Meghan Markle, Prince Harry Wedding Photographer Thought Job Was Prank

Alexi Lubomirski First Thought Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Photo Commission Was a Prank (Exclusive)

The renowned photographer reflects on taking iconic images of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at life milestones

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Published on May 17, 2023 09:00AM EDT

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle — Photo: Alexi Lubomirski

Though he'd been in the business for years, photographer Alexi Lubomirski was surprised by a call from Kensington Palace in 2017 — would he be able to take Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's engagement photos?

"When I got off the phone, I said, 'I think Kensington Palace just called me?' Two days later I was sitting in front of [Harry and Meghan] talking concepts," the celebrated photographer exclusively tells PEOPLE in this week's issue.

Lubomirski, 47, looks back at the commission — which he initially thought was a prank — in his new book The Sittings (2003-2023), a collection of 113 of his favorite portraits. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's engagement photos are included in the spread, alongside his images of their royal wedding day in May 2018. Reflecting on how it all came together, Lubomirski tells PEOPLE that the original call came on an emotional day for his family.

PHOTO: Alexi Lubomirski

"My mum was having a brain tumor taken out, so I was just all over the place. And then my poor brother and sister were looking at me on the phone because it was after 10 hours of waiting for the doctor to call. So I got on the phone and my face was like, 'I'm sorry, what?' My poor brother and sister were like, 'Oh my God, what's happened to our mum?' " he says.

Their mother went on to a successful recovery, and Lubomirski had the honor of snapping Prince Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41, at Frogmore House for their engagement in December 2017. The British photographer tells PEOPLE he was inspired by an iconic shot of Audrey Hepburn's husband Mel Ferrer wrapping her in his coat, and he asked Harry to do the same with his then-fiancée.

"It just popped in my head because I saw his overcoat and I said, 'Can you put that on?' And then everything just starts folding together," he tells PEOPLE of the creative process.

American actor Mel Ferrer (1917 - 2008) buttons up his coat around his wife, actress Audrey Hepburn — Ed Feingersh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

That spring, Lubomirski was called back to Windsor Castle to shoot Prince Harry and Meghan's historic royal wedding, summing it up as "probably the most high-pressure job" he's had to date.

"That was a blur," recalls the photographer, himself the descendant of a Polish princely house. "I got about two hours of sleep the night before, thinking to myself, 'Okay, do I have everything? How am I going to get everyone in place? How am I going to make the Queen smile?' "

Given time constraints, Lubomirski tells PEOPLE there wasn't a second to spare — so he inventively made the most of his time with the newly minted Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

"I'd only had three minutes to get them into the garden, take pictures, and it took three minutes to get them to the garden," he says. "And there was one shot of the couple sitting in the rose garden, which is an image that I got. It was that first time they were alone, as in out of the public site after being married. So it was a really, very special moment, this moment of calm."