The widely anticipated final season of The Crown, which dropped its first four episodes on Nov. 16, picks up with the 1997 car crash that saw Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) fatally pursued by paparazzi in Paris, and largely deals with its historic fallout. As the storyline jumps back eight weeks prior to the accident, the drama further unpacks the royal family’s tumultuous relationship with the media, in this instance the invasive practices of paparazzi during a defining period in British tabloid culture. It also portrays the deliberate use of photo opportunities to shape public perception at large.  

One such paparazzo depicted in the show is Mario Brenna, an Italian photographer who rose to prominence for his work with luxury fashion houses and photographs of Mediterranean high society. But Brenna’s career-defining moment arrived when he captured the first photographs of Diana and Dodi embracing on a yacht off the coast of Sardinia in the summer of 1997.

Viewers are introduced to Brenna (played by Enzo Cilenti) in episode 2 during a sit-down interview about his profession. “Everyone wants pictures of celebrities. Pictures that show famous people. They are no different, just like us. Making mistakes just like us,” the character says in a lengthy monologue. “People pay one, two hundred thousand dollars for the right shot. But the right shot is hard to get. You have to be like hunters. Killers.” 

“There was this symbiotic relation with the press that Diana had,” royal historian Richard Fitzwilliams tells TIME. “The royals need certain images to get their points across… but it’s a desperately dangerous game.” 

While Brenna was not the only paparazzo who pursued Diana’s image over the years, he was among the best paid. Here’s what to know about his role in Diana’s final weeks, and the royal family’s wider relationship with photography.

Read more: The Crown Hits a Disappointing New Low in Its Maudlin Sixth Season

Who was the real Mario Brenna?

Brenna, then 40 years old and based in Monaco, had primarily worked as the official photographer of fashion houses such as Versace before he captured the candid image of Diana and Dodi on the latter’s family yacht on Aug. 4, 1997. 

Brenna, seemingly in the right place at the right time to take the lucrative photo, was completing another assignment nearby. But disputed reports claim that Diana called Brenna herself to stage the photo opportunity. Tina Brown writes in her 2022 book The Palace Papers, “Time and again, Diana chose to invade her own privacy, often for the capricious reason of making the men in her life jealous.” Discussing this photograph, she writes: “It was she who tipped off Italian lensman Mario Brenna—to send a taunting message to the real love of her life, Hasnat Khan.” Khan was a Pakistani heart surgeon who dated Diana for two years, and who many believe Diana still held affection for at her time of death.

The tabloids began an intense bidding war over the first photo of the couple’s budding romance, with the Sunday Mirror earning rights to print it on their front cover on Aug. 10, under the headline “The Kiss.” The newspaper also fueled rumors about Dodi buying an engagement ring for Diana, and wrote: “Locked in her lover’s arms, the princess finds happiness at last.” 

The Los Angeles Times reported that Brenna earned up to $5 million for world rights to the image. 

Following the first visual insight into the couple’s relationship, other members of the paparazzi ramped up their efforts to secure their own big payout by capturing the couple’s next big moment. A 2006 report from the British metropolitan police states that Brenna’s photograph sparked these efforts. “Not only did this photograph appear to draw media attention to the couple, it is believed that the amount of money reportedly earned by Brenna focused the attention of the paparazzi,” the report reads.   

Brenna has largely stayed out of the public eye since the whirlwind of attention in 1997, though he did speak about photographing the royal during an interview on an Italian news program in 2017. 

How was Diana affected by the paparazzi more broadly?

The paparazzi’s relentless pursuit of Diana is well documented, and many blame the industry for her death on Aug. 31, 1997, in the Pont de L’Alma tunnel in Paris. Dodi and their driver, Henri Paul, also died in the crash. 

At Diana’s funeral days later on Sept. 6, her brother Charles Spencer delivered a speech that implicitly placed responsibility at the hands of the paparazzi, calling his sister “the most hunted person of the modern age.” Over the years, Prince Harry has also been unequivocally vocal about the role photographers played in his mother’s death.  

But royal observers note that, while the chase resulted in devastating consequences for Diana, and she often expressed a desire to leave the U.K. for a more private life, her relationship with the press was often more nuanced than a game of cat and mouse. 

“There’s no doubt there was a problem of privacy for the [then] Princess of Wales, but on the other hand she used the press. One thinks of the famous Serpentine Gallery little black dress image, or posing alone in front of the Taj Mahal,” Fitzwilliams says. He adds that Diana was often able to use the public’s fascination to bring attention to her humanitarian causes such as addressing HIV stigma and advocating against landmines. 

Fitzwilliams notes that Diana likely leaned into her relationship with the media when she wanted to communicate something. “She was intending to make a statement that she seemed to have… found freedom,” Fitzwilliams says. But at times her personal life could overshadow her humanitarian work. “The Kiss” photograph was published while Diana was in Bosnia-Herzegovina connecting with victims of landmines, and the media frenzy temporarily eclipsed her advocacy efforts.

What was Charles’ relationship with photography?

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The Crown depicts King Charles, then Prince of Wales, grappling with public perception of him as a father and seeking to improve the way Camilla was received. In July 1997, Charles hosted a 50th birthday party for Camilla, which is depicted in episode 1 as Charles struggles to get members of the royal family to attend. 

“As far as Charles is concerned, he was never especially good at public relations” says Fitzwilliams, noting the royal’s interview with Jonathan Dimbly in 1994 where he admitted to having an extramarital affair. Fitzwilliams argues that the most defining photographs of Charles as a prince often featured Diana, while Diana’s were of her alone. 

After the couple’s separation, Charles used photo opportunities to redefine himself. In one such instance, as depicted in episode 2, Charles staged a photocall with William and Harry taken by Scottish photographer Duncan Muir on the banks of the River Dee at Balmoral. In the episode, an advisor to the prince suggests playing up the optics of Diana as a “tabloid princess as opposed to a broadsheet prince.” 

There is also an element of giving something to the media and public, to earn privacy in return. “You have to feed the beast to some extent,” says Fitzwilliams. No clearer is this in The Crown than when Diana is on holiday with her children in Saint-Tropez and approaches a fleet of photographers on a speedboat to deliver an impromptu press conference she hopes will incentivize their departure. “You leave me and my boys alone please, and you’re going to get a big surprise with the next thing I do,” her character says. As history tells, the paparazzi intensified their pursuit of Diana on her next holiday. 

Eric Oxendorf, an internationally recognized architectural photographer, recently celebrated 50 years in his field and reflected on the journey to where he is now.

As a U.S. naval aviation veteran from the Vietnam War, Oxendorf graduated from Layton School of Art with a degree in art. He traveled worldwide for a career in visual arts and worked collaboratively with architects and engineers on a variety of subject materials. Oxendorf provided architects with an international platform to display their work and has been recognized for his impact on the architectural community.

Oxendorf said the childhood walks he took through Milwaukee with his mother and siblings are what sparked his interest in architecture. 

“We would walk around town and [my mother] would point out, ‘This is a column, it’s holding up the roof. It’s a doric column. This is an older building that was built in 1890. This building was built in 1950, you can see the difference,’” Oxendorf said. “I just got this information all the time.”

Oxendorf joined the Navy in 1967 and served in the Vietnam War for 22 months in a rescue helicopter squadron. After he returned, he went to a Veterans Affairs facility for advice on what career path to pursue.

“The counselor told me in short, ‘You are very independent-minded, you have a very creative bent to the way you figure things out, [and] that’s why you were in that squadron,’” Oxendorf said. “He told me that I needed to be self-employed and go into a creative field.”

After graduating from Layton School of Art, Oxendorf said his photography took off around 1974. With this growing recognition, he established an office and began traveling internationally to capture architectural photographs for both self-fulfillment and clients. 

His parents are what inspired him most throughout his career, he noted.

“My father was very strict and regimented, but he was still loving,” Oxendorf said. “My mother was very creative, and they showed me the world. I was always encouraged to do whatever I wanted to.”

Now, with five decades of experience in the field, Oxendorf is continuing his work at 75 years old.

From homes spanning the globe to rotundas in each state capitol building, Oxendorf aims to use his photography to showcase beauty in all types of architecture.

Lisa Kennedy, the executive director of AIA Wisconsin, explained her relationship with Oxendorm and her appreciation for all he has done for the architectural community.

“We’ve been friends for a long, long time,” Kennedy said. “I just really appreciated what he has done for our profession and how many of our members he has worked with over the years. The architects are our members, so why not celebrate his work as well?”

Kennedy noted the exhibition celebrating Oxendorf’s 50 years helped make architecture more accessible to the public and allowed individuals to gain better recognition of how they are surrounded by architecture daily.

Despite having a background in art rather than architecture, Oxendorf’s creative vision and ability to capture the perfect photograph have contributed to his reputation for creating award-winning and widely published photographs.

“My job is being happy,” Oxendorf said. “This makes me happy. I am at peace with this. We live on an incredible planet and I love life, especially after you could’ve lost it several times.”

For years, Made Here has brought local and regional documentaries to Vermont Public’s Main television channel. They air at 8 pm each Thursday, and now, you can also stream them on our website. Here in the 18th season, we’re providing more context on each film by bringing you interviews with the directors or subjects.

This week’s film is called Gabor, and it recounts the life of 95-year-old Hungarian-born photographer Gabor Szilasi, who has been based in Montreal since the late 1950s.

The documentary bills itself as a “quirky, feel-good portrait” of a giant of Canadian contemporary photography. It’s also an immigrant story that offers more than one lesson on how to age with elegance over animus.

The film was written and directed by Montreal-based filmmaker and photographer Joannie Lafrenière.

Vermont Public’s Jenn Jarecki sat down with Joannie Lafrenière to discuss Gabor. Their conversation below has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Jenn Jarecki: For those listeners who may not know of Gabor Szilasi, who is he? Will you tell us a little bit about him?

Joannie Lafrenière: Yes, with pleasure. So Gabor is from Hungary. So he arrive in Quebec in 1957 after the insurrection in Hungary. So he arrive with his dad, and he already start photographing in Hungary. But it was his job when he arrive in Quebec. So he first start doing photography in Office du Film — like, it’s not the NFB, National Film Board of Canada, but kind of — so he start photographing there for many years. And he became quite famous in Quebec. So start doing rural photography. Like, he immortalized a lot of not only landscape but mostly people. And after that, he became like, yeah, he became an important person in contemporary Canadian art.

So I discover him when I was studying photography in 2007. He got a retrospective exhibition in Joliette, so in Quebec. And I didn’t know him before, and I was really [blown away] by his photography, by the art of his image, like the poetry in it, the humor, the dignity, the respect. I really, really, really loved it. And I told myself, when I will be an adult, I will be a photographer.

Jenn Jarecki: How did Gabor’s approach to photography influence the way you shot this documentary about him?

Joannie Lafrenière: When I start thinking about the film, I was sure that I don’t want people from the museum, I don’t want these people to talk about the importance of the art of Gabor. I decide that we gonna meet people and follow Gabor on how he is doing all his photography. What is his magic touch?

So we follow him on different situations. So we get back on different rural place where we’ve already been. Like in the 70s. And we saw him encounter people, and it was very, very moving for me, how he dance with people, how he interact with them, and how he is curious about them. But people are also very curious about him.

Jenn Jarecki: The film is really playful, and it’s also really smile-inducing, you know, until it isn’t. Can you talk about how you chose to represent Gabor’s proximity to the Holocaust as a Jewish-born Hungarian during World War II?

Joannie Lafrenière: It was quite tough because Gabor is really optimist, joyful. But under this, there is — there is all this tough family situation that he was in through the Second World War. And it took him some time to talk to me about it. And it was some time, “I think we should talk about my mum.” And maybe the next time I saw him, he said, “Oh, no, I think we should — we should not talk about it.” And I was like, “Yeah, I think we definitely need to talk about it. But it says so much about you and how you decide to stay optimist.”

His path was tough and painful. And the last interview that we did together, I arrive at his home and he said, “OK, I’m ready. I wrote a letter. I wanna start with that.” And I was like, “Oh, OK, let’s do that.” And, for me, it was a good point to open up a discussion. And that’s how we decide to put it in the film.

Jenn Jarecki: Joannie, I’m hoping that I can play a little bit of audio from one of the interviews you had with Gabor. And I’m wondering if you can translate it for us and then talk about its significance. 

Joannie Lafrenière: Yes.

So yeah, that’s a lovely moment. The poetry of Gabor. So in this moment, Gabor talk to me about how he describe and he compare photography and cinema. So for him, photography, it’s more like a poem. And cinema is more like a novel. So I found that really powerful.

Jenn Jarecki: Joannie, why do you think Gabor’s work has been so well-received for so long?

Joannie Lafrenière: Yeah, I think it’s, there is different answer to that. His work is really powerful, I think, because for people who don’t know his work, when they discover it, it’s like they feel seen, or they feel it could be them. And in his poetry, is very luminous also, is very light-full.

And also, because Gabor, as we show in the film, is an amazing human being. So it’s not only his work, it his work talking about him also. So it’s, it’s quite an in-between. And I think there was a good timing for him also. And the fact that he’s an immigrant and the way you look through his new home. There’s many, many factor, but he’s an amazing photographer and a wonderful human being.

Gabor premieres on Vermont Public’s main TV channel on Thursday, Nov. 16 at 8:00 p.m.