QUEEN Elizabeth II celebrated World Photography Day by posting three photos, including one from Balmoral, and Kate and Prince William shared photos from their Hold Still competition.
To commemorate the occasion, the Royal Family account shared three throwback photos showing “a few moments where the Queen has been pictured behind the lens.”
The Queen demonstrates how to use a camera to Prince Charles and Princess Anne in a photograph taken at Balmoral in 1952.
Many people believe the image is particularly poignant because the Queen and other senior royals are currently at Balmoral for “crisis talks” regarding the Prince Andrew scandal.
The second photograph shows the monarch with the late Duke of Edinburgh at her side, taken with a yellow compact camera during a visit to the South Sea islands of Tuvalu in 1982.
The third photograph, taken in 1977 at Lindsay Park Stud in South Australia, shows the Queen posing with the same camera.
Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William marked the occasion by recognising some of Britain’s youngest photographers, according to the Royal Family account.
The Duchess is an avid amateur photographer who frequently shares photos of her children to commemorate milestones like their participation in the Big Butterfly Count earlier this month.
“Photography has an amazing ability to create a lasting record of what we have all experienced & are experiencing,” the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wrote on Twitter to commemorate the national day.
“On #WorldPhotographyDay, we wanted to honour the #HoldStill2020 photography project’s youth by sharing images from the youngest finalists.”
The hashtag #HoldStill2020 refers to a photography project started by the couple during lockdown, in which they asked members of the public to take photos of the Covid-19 pandemic to be used in a digital exhibition.
The Duchess and a panel of five judges whittled down over 31,000 entries to a top 100, and some images from the youngest finalists were shared on social media today.
“There is so much talent, creativity, and curiosity displayed in each and every one of these pictures,” the tweet reads alongside the images.
Coni, a four-year-old photographer from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, captured her mother giving her partner an at-home haircut.
Another image shared by Marcella, 17, shows her mother home-schooling her younger brother during the pandemic, when schools were closed for the majority of the time.
The images are featured in a book titled “Hold Still: A Portrait of Our Nation in 2020,” which was published earlier this year by the Duchess and includes the 100 final portraits chosen from the entrants.
On its first day of release, the book, which explains why the concept is so important to Kate, topped the bestseller list.
“When we look back on the COVID-19 pandemic in the future, we will remember the challenges we all faced – the loved ones we lost, the extended isolation from our families and friends, and the strain placed on our key workers,” the introduction says.
“However, we will remember the positives as well: the incredible acts of kindness, the helpers and heroes who came from all walks of life, and how we all adapted to a new normal together.
“Through Hold Still, I wanted to use the power of photography to capture individual stories and document significant moments for families and communities as we lived through the pandemic.”
The images are housed and archived at the National Portrait Gallery in London, which described it as a “honour” and said it was “lovely to see these brilliant images again” in a tweet.
