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The news of Queen Elizabeth's death came with a stunning photograph.
After the Queen died at age 96 on Thursday, the palace shared the announcement of her passing on Twitter and Instagram with a stunning black-and-white portrait of longest-reigning British monarch, taken more than 15 years ago as she celebrated a major milestone.
"The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon," the statement read. "The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow."
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The portrait was taken at Buckingham Palace in February 2006 for the Queen's 80th birthday by late photographer Jane Bown, who was 81 at the time. It was featured in Bown's 2009 book Exposures.
"Queen Elizabeth II selected Jane Bown to take a photographic portrait at the start of her eightieth birthday year," reads a description of the image by the Royal Collection Trust (RCT). "Bown (a fellow octogenarian) worked as a professional photographer since the late 1940s."
The image was also featured in the Royal Collection Trust's exhibit The Queen: 60 Photographs for 60 Years celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Queen Elizabeth was only the second British monarch to reach that anniversary, following her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901), who celebrated her own Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
Royal Collection Trust recognized Bown for her "unpretentious technique, working at speed, using only available light, and for working in black and white rather than color."
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Bown, who died at age 89 in December 2014, once said, according to The Independent: "I spent my whole life worrying about time and light. If I had time it was something, but if I had light it was even better."
She worked taking photos for The Observer since 1949, and she was awarded an MBE in 1985 and a CBE in 1995, in addition to an honorary fellowship at the Royal Photographic Society in 2000.
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When Queen Elizabeth called her an artist at her 1995 CBE ceremony, Bown responded: "I am not an artist, I'm just a hack."
An announcement on the royal family's website saw Queen Elizabeth at the very beginning of her reign, showing the newly-crowned 27-year-old monarch at her coronation in 1953.
Queen Elizabeth died at age 96 on Thursday afternoon. Her death follows her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, who died at age 99 in June 2021. She is succeeded immediately by her eldest son, King Charles III, 73, who is now the monarch.
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