Beyoncé: The Making of Dangerously in Love

When Sony commissioned Markus Klinko in 2003 to photograph Beyoncé for her debut solo album, the request had come from the singer herself, according to the photographer. The session produced the cover of Dangerously in Love and other images from the same day.

A reference from an earlier campaign

Before the shoot, Beyoncé and her team spoke with Klinko by phone. She brought up a campaign he had photographed for Diamond.com, in which the model Laetitia Casta appears caught in a web of diamonds, and asked for a look in the same spirit, created for her. That earlier image is in our selection as Laetitia Casta, The Web (2000).

A diamond top and a pair of jeans

On the day, Tina Knowles was styling the shoot. Klinko found a diamond top among the clothes that matched their conversation; Beyoncé liked it, but not with the skirts and gowns prepared for the session. Klinko suggested denim instead. None had been brought, so he offered the Dolce & Gabbana jeans he was wearing and changed into a spare pair himself. He photographed the session on film, with a Fujifilm GX680 III camera and Provia film.

From album cover to photograph

Looking back in 2026, Klinko described how the image outgrew its original purpose to become part of a shared visual memory. The cover portrait, Beyoncé, Dangerously in Love, and the back view from the same session, Beyoncé, Dangerously in Love, Back, are part of our selection. In 2023, our Dallas exhibition Icons: Bowie to Beyoncé also presented a special edition of the back view finished with diamond dust.

The portrait’s 2026 presentation in Paris is covered in Beyoncé’s Dangerously in Love Portrait on Display in Paris.

Explore the Beyoncé photographs in our selection, or contact our team.

Sources: Us Weekly, interview published July 23, 2026; PetaPixel, June 27, 2023.