello P’dcast “Di Town” from Nick Kroll and John Mulaney. But if you ever find yourself on a long layover at Dulles and want to look at blown-up versions of photographs you could find on Google Images, this exhibit is at Tysons Corner until September 8 and is $32 for adults. Knock yourself out.
