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Speaker 1: Jersey and Amanda gem Nation.

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Speaker 2: She was the most photographed, most loved and talked about,

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Speaker 2: spied upon, praise, criticized, popular woman on the planet all

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Speaker 2: over the globe, and in every moment of her long life,

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Speaker 2: people have wanted to watch her through a peephole, wanted

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Speaker 2: to discover new things, to understand her, to answer the

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Speaker 2: question who was Queen Elizabeth? I? In reality, well, someone

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Speaker 2: who has granted a window into her life and gave

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Speaker 2: us some of the most well loved photographs of the

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Speaker 2: late Monarchy's photography. Chris Levine, he joins us. Now, Hello, Chris, Hello, Chris, Hi,

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Speaker 2: go Chris. I find this fascinating. I mean, I know

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Speaker 2: there's a new documentary Portrait of a Queen that tells

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Speaker 2: a story of the Queen through all the portraits that

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Speaker 2: were done of her. What is it like in coming

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Speaker 2: to coming in front of the queen like this? Does

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Speaker 2: she have a thousand people around her? Are you nervous?

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Speaker 2: How does it go?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, I was quite blase about it because it

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Speaker 1: was in the diary for about three years. But in

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Speaker 1: the week leading up to her I did start get

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Speaker 1: quite nervous. But I got a call to say, what

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Speaker 1: would I like her majesty to wear, you know. So

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Speaker 1: when she actually arrived at the moment you know in

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Speaker 1: the diary three years, when she arrived wearing the dress

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Speaker 1: that I've been looking at a couple of days previously,

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Speaker 1: with the one line of felt that I selected, it

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Speaker 1: was quite surreal and she could see I think that

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Speaker 1: I was. I was a little bit nervous.

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Speaker 3: Well, naturally she would because you've dressed her up. I

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Speaker 3: don't think anyone else would do that.

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Speaker 1: Well, also, if you know that she came into the

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Speaker 1: yellow drawing room where she has most of her portraits taken,

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Speaker 1: you know, and usually there'd be an easel in the corner,

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Speaker 1: but I was working with light. I mean, I had

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Speaker 1: incense going. I had a light modulator. I wanted to

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Speaker 1: create a real sense of calm in the room for

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Speaker 1: me to do the portrait. So I could see her

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Speaker 1: looking around and you know, kind of thinking, you know

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Speaker 1: what it's like the tartst and not for who all

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Speaker 1: this technology and who's this weirder?

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Speaker 3: But I imagined the Queen wouldn't be an incense kind of girl.

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Speaker 3: Would that be fair to say?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? And I think, but you know, she really got

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Speaker 1: into it in fact, you know, she granted me a

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Speaker 1: second sitting that was never on the schedule, and I've

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Speaker 1: had two private audiences whether after that, to show the

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Speaker 1: work in progress. So I think she took a real

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Speaker 1: interest in the project.

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Speaker 2: Does she have an entourage of about one hundred people?

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Speaker 2: Were they Sometimes when we meet huge celebrities, We've never

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Speaker 2: obviously met someone the caliber of the Queen, but it's

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Speaker 2: the people around that make your life hard.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's you know, this was in her home, this

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Speaker 1: is in ducking In Palace, and so it's really just

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Speaker 1: Angela Kelly and her private secretary and my team. So no,

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Speaker 1: it was quite quite an intimate experience.

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Speaker 2: And did you make little chitty check? Do you make

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Speaker 2: small talk? I mean, she's the Queen of small talk,

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Speaker 2: But what do you say as you're trying to get

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Speaker 2: the portrait?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's the first sitting. It was quite you know,

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Speaker 1: it was quite awkward in a way because I think,

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Speaker 1: you know, she was quite unfamiliar with the technology, and

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Speaker 1: you know, I was a bit kind of awestruck, and

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Speaker 1: George Bush was staying there. Security had never been tied.

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Speaker 1: I actually don't think it really was the day to

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Speaker 1: have her portrait taken. But the second sitting, it was

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Speaker 1: really light and it was really nice Chris, you know Hawaiian.

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Speaker 1: She'd obviously been given a portfolio of work. She knew

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Speaker 1: where I was coming from that electric experiment with light,

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Speaker 1: and it was much more relaxed and actually all the

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Speaker 1: magic happened in that second sitting.

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Speaker 3: And how many shots did you take?

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Speaker 1: Well, we had a camera that we designed especially for

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Speaker 1: the shoe, but I shot this in three D to

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Speaker 1: the pieces in the National Portrait Gallery their light boxes

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Speaker 1: in three dimensions, so it was a special camera system

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Speaker 1: on each path. It took two hundred images from left

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Speaker 1: to right to create the different views, and we shot

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Speaker 1: about ten thousand in total. Wow wow.

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Speaker 2: So how long was the session altogether?

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Speaker 1: I had two sittings for both about an hour and

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Speaker 1: a half, and then two private audiences with her to

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Speaker 1: show the work in progress.

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Speaker 2: She must have been very patient, because Jonesy, whenever you

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Speaker 2: have a photo one take, you say.

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Speaker 3: That, Well, did they always go okay, can we do

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Speaker 3: one more?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: We'll come on, you got it? What's the matter with you?

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Speaker 1: Yes?

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Speaker 2: Was she patient?

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Speaker 1: Well? She was, and my assistant me and has said

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Speaker 1: to her because as a certain and I had. One

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Speaker 1: of the setups I had was like media says, like

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Speaker 1: having a portrait for your passport, photograph taken, ma'am, And

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Speaker 1: she said, one doesn't need a passport when.

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Speaker 3: Your head's on the step. It's a good thing you

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Speaker 3: did it like back then and not recently because the

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Speaker 3: small til you wouldn't be able to talk about the

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Speaker 3: family in any way.

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's a different era now. We

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Speaker 1: always knew when she passed it was going to be

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Speaker 1: the beginning of a whole new chapter. And you know,

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Speaker 1: isn't it just And.

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Speaker 2: When you're taking her portrait, I know you're trying to

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Speaker 2: capture something of her as a person. How do you

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Speaker 2: go about that as opposed to just pointing your iPhone

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Speaker 2: at her and taking a click.

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Speaker 1: Well, at a time, I was getting into meditation and

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Speaker 1: I was really trying to create a sense of stillness

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Speaker 1: in the work, So I was very conscious of the

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Speaker 1: Madine's breathing, so as the cameras to the pass I

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Speaker 1: was trying to time it with her breathing cycle, and

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Speaker 1: I had her looking in the distance at an ultra

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Speaker 1: violet cross that I'd make. She's head of the Church

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Speaker 1: of England. I thought she needs to fix her eye

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Speaker 1: while the camera moves, and you know, with the incense burning,

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Speaker 1: the light sculpture, the subdued lighting, you know, I think

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Speaker 1: she took a moment of rest. I mean, likeness of

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Speaker 1: being with her eyes closed was when I asked her

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Speaker 1: to rest in between shots, and that was just a

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Speaker 1: moment of magic.

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Speaker 2: It's a beautiful portrait. I'm looking at it now of

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Speaker 2: the Queen with her eyes.

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Speaker 3: Pitching whoo.

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Speaker 1: Or maybe not.

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Speaker 3: Chris is not saying anything further about that.

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Speaker 2: It's fascinating.

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Speaker 3: I think it's just an amazing portrait of the Queen.

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Speaker 3: Comes to cinemas around Australia March eighteen. Chris Levine, thank

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Speaker 3: you for joining us.

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Speaker 1: My pleasure,