Public invited to submit their own snaps of the royal family for exhibition

Life Through A Royal Lens will display official photographs, portraits, and magazine covers to chart almost 200 years of royal photography

Queen Elizabeth II meeting wellwishers during a walkabout at the University of British Columbia in Canada in 2002 (PA)

If you’ve ever had the chance to snap your own photo of the royal family at an official engagement, you could soon see it exhibited alongside some of the most legendary royal photographs in history.

Members of the public are being asked to submit their own photographs of the royal family for an exhibition opening this spring.

Life Through A Royal Lens opens at Kensington Palace on 4 March and will include work by renowned photographers Norman Parkinson, Rankin, Annie Leibovitz and Cecil Beaton.

The exhibition will also feature behind-the-scenes pictures of the royal family while off-duty, as well as a selection of images taken by the Windsors themselves, which will go on display for the first time.

This includes pictures taken by the Duchess of Cambridge, who is a keen photographer. Her photographs of her children are usually released publicly to mark their birthdays.

From Monday 17 January, members of the public are invited to submit their own photographs of the Queen and her relatives through the Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) website.

HRP has suggested royal fans submit photos that are focused on royal walkabouts, which have become a rarity during the pandemic.

The photos must be of official engagements. Paparazzi-style shots taken by the public when the royals are spending time privately will not be accepted.

Curators at Kensington Palace will choose up to 20 photos to go on show as part of a revolving digital display.

Other photos that will be in the exhibition include family portraits commissioned by Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, and Beaton’s portraits of the Queen and the Queen Mother.

These will be displayed alongside photoshoots such as the Duke of Cambridge’s cover of Attitude Magazine and Kate Middleton’s centenary issue of British Vogue in 2016.

The exhibition will chart almost 200 years of royal photography and will explore the stiff formality of the Victorian era, the high glamour of Beaton’s photographs and the relaxed informality of the digital age.

Claudia Acott Williams, curator at HRP, said: “We’re so excited to invite the public to be part of our upcoming Kensington Palace exhibition in this unique way.

“We can’t wait to see images shared from royal visits around the globe, and it’ll certainly be a tough challenge to whittle them down to the chosen few, which will be displayed amongst legendary photographers.

“We look forward to welcoming our visitors into the world of royal photography, to explore the history behind the iconic image of modern monarchy we know today.”

The closing date for submissions is 31 January.

Additional reporting by PA