Overview
- Levine shared previously unseen, passport-style images from his Buckingham Palace sessions with Queen Elizabeth II, released days before what would have been her 100th birthday next Tuesday.
- The photos followed a light exchange when assistant Nina Duncan likened the setup to a passport picture and the Queen replied, “One doesn’t need a passport photo.”
- Her remark reflects a constitutional rule: the sovereign does not carry a British passport because passports are issued in the monarch’s name, according to the royal website.
- The images come from Yellow Drawing Room sittings that also produced Levine’s holographic portraits, praised by the National Portrait Gallery as the most evocative royal image, with dresser Angela Kelly supplying the coronation diadem for the shoot.
- Coverage links the release to a Jersey commission and even says Levine “captured” the passport-style photos in 2024, a claim that conflicts with the Queen’s 2022 death and signals confusion over dates.