Royal Family opens Flickr page to public

Buckingham Palace has launched a Flickr page to share photographs of the royal family at home and at official engagements.

Among images from the royal household’s most recent visits to Canada and New York, the public can view specially commissioned photos of state banquets, Buckingham Palace garden parties and historical images of members of the Royal Family.

The Royal Flickr account is split into two collections. The Royal Collection includes some of the earliest photographs of the Royal family by photography pioneers Roger Fenton and Julia Margaret Cameron, featuring images of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

The Royal Family collection features the latest images from state visits and portraits of prominent members of the family.

Buckingham Palace said the Queen had authorised the Flickr account to illustrate the work of the monarchy and to give the public access to images of the royal household and official events.

The images are free to view and can be used on personal websites, although each image is watermarked by its respective copyright holder – The Crown, for the Royal Collection and the Press Association for the Royal Family collection.

The Flickr project is not the Royal Family’s first venture into social networking – the public can already access updates and information via the Royal website, the British Monarchy Twitter account and the Royal Channel on YouTube.

The ability to add comments to material on both the Flickr and YouTube sites has been disabled.