What the choices of photos of Une sur Elisabeth II say about your newspapers

• This Friday, September 9, 2022, newspapers around the world put Elisabeth II on the front page, the day after her death at Balmoral (Scotland).

• In the United Kingdom, half a dozen daily newspapers have chosen the same photo for their front page: that of the coronation of Elizabeth II, signed by Cecil Beaton in 1953. The French regional daily press has bet for its recent photographs referring to the queen's fantasy.

• 20 Minutes

  reviews several of these front page choices, including his own.

The face of Elisabeth II is on the front page of daily newspapers around the world this Friday.

The editors are at the rendezvous of the story, aware of the scope of the event: the queen died Thursday at the age of 96, putting an end to a reign of seventy years.

“Our heart is broken”, cries the

across the Channel.

"Pain of England", respond here in echo

and

.

Others, the

and the

in Germany,

in Italy,

in Spain or even the

, the

and

in Great Britain content themselves with soberly indicating “1926-2022”.

The

, he made in the meta by choosing a quote from the sovereign to summarize the national mourning: “Grief is the price to pay for love”.

But this time, probably more than the weight of words, it is the choice of photos that attracts attention when we get down to the press review.

The Coronation by Cecil Beaton

At least five of the UK's leading dailies -

,

,

, and the

have opted for the same image, signed Cecil Beaton: that of his coronation.

Elizabeth II poses, seated, with the crown of Saint Edward, the ultimate emblem of the British monarchy, and holds in her hands a scepter and an orb.

The bracelets on her wrists symbolize wisdom and sincerity.

The image was destined to go down in posterity.

The session took place at Buckingham Palace, after the coronation ceremony, on June 2, 1953. The new sovereign appeared in front of a painted decoration representing the Henry VII chapel in Westminster Abbey.

The newspapers that chose this iconic image for their front page wanted to emphasize the royal attributes, the solemnity of her function and the historical dimension of the queen.

Scottish style

In Scotland, where Elizabeth II died,

deploys a full-page photograph of great theatricality taken by Julian Calder in 2010 at Balmoral.

The shot is reminiscent of the romantic canvases of the 19th century.

The queen is standing, in the heather, near a stream, under a cloudy sky.

She wears the green robe of the Order of the Thistle.

It is the Queen of Scotland that the daily celebrates with this front page this Friday.

The National

, which prides itself, in slogan, on being “the newspaper which supports independent Scotland”, obviously could not make the same choice of illustration.

He thus preferred to show the queen in a more simple and intimate context, on the Balmoral castle estate.

She was immortalized, alongside two dogs, by Lisa Sheridan, in September 1952, almost a year before her coronation...

Elegance and charisma

The American magazine

, like

, have chosen photos taken from Cecile Beaton's last session with Elisabeth II.

She had agreed to pose for him, in 1968, while he was preparing an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.

“The challenges are daunting.

Our points of view, our tastes are so different.

The result is a compromise between two people and chance plays a big role,” the photographer wrote in his diary at the time.

The photos stand out for their simplicity.

Stripped of her queenly attributes and dressed in an admiral's coat, the sovereign stands erect, in front of a monochrome background, sometimes blue, sometimes white.

This design underlines the elegance and charisma of the queen.

granny hat

The majority of French regional dailies have made a radically different choice.

By putting their Unes side by side, we get a patchwork of colors.

It is the queen of the last twenty years, all in original hats and fancy dress that is thus celebrated.

This undoubtedly corresponds to the image of Elisabeth II in the French collective imagination.

That of the people pages, of British royal folklore, of the iconoclastic figure.

The choice of "20 Minutes"

At 20 Minutes

, we have chosen a photo by photo reporter Toby Melville, taken at the Parliament in London in 2007.

London Bridge is down.

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— 20 Minutes (@20Minutes) September 8, 2022

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“We opted for a photo of the queen from behind to symbolize the departure, while keeping a majestic dimension with the crown, explains Olivier Juszczak, the journalist responsible for the photo.

The fact that she is not full face leaves the reader free to choose the image he wants to keep of the queen.

»

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