David Bowie by snowdon (Photo: Camerapress/snowdon)

Lord Snowdon, the ex-husband of Princess Margaret died today aged 86.Snowdon, a filmmaker and photographer, married the princess in 1960 but they separated in 1978.The photographer, born Anthony Armstrong-Jones, died peacefully at his home, his photo agency revealed.Camera Press said in a short statement: “The Earl of Snowdon died peacefully at home on 13th January 2017.”

Source: Lord Snowdon ex-husband of Princess Margaret dies aged 86 – Mirror Online

I’m sorry to say that I know very little about Antony Armstrong-Jones (Earl of Snowdon) as a photographer. Growing up in the UK I vaguely remember his first wedding (I was eight at the time) and the subsequent scandals. By the time the divorce came I was 26 and living in the United States and it rather passed me by. I guess I always thought of him as someone married to Princess Margaret (the first commoner to marry a royal in several hundred years and a participant in the first divorce of a senior royal since Princess Victoria of Edinburgh‘s, in 1901) rather than the well-known photographer that he was. The Beetles and Huxley site had this to say about him (bold mine):

Over his long career, Snowdon produced a remarkable archive of images, mastering several genres of photography in the process. Despite his well-honed technique, he has no recognisable photographic style, and indeed has made efforts to avoid developing one. He feels that as a photographer his role is to become an invisible observer, coaxing the truth out of his subjects without turning the result into a Snowdon. He is a master of studio portraiture, photo-journalism, theatre, fashion, advertising, travel, nature and even underwater photography. However, his brilliance as a photographer was always overshadowed by his royal status and the controversy that surrounded his relationship with Princess Margaret, exacerbated by their divorce in 1972 (sic)