Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon

Armstrong-Jones was born at Eaton Terrace in Belgravia, central London, the only son of the marriage of the Welsh barrister Ronald Armstrong-Jones (1899–1966) and his first wife, Anne Messel (later Countess of Rosse; 1902–1992).

He was called "Tony" by his close relatives.

Armstrong-Jones's paternal grandfather was Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones, a Welsh psychiatrist.

His paternal grandmother, Margaret Armstrong-Jones (née Roberts), was a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford, and was the daughter of Sir Owen Roberts, the Welsh educationalist.

Armstrong-Jones's mother's family was of German-Jewish descent.

A maternal uncle was the stage designer Oliver Messel (1904–1978); a maternal great-grandfather was the Punch cartoonist Linley Sambourne (1844–1910); and his great-great-uncle Alfred Messel was a Berlin architect.

Additionally, his great-great-grandmother, Frances Linley, was a first cousin of Elizabeth Linley, wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon (7 March 1930 – 13 January 2017) was a British photographer and filmmaker.

He is best known internationally for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph Magazine, and other major venues; more than 280 of his photographs are in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery.

Snowdon was also a relentless and successful campaigner for disabled people, achieving dozens of groundbreaking political, economic, structural, transportation, and educational reforms for persons with disabilities during his adult life.

Armstrong-Jones's parents divorced in early 1935, before his fifth birthday.

His mother remarried later that year.

As a 16-year-old he contracted polio while on holiday in Wales; during the six months that he was in the Liverpool Royal Infirmary recuperating, the only visitor from his family was his sister Susan.

The illness left him with a withered left leg, one inch shorter than the other, and a slight permanent limp.

Armstrong-Jones was educated at two private boarding schools: first at Sandroyd School in Wiltshire from the autumn term of 1938 to 1943.

After Sandroyd he attended Eton College, beginning in the autumn term ("Michaelmas half") of 1943.

In March 1945, he qualified in the "extra special weight" class of the School Boxing Finals.

He continued to box in 1946, gaining at least two flattering mentions in the Eton College Chronicle.

In 1947, he was a coxswain in Eton's traditional "Fourth of June" Daylight Procession of Boats.

He then matriculated at the University of Cambridge, where he studied architecture at Jesus College but failed his second-year exams.

He coxed the winning Cambridge boat in the 1950 Boat Race.

After university, Armstrong-Jones began a career as a photographer in fashion, design and theatre.

His stepmother had a friend who knew Baron the photographer; Baron visited Armstrong-Jones in his London flat, which doubled as his work studio.

Baron, impressed, agreed to bring on Armstrong-Jones as an apprentice, first on a fee-paying basis but eventually, as his talent and skills became apparent to Baron, as a salaried associate.

Much of his early commissions were theatrical portraits, often with recommendations from his uncle Oliver Messel, and "society" portraits highly favoured in Tatler, which, in addition to buying many of his photographs, gave him byline credit for the captions.

He later became known for his royal studies, among which were the official portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh during their 1957 tour of Canada.

He was also an early contributor to Queen magazine, the magazine owned by his friend Jocelyn Stevens.

From 1960 to 1978, he was married to Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II.

As husband of Princess Margaret his first solo public engagement was to present the 1960 National Challenge Trophies for the trade organisation the Photographic Information Council's School Photography competition entries from 200 schools in Britain with active camera clubs, at the opening of an exhibition of the work on 7 December 1960, news of which event was covered in American and Australian newspapers as well as in England.

In the early 1960s, Snowdon became the artistic adviser of The Sunday Times Magazine, and by the 1970s had established himself as one of Britain's most respected photographers.

Though his work included everything from fashion photography to documentary images of inner-city life and the mentally ill, he is best known for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Sunday Times Magazine, and The Sunday Telegraph Magazine.

His subjects included Marlene Dietrich, Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Leslie Caron, Lynn Fontanne, David Bowie, Elizabeth Taylor, Rupert Everett, Anthony Blunt, David Hockney, Princess Grace of Monaco, Diana, Princess of Wales, Barbara Cartland, Raine Spencer (when she was Lady Lewisham), Desmond Guinness, British prime minister Harold Macmillan, Iris Murdoch, Tom Stoppard, Vladimir Nabokov, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

More than 280 of his photographs are in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery.

As the husband of a royal, he was granted the title Earl of Snowdon (Lord Snowdon) in October 1961.

In 1968, he made his first documentary film, Don't Count the Candles, for the US television network CBS, on the subject of aging.

It won seven awards, including two Emmys.

This was followed by Love of a Kind (1969), about the British and animals, Born to Be Small (1971) about people of restricted growth and Happy Being Happy (1973).

In October 1981, a group portrait by Snowdon of the British rock band Queen was used on the cover of their Greatest Hits album.

A Snowdon portrait of Freddie Mercury was used in 2000 on the cover of Mercury's compilation box set The Solo Collection.

In 2000, Snowdon was given a retrospective exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, Photographs by Snowdon: A Retrospective, which travelled to the Yale Center for British Art the following year.