Mischief, giggles and pathos laid bare in a Royal family album
Exhibition sheds light on 180 years of monarchy to show how photography has been key to its survival
THEY are among the most photographed people in the world, captured both at historic state events and in family moments they choose to share.
The Royal family’s penchant for photography is not just light entertainment, but key to the very survival of the British monarchy, it will be claimed, in a new Kensington Palace exhibition.
The exhibition, Life Through a Royal Lens, will show how the early adoption of photography was critical in boosting the monarchy’s popularity, and will include family photos that have never been shared with the public before.
Tracing 180 years of history, it will go on to show that the subject matter of royal photography has changed little, from Victoria and Albert’s albums of their children to the Duchess of Cambridge’s shots of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Intriguingly, it will include one previously unseen image of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, taken as part of a set by Matt Holyoake for their 70th wedding anniversary in 2017.
Then, the picture of the “completely relaxed” Queen, sitting in a chair and smiling directly up at her laughing husband, was seen as slightly too intimate for an official photograph.
Her Majesty has now “very kindly agreed” it can be used in the exhibition, curators said. It will not be released as part of publicity material, so those curious to see it must attend the May exhibition in person.
Other unseen pictures to go on display include a photo album assembled by the young Edward VIII, with snapshots of ski trips, garden games, bicycling royal children and George V and Queen Mary in “relaxed mode”.
In a section entitled Monarchy and the Media, visitors will see shots of Diana, Princess of Wales and her son Prince Harry walking through minefields in Angola decades apart.
Some of the earliest items are an 1860 photograph of Princess Alexandra of Denmark, sent to Queen Victoria when they were considering a bride for the then Prince of Wales, and an 1858 series of Victoria, Albert and their eldest daughter taken just before her wedding.
Scenes include Queen
Mary digging a potato plot at Windsor in 1917; the Queen Mother, ethereal in white, in the Buckingham Palace garden for a 1939 shoot with Cecil Beaton; and the Queen with her mischievous
older children in 1954. Family shots from Lord Snowdon’s archive will also be made public, along with a reminder of Prince William’s famous cover of Attitude magazine and his wife in British Vogue. Claudia Acott Williams, curator at Historic Royal Palaces, said the exhibition would explore why the British monarchy has survived while others throughout Europe collapsed, highlighting how photography was “vital”.
“What made British monarchy so powerful in its presentation was very much established by Victoria, “she said. “It was an amazing show of domesticity; this very careful balancing of intimacy and splendour, relatability and mystique, tradition and innovation. The British monarchy were huge pioneers of photography. They very quickly understood its potential as a medium, not just for documentation and enjoyment but also as a tool.”
‘Life Through a Royal Lens’ opens at Kensington Palace on May 15