On most days, the UK’s front pages feature a wide range of images. But last Friday, one image dominated every major British newspaper:
A photograph of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, seated in the back of a car, looking visibly shaken on his 66th birthday as he left a police station.
On Thursday, Mountbatten-Windsor became the first member of the modern British royal family to be arrested, spending more than 10 hours in custody at a police station in the small town of Aylsham, England, about an hour from his Sandringham estate.
“The powers of photography were with me yesterday,” said Phil Noble, senior photographer at Reuters, who captured this extraordinary image, according to CNN.
Noble, based in northern England, traveled roughly five hours south to Norfolk on Thursday morning after hearing news of the arrest.
Relying on some assumptions and trusted sources, his two-person team focused on what they thought might be the correct police station. With around 20 Thames Valley police stations where the former prince could have been taken, they had to wait and see.
“This was probably the fourth or fifth station Reuters visited that night,” Noble said. “When I arrived, nothing seemed unusual. No cars. No increased activity.”
“To be honest, just before he arrived, I was about to head back to the hotel… and my colleague Marissa messaged me: ‘Look, two cars just arrived, I think you should return,’” Noble explained in a video recounting how he captured the photo.
Then the race truly began. Noble said he “turned the car, went back, and within a minute of arriving, the garage doors at the police station opened, two cars came out, and in one of them, he [Mountbatten-Windsor] was inside.”
Capturing such a moment involves many unknowns, Noble explained. It requires preparation, skill, experience, and the willingness to sit near quiet British village roads for hours in the dark without knowing if a significant moment will occur.
“About half an hour before taking the photo, I had done some test shots of other cars leaving the station, so I had a rough idea of the camera settings,” he said. Noble has worked at Reuters for over 20 years, previously photographing for the Press Association and Manchester Evening News.
“Still, it’s more luck than judgment when the car comes out. You have to guess where he is sitting, which side of the car, front or back, whether the flash will trigger in time.”
Noble took six shots in total, according to Reuters. Two were empty, one was out of focus, two featured police officers—but one perfectly captured the extraordinary moment.
“For every car we photograph, the chance of catching the moment is very, very low,” he said. “Last night was one of those ‘pinch me’ moments—looking through the camera, exhausted after a long day… you can’t believe you actually got it.”
