Okay so today I wanted to track down some rare, maybe unseen pictures of Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed. You know, stuff beyond the usual ones everyone has seen a million times. Figured it could be an interesting little project for the blog, sharing how it actually went down.
First off, I grabbed my laptop like anyone else would. Straight up went to the biggest search engines, typed in stuff like “rare Dodi Diana photos” or “unseen Diana Al-Fayed pictures”. Hit enter, full of hope. Mostly got flooded with:
- The same handful of famous shots repeated everywhere
- Sites filled with annoying pop-up ads wanting my email or pushing shady downloads
- A bunch of gossip articles rehashing the whole story, no new photos
Total bust. Spent like an hour clicking around getting frustrated. Those sites were garbage.
Next thought? Forums and old fan communities. Maybe some hardcore Diana fans had dug up archives or shared obscure scans over the years. Went digging in a few places known for royal family history buffs. Mostly found:
- People asking the exact same question I had with zero answers
- Lots of chat about conspiracy theories (not what I wanted)
- Links to books that might have rare photos, but nothing accessible online right then
More dead ends. Starting to think this was way harder than I thought. Maybe those “rare” photos just didn’t exist online?
I remembered something my gran used to talk about – local libraries sometimes have old press photo collections or archives. Didn’t hold out much hope, but hey, why not? Went down to the big central library downtown.
Asked the librarian about their archives section. She pointed me to these big, dusty physical binders labeled “1990s Press Archives – International”. Had to put on those white gloves they give you. Flipped through page after page… mostly standard press shots. Then, bam, tucked away in a section about summer 1997 vacations, near the back.
Two photos.
Not digital scans, but actual developed press photos with little typed captions taped to the back from the original news agency. One showed them walking by the water somewhere, looking relaxed, not the usual posed shot. Another was a bit blurry but showed them laughing inside what looked like a cafe, clearly candid. Never seen these specific ones online at all.
Took the binders over to their old photocopier/scanner thing (super slow, making that weird groaning sound). Managed to get halfway decent scans after a couple of tries. That was it! The genuine “rare” shots weren’t hiding online under ads; they were sitting in those old library binders.
Why bother telling you all this? Because I learned the hard way: sometimes the “internet rabbit hole” leads nowhere fast. For genuine historical stuff, especially pre-internet era like the late 90s, the real rare pieces might still be offline, waiting in places like a library’s archive room. Didn’t cost a thing except time and dealing with a grumpy photocopier. Simple as that.
