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In 1997, photographer Mario Brenna found himself in an unusual position: a paparazzo who’d become the subject of headlines himself. That summer, Brenna had snapped some photos of Britain’s Princess Diana with her new boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed while the couple were vacationing on the yacht of Dodi’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed. The photos, which ran in the Sunday Mirror on August 10, 1997, showed the princess and Dodi kissing, and served to break the news of what would become the royal’s final romance.

The story of those photos, and the ensuing fallout, feature on the latest season of Netflix’s hit historical drama, The Crown, including a suggestion that Brenna was able to capture the photos with the aid of Dodi’s father, Mohamed. While there’s no evidence that the former Harrod’s owner was involved in the taking of the photos—Brenna told the New York Times that the idea that Fayed hired him was “absurd and completely invented,” after season six premiered—Brenna really did snap the pics, and he really did make millions in the process.

Here’s what we know about the paparazzo.

Brenna, an Italian man reportedly lived in Monaco in 1997, making his living as a fashion and society photographer, even serving as an official photographer to the Versace fashion house, according to The Independent. He was described by a fellow photographer at the time as “a very smooth chap,” while an unnamed journalist praised his adaptability, saying, “The most successful people in this business are the ones that can cross from one sort of thing to another. He’s one of them.”

According to Jason Fraser, who stated that he was tipped off about the trip by Diana herself and later acted as Brenna’s agent for the sale of the photo rights, Brenna independently found the yacht—then named the Jonikal—off of the Sardinian coast and snapped the infamous pictures before flying to London about their potential sale.

(Authors Tim Clayton and Phil Craig allege in Diana: Story of a Princess that Fraser was the one to give information about Diana’s whereabouts to Brenna. Brenna himself said in 2023 that he was summering in Sardinia and simply happened across the Jonikal, mistaking Diana from a distance for a friend of his. He called the situation a “great stroke of luck.”)

“Mario wouldn’t tell me what he had over the phone. He flew to London, came to my house and simply said: ‘You’re not going to believe this. You might want to sit down.'” Fraser said in 2013. “When he showed me the prints, we spread them out over the kitchen floor and we sat in silence.” Fraser said that he ultimately decided to help with the sale of the photos, as he felt it was what Diana wished. Brenna is said to have received £250,000 from the Sunday Mirror, with additional photos sold to other British publications at £100,000 each—further international rights were also sold with Brenna’s ultimate take coming in around 1.7 million pounds, or $2.1 million, within the following six to eight months.

Less than a month after the publication of the photos, the princess and Dodi were tragically killed in a car accident in Paris while being followed by paparazzi. When he learned of her death, Brenna says the he cried. The idea that his photos, “could have contributed to fueling the hunt for Diana and Dodi obviously saddens me,” he told the Times. Subsequently he says he decided, “not to speak or disclose anything about the incident until William and Harry reached adulthood,” out of respect for Diana’s children. However, he adds, “If it hadn’t been me, someone else would certainly have captured those images.”

Brenna himself has largely disappeared from the spotlight since the famous kiss photos. He now lives near Lake Como and continues to photograph celebrities. While in The Crown his character speaks of his cut-throat attitude toward his work, opining that paparazzi have to act like “killers,” Brenna reportedly doesn’t share the sentiment (“I do not identify with the term ‘killer,'” he told the Times) and says the show did not contact him about his experiences.

Writer

Lauren Hubbard is a freelance writer and Town & Country contributor who covers beauty, shopping, entertainment, travel, home decor, wine, and cocktails.

Dr Safeeya Mo­hammed

guardian.wemagazine@gmail.com

“Every­one has a pur­pose in life and a unique tal­ent to give to oth­ers. And when we blend this unique tal­ent with ser­vice to oth­ers, we ex­pe­ri­ence the ec­sta­sy and ex­ul­ta­tion of own spir­it, which is the ul­ti­mate goal of all goals.” ~ Kallam An­ji Red­dy

Blend­ing his tal­ent, ded­i­ca­tion and the con­stant pur­suit for ex­cel­lence, an elec­tri­cal en­gi­neer that piv­ot­ed to en­tre­pre­neur­ship, fol­low­ing his dreams, She­me­on Williams was ec­sta­t­ic on hear­ing the news, “You’re one of the top ten wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers in the world!”

Rem­i­nisc­ing on the jour­ney, this top pho­tog­ra­ph­er shared, “af­ter sev­en years, sev­en months and sev­en days, I left my en­gi­neer­ing job to pur­sue full time en­tre­pre­neur­ship.”

What piv­ot­ed this trans­for­ma­tion?

“I read this book called Sev­en Habits of High­ly Ef­fec­tive Per­sons, which asked me to list ‘What was im­por­tant to me?’ So I put God, fam­i­ly, me (as in my hob­bies and in­ter­ests), work and then char­i­ty. But in re­al­i­ty, I was just work­ing all the time and I knew this was the time to make that crit­i­cal change! I had to choose, and that choice was in keep­ing with God, fam­i­ly, hob­bies and in­ter­ests, be­fore the work as an en­gi­neer and that en­abled me to leave and fol­low through with pho­tog­ra­phy.”

In 2018, She­me­on was se­lect­ed for the Young Lead­ers of the Amer­i­ca’s Ini­tia­tive (YLAI) Pro­fes­sion­al Fel­low­ship. There he en­gaged with bril­liant minds who ex­pand­ed his en­tre­pre­neur­ship knowl­edge and ce­ment­ed his love for his true call­ing – con­nect­ing with peo­ple through cam­eras.

Then in 2019, an­oth­er piv­otal ac­co­lade re­in­forced his pas­sion­ate pur­suits. He was se­lect­ed by Ig­nite Caribbean as one of the 30 Un­der 30 Caribbean Amer­i­can Emerg­ing Lead­ers/Change Mak­ers. This award is pre­sent­ed to in­di­vid­u­als demon­strat­ing lead­er­ship, mak­ing a mea­sur­able dif­fer­ence in their com­mu­ni­ty.

Pho­tog­ra­phy un­locked his po­ten­tial

She­me­on de­scribed with ex­u­ber­ance his keen in­ter­est in cap­tur­ing those pre­cious mo­ments in life and im­mor­tal­is­ing them in pho­tos.

“Pho­tog­ra­phy taught me about many spheres of life that I nev­er knew ex­ist­ed. Whilst cap­tur­ing wed­dings in Trinidad I’ve got­ten to see the un­der­pin­nings of every creed and race and saw that when we are with fam­i­ly and friends, ex­act­ly how sim­i­lar we re­al­ly are. I learnt that your God giv­en tal­ent, well nur­tured, can un­lock many doors faster than you’d ever ex­pect.

“This award is tru­ly mon­u­men­tal as the race for the top spots take place over a cal­en­dar year. Each month the top im­ages from all over the world are se­lect­ed and the pho­tog­ra­phers with the most awards at the end of the year are se­lect­ed in the top ten.

“I use the award plat­forms to prove that Trinidad and To­ba­go is the most beau­ti­ful des­ti­na­tion in the world. It’s re­al­ly chal­leng­ing to com­pete as the oth­er pho­tog­ra­phers are phe­nom­e­nal and pho­to­graph against amaz­ing land­scapes. It re­al­ly takes a lot to dig deep to de­liv­er award wor­thy im­ages. It would be im­pos­si­ble to do with­out the Lu­vo Team be­hind me sup­port­ing at every step of the jour­ney.

“These im­ages are ac­tu­al­ly part of a larg­er goal. I want to cre­ate a book of all these im­ages that fea­ture per­sons en­joy­ing the love­ly land­scapes, sites and at­trac­tions of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The book must show­case the is­lands in the best pos­si­ble way, so as to in­spire per­sons to vis­it, en­joy and take pride in our isles. My vi­sion is that all the pro­ceeds of the book will go to the Na­tion­al Trust so that they could main­tain the beau­ty of our na­tion­al sites and at­trac­tions.”

His ad­vice to oth­er en­tre­pre­neurs

“God placed in each of us a tal­ent. It’s up to us to de­ter­mine whether we bury it or make the most out of it. I buried mine in the world of work. Two years be­fore I quit en­gi­neer­ing, pho­tog­ra­phy and videog­ra­phy were not even a hob­by on my re­sume.

Luck­i­ly I was able to find it through giv­ing back to the com­mu­ni­ties that nur­tured me and it has de­liv­ered for me ten­fold. Take the time to un­lock your po­ten­tial, the world is wait­ing!

Wedaward is a com­mu­ni­ty of the best wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers from all around the world. Best in­ter­na­tion­al wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers can share their pho­tos and per­son­al in­for­ma­tion on the Wedaward web­site and com­pete with each oth­er in a Wedaward month­ly com­pe­ti­tion! At the end of each con­test year, the TOP 10 Best Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers in the world are award­ed.

https://wedaward.com/en/page/about_awards/top/2023