‘Full of fun’: Charlie Chaplin, Christopher Robin and the princess

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Marcus Adams: Royal Photographer

Lisa Heighway

Marcus Adams (1875–1959) is little known today, although his images of royal children are in fact familiar to everyone. His birth and upbringing gave him a good grounding for child photography, for he was one of seven children and his father was Walton Adams, a professional photographer associated with early developments in the medium. At first he worked in general photographic portraiture, becoming successful enough to count a Prime Minister among his clients. But he achieved particular success with children, and found this work more congenial. In 1920 he opened The Children’s Studio in Dover Street, Mayfair, quickly establishing his reputation as the leading child photographer in London. His young clients came from royalty, the aristocracy and the cultural elite, for example A.A. Milne’s son Christopher Robin.

His methods wouldn’t seem at all unusual today, but he was ahead of his time in putting his young sitters completely at their ease. The reception area of his studio welcomed them with cheerful yellow walls and a blue ceiling, and the studio looked like a well-stocked toyshop. The camera was camouflaged to look like a toy cabinet and the children hardly noticed it. Parents and nannies were kept out of the room and could only watch through a glass screen. Adams walked about chatting, holding a length of rubber tubing with which he could take the photograph remotely (after which an assistant quietly changed the plate while Adams distracted the child). It was a complete change from the tradition of formal poses and straight faces, the client staring at the camera, with the photographer’s head buried in a cloth behind it. All the images show relaxed and laughing children.

Adams’ own personality and appearance helped to put even the most shy or difficult youngster at ease. What would they make of him today, one wonders? He had a shock of thick curly hair, and a fiercely black, thick, short moustache, which made him look like a giant Charlie Chaplin. Perhaps he looked comic even then, and children found him a bit of a clown. Certainly they found him entertaining. He himself once said that portrait photography was ‘ninety-five percent psychology and only five percent mechanical’.

Adams took numerous photographs of two generations of the Royal Family. The first images of Princess Elizabeth (now Her Majesty the Queen) were taken when she was seven months old, in December 1926. There is also – rather topically, given the film The King’s Speech – a portrait of the Royal Family taken just four days after the Duke of York was proclaimed sovereign as King George VI. It’s a very reassuring image of a conscientious, dependable family, one that would fulfil its duty to the nation. The royal portraits became familiar to the general public in a variety of media, used for everything from stamps to biscuit tins, and Adams continued to photograph members of the Royal Family regularly until 1956. Of his long relationship with them he said, ‘I have had more joy from that family than from any. They are full of fun’.

Lisa Heighway is Assistant Curator of the Royal Photograph Collection at Windsor Castle. In a 20-page essay she documents Adams’ career and examines his working methods. The rest of her publication comprises well-captioned images of the Royal Family and other royal relatives, plus a selection of images by Adams’ professional associate, Bertram Park. 

Most of Adams’ royal portraits are held in the Royal Collection. Selections were first shown at Windsor Castle in the exhibition ‘Marcus Adams: Royal Photographer’ (2010–11). You can see them now at the Queen's Gallery, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh (until 5 June 2011). 

Although the book’s  title announces royalty and photography, it also sheds an interesting light on the changing attitudes to children in the twentieth century. 

This book is published by The Royal Collection. 120 pp., over 160 colour illus. ISBN 9781 905686 20 9