Patrick Lichfield was the English photographer Thomas Patrick John Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield. Born on April 25, 1939, he was educated at Harrow School and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He served with the Grenadier Guards from 1959 to 1962, then left the Army to pursue photography as a profession.
Lichfield established his career during the 1960s, when his elegant portraiture, fashion work, and social reportage made him a prominent figure in British magazine photography. His editorial assignments included work for Life and Queen, and in 1967 Diana Vreeland awarded him a five-year contract with American Vogue. He also undertook international advertising commissions and became particularly associated with the highly produced Unipart calendars, which combined fashion, travel, and landscape imagery.
His aristocratic background brought him into contact with members of the British royal family and prominent figures in entertainment, fashion, and society, but his work extended beyond formal society portraiture. He photographed actors, musicians, models, writers, political figures, and members of the public, producing images that documented the visual culture of Britain from the Swinging Sixties onward. His portraits were often polished and informal in manner, with an emphasis on glamour, personality, and atmosphere.
Lichfield received numerous royal commissions, among them the official photography for the July 1981 wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer. He also photographed the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, and other members of the royal family. His work was exhibited internationally, and he published several books on photography, portraiture, travel, and his own career.
He inherited the earldom and the Shugborough estate in Staffordshire in 1960, but continued to work under the professional name Patrick Lichfield rather than as Lord Lichfield. He was elected a Fellow of both the British Institute of Professional Photography and the Royal Photographic Society. Lichfield died on November 11, 2005, aged sixty-six, after suffering a stroke. His photographic archive remains an important record of British celebrity, fashion, royalty, and social life in the second half of the twentieth century.