Beyoncé didn't want to wear the diamond-encrusted top on her 'Dangerously in Love' cover, and more on-set insights from her photographer

• Beyoncé's debut solo album "Dangerously in Love" turns 20 years old on June 24.
• To celebrate the anniversary, Insider spoke with Markus Klinko, who photographed the iconic cover.
• He gave behind-the-scenes details about working with Beyoncé — and lending her a pair of jeans to wear on set.

Twenty years ago, Beyoncé — the most-awarded person in Grammys history, game-changer of the digital age, "Homecoming" queen, "Lemonade" maker, "Renaissance" woman, mother of three — was still best known as one-third of Destiny's Child.

That is, until "Dangerously in Love" arrived on June 24, 2003.

Beyoncé's debut solo album didn't just alter the course of her career. It helped shape the next two decades of pop music.

"Dangerously in Love" debuted atop the Billboard 200, spawned still-beloved hits like "Crazy in Love," and earned Beyoncé five Grammy Awards.

But it wasn't the music alone that made it legendary. The album cover, shot by Markus Klinko, has carved its own place in music history. Beyoncé's iconic rhinestone top was even displayed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

To celebrate the album's 20th anniversary, Insider spoke with Klinko about collaborating with Beyoncé to achieve her diamond-draped vision — which involved lending her a pair of jeans on the fly — and photographing women on the cusp of superstardom.

The album cover came together with a mix of inspiration and spontaneity

Klinko met Beyoncé in 2000, shortly after "Bills, Bills, Bills" became Destiny's Child's first song to hit No. 1 on the chart. He was hired to photograph the group for Vibe magazine.

"I had no idea who they were until I got the call from Vibe," he said. "Her mom was styling it. And I remember pointing at Beyoncé and saying, 'This one in the middle here, she's going to be huge. She has a lot of charisma.' Her mom just said, 'Yeah, we know.'"

Needless to say, his prediction came true. After just a few years, Klinko got another call to work with Beyoncé, this time as a solo artist.

Today, we think of the "Dangerously in Love" cover as quintessentially Y2K. The saturated blue, airbrushed skin, and nude lipgloss — the casual glamour — perfectly capture our sentimental memory of the early aughts.

But at the time, the era was still in the midst of creation. So instead of nostalgia, Beyoncé's inspiration was an advertisement for diamonds.

During a pre-production call, Klinko said Beyoncé referenced an image he captured of Laetitia Casta, titled "The Web." The model is splayed across a sparkling spider-web, nearly nude, wrapped in opalescent bondage.

"She said she really loved that image and if we could do something like that, just smaller, on her. And I didn't really know how to interpret that," he explained. "That image is very blue, mainly blue, dark blue. When she said it, I didn't really immediately know what to do about it."

When he arrived at the shoot, however, the solution had already arrived on a silver platter thanks to Tina Knowles-Lawson, Beyoncé's mom and go-to stylist at the beginning of her career.

"She brought this diamond top and I immediately recognized it as an opportunity," Klinko said. "I brought it up to Beyoncé and I said, 'Well, here you go. That's what we should do.'"

"She said she didn't like it," he continued. "She didn't think it worked because her mom wanted to pair it with these long skirts. Beyoncé said, 'This is going to look very prom or red carpet and I don't want to do that.'"

Klinko immediately identified the issue. It's not just Beyoncé covered in gleaming gems that makes the cover unforgettable, but the delicious contrast at the heart of the photo: a swooning, glittering top paired with a low-slung, denim-clad waistline.

But there was yet another problem for Klinko to solve.

"Beyoncé said, 'Well, we don't have any denim. We didn't bring any.' I said, 'You might fit my own jeans that I'm wearing,'" he offered. "She said, 'OK, let's try.' So we did."

In the end, the impromptu decision worked for the best. Klinko's jeans enhanced the contrast in the photo and doubled down on its core conceit — that Beyoncé can make anything work in her favor. (Naturally, millennials who grew up with "Dangerously in Love" would attempt to recreate the jeans-and-a-cute-top combo when they got old enough to party like Beyoncé in "Naughty Girl." Results were mixed.)

"I think there's a moment of improvisation in all of my shoots. I like to come in with a very clear concept and a plan of what I want to do. But my hope is always that something better will happen," Klinko said.

"Beyoncé contributed a lot because she worked it," he continued. "She worked a piece — that's not easy to do. She found the exact right movement. That wasn't my idea to put the arms up. That was her idea, and I don't even know if it was an idea. It was her instinct. And I knew: 'That's the cover.'"

These days, Klinko said, he's flooded with requests to purchase the original denim pants that she wore during the photoshoot. But he's not giving them up so easily.

"It was very cute, because Beyoncé took them with her after the shoot. And then on our next shoot for Pepsi, she brought them back and she had them wrapped and dry cleaned," he said. "She gave them back to me and she said, 'Thank you so much and please don't sell them on eBay.'"

'I try to capture a magical feeling'

The "Dangerously in Love" cover wouldn't be the last time Klinko took a photograph of a famous woman that became "a moment in time." 

He went on to shoot Kelis for her hit single "Milkshake" and Mariah Carey for her Grammy-nominated comeback album "The Emancipation of Mimi." More recently, he photographed Billie Eilish for Vogue and Ice Spice for Paper.

All the images share an aura of surrealism. Sure, they may remind you of iPods and butterfly clips — but in truth, Klinko works in a realm that's detached from the mundane schedule of our physical world. These are timeless fantasies of stardom and femininity, glossed with an affectionate sheen.

For Klinko, it's about creating "a magical feeling" and sense of drama, whoever the subject is, whatever era they exist in. (To underscore his point, he said Paper editors referenced his photo of Kelis as a touchstone for Ice Spice's photoshoot.)

He also cited Andy Warhol as a major influence, specifically the painter's "mix of commercial and art" and his role as "a defining pop-culture creator."

"I do love merch just as I love a magazine cover," he said. "I'm not opposed to commercial activities. A lot of artists look down on the commercial, maybe the art world in general. I don't see it that way at all. I just see good work and bad work and I think that a lot of typical gallery photography work to me — it bores me to death."

"The images become works once they're in a gallery. I guess how they become art pieces is a matter of what you call them," he said, adding, "But if it doesn't move people, to me it's not really art, no matter what the concept is."

Both Beyoncé's "Dangerously in Love" cover and Ice Spice's Paper cover are currently on display at Pop International Galleries in Manhattan.

Surely, many of Klinko's subjects — who also include Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and David Bowie — don't need a museum curator to approve their status as tastemakers. But if a photo becomes an art piece when it passes through the doors of a gallery, these stars certainly hang in rarefied air.

"I think that's my opportunity, to really define these moments," Klinko said. "Definitely Beyoncé's 'Dangerously in Love' was one of these moments. I think Ice Spice, that Paper cover, people will remember. It's going to be one of these moments."

"She's only the hottest person on Earth right now," he gushed of the "Bikini Bottom" rapper. "Now the gallery is run over, basically, with people coming in like, 'What's going on?' Ice Spice — she's in the gallery next to Warhol and Basquiat."