[2] He spent the next ten years travelling and working for magazines such as Vogue, Harpers & Queen, The Sunday Times and Tatler.
Other portrait commissions have included the 2004 Christmas card for Tony and Cherie Blair; Richard Attenborough, Michael Caine, Christopher Nolan, Elkie Brooks, Bryan Ferry, Norman Foster, Bob Hoskins, Glenda Jackson, Tom Jones, Ken Livingstone, Joanna Lumley.
[5] During his career Swannell has photographed all the leading members of the British royal family, apart from Princess Margaret.
In February 2012, Swannell was commissioned to take the official photographs of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh to mark the Diamond Jubilee of her accession to the throne.
[7] In 1993, Swannell was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society; he was one of the youngest members to have achieved this status at the time.