Duchess of Cambridge opens new photography centre at V&A museum

The duchess, who was paying her first visit to the museum since becoming a patron in March, was given a tour of the exhibition at the design museum on Wednesday evening before meeting the curators and unveiling a plaque.

Kate, the museum’s first royal patron, was shown around the photography centre by curators of the museum.

The duchess, who studied art history at university, showed her expertise in the field during her visit, according to Martin Barnes, the museum’s senior curator of the exhibition.

“She is a really knowledgeable student in art history, so she understood about the technology behind the photos,” he said.

“I really got a sense of her knowledge and interest in how it is relevant today but how its history informs its present.”

Displays in the new centre, the first phase of which more than doubles the amount of space in the museum dedicated to photography, will be drawn from the London museum’s collection of more than 800,000 photographs.

More gallery space is set to be given over to photography in the museum by 2022.

The first exhibition to be held in the centre – called Collecting Photography: From Daguerreotype to Digital – showcases photos taken from the 19th century, when the medium was first invented, up to the present day.

Tristram Hunt, the former Labour MP who is now the director of the V&A, said: “Our new photography centre provides a world-class facility to re-establish photography as one of our defining collections.

“In an era when everyone’s iPhone makes them a photographer, the V&A’s photography centre explores and explains the medium in a compelling new way.”

He also thanked the gallery’s “Kensington neighbour” the Duchess of Cambridge for unveiling the official plaque.

Visitors entering the new photography centre will pass a display of more than 150 cameras spanning 160 years.

The exhibition opens to the public on Friday and entrance is free.