The true stories behind iconic Diana photos, according to the man who took them

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Some of the most unforgettable photos of Princess Diana, such as her “revenge dress” that broke royal protocol and her handshake with an AIDS patient that changed the way the world treated those with the illness, have gone on display in a new exhibition in London.

The exhibition, which is being held at Dockside Vaults just north of London’s Tower Bridge and runs from May 25 to September 2, traces Diana’s life as a humanitarian, a mother and a fashion icon. It displays a carefully curated selection of work by renowned royal photographer Anwar Hussein, 85, who started snapping Diana when she was 19.

“At first, some told me ‘you can’t do pictures of royals,’” Anwar told CNN ahead of the exhibition’s launch. “I said, ‘why not? I want a change.’ I was doing rock and roll pictures - Bob Marley, Elton John, The Beatles. And then I got fed up with show business.”

Weaving through the vault’s underground network of tunnels, CNN was given a tour of the exhibition by Anwar’s two sons, Samir, 45, and Zak, 43. The pair have followed in their father’s footsteps to become royal photographers in their own right, snapping viral photos of younger generations of the royal family.

“Diana did really buck the trend, especially for royals. She changed so much, and things that are now seen as normal, such as what Kate or Meghan wear, it was really Diana that changed all of that,” said Samir, standing in front of a floor-to-ceiling print of the famed “revenge dress” photo, taken at a Vanity Fair party on the same day that Charles publicly admitted to adultery.

“A lot of people didn’t think she was going to come out, and then she just came out looking like a million dollars and made a really big statement that, ‘I’m not going to hide away, I’m still going to be my own person,’” Zak added.

For Anwar, it’s a very different photo that stands out to him. “This was Diana’s favorite,” he said, looking up at a photo of Diana cradling a young cancer patient during a trip to a hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1996.

“The boy was blind. He smelled of all these chemicals they had been using, but she didn’t care and she cuddled him,” Anwar said. “Later on, he died and she was very sad about that. It shows her humanitarian side.”

Over the years, Anwar and his sons have taken hundreds of thousands of photos of the royal family. There is one word, however, which seems to encapsulate the images on display: legacy.

“We didn’t want (the exhibition) to be controversial. We wanted it to be a celebration of Diana’s life and her legacy,” he said. “We’ve had ‘The Crown,’ we’ve had films about Diana, so it feels like there is a whole new generation experiencing it.”

And for Samir and Zak, their father’s influence has also had a profound impact on their lives, something which is illustrated by two almost identical, yet eerily different, photos on display in another part of the exhibition.

In the first photo, taken in 1992, Diana sits alone in front of the Taj Mahal in India, her red and purple suit, designed by Catherine Walker, is a pop of color against the softer backdrop of the ivory-white marble mausoleum.

Anwar was told on the day of the Taj Mahal visit that Charles had other engagements, so Diana went without him, Zak says, recalling his father’s recollections. “She ended up posing up in front of it, in front of this monument to love,” he said. “Fairly soon afterwards, they announced their separation.”

Some 24 years later, Zak returned to the same spot to photograph Prince William and his wife, Catherine. “There was a lot of speculation. Would they recreate the picture of Diana there?” Zak said. “They arrived and sat on the bench, but this time it’s two people that are very much in love.”

In many ways, the exhibition is a love letter to two families: the Husseins behind the lens, multiple generations of royals in front of it. “(Our father has) never done anything like this before,” Samir said. “He’s getting on now, he’s a bit older and I think he really wanted to do a celebration of what he had done and a celebration of her as a person.”

In a statement, Anwar said: “I am delighted that the images captured, as well as those of my sons, are coming home to London to recognize and memorialize such a remarkable woman and her sons.”

Tickets for the exhibition, which start at £17 (about $22), include a 60-minute audio tour detailing the first-hand accounts behind each photograph.

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