Enjoy a sneak peek at highlights of the photography exhibition now on at Buckingham Palace
WORDS: CLAIRE SAUL
A fascinating exhibition on display in The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace charts the evolution of royal portrait photography; from the high society glamour of the 1920s to the present day.
Through more than 150 items, Royal Portraits: A Century Of Photography shares the stories behind some of the most celebrated royal images, captured by the most eminent portrait photographers.
The curators have also chosen to introduce us to several intriguing photographs of members of the royal family for the first time.
Fascinating correspondence and previously unseen proofs also provide a behind-the-scenes insight into their creation.
The photographs presented in the exhibition are vintage prints – the original works produced by the photographer, or created under their direct supervision, soon after the photograph was taken.
This exhibition is a rare opportunity to see them as, for conservation reasons, they cannot be part of a permanent display.
A Century of Photography is at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, until October 6, 2024.
The gallery is open Thursday to Monday each week, and between July 11 and September 2 it is open seven days a week.
Wedding Belle
When Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott married Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester in November 1935 she surprised everyone by shunning the traditional royal bridal attire of white to wear pale pink.
This, the earliest surviving photographic print of a member of the Royal Family produced in colour, shows the bride on her wedding day, dressed in her Norman Hartnell gown.
Her eight bridesmaids that day included the groom’s nieces, nine-year-old Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret, aged five.
It was a perfect commission for Madame Yevonde, a pioneer of colour photography in the 1930s and a champion of women photographers.
Mirror, Mirror . . .
Young photographers with modern and radical styles emerged from the mid-1950s.
“Their bold, creative approaches and interest in contemporary popular culture, amplified by the growth of mass media, contributed to the rise of the so-called celebrity photographer,” says exhibition curator Alessandro Nasini.
“Antony Armstrong-Jones and David Bailey are examples of this new generati
