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When Chris Jackson photographed King Charles'sfirst state visit to Germanyin 2023, something unexpected happened at 30,000 feet. "I was surprised to see that our plane was being accompanied by a German Eurofighter Typhoon jet," Jackson tellsT&C. "It was at this point I realized that everything had changed. We really were in a new era."
His fourth book,Modern Majesty: The British Royal Family in a New Era, published this month, features images—many that have never been seen before—tracing that shift from the second Elizabethan era through Charles's accession. It also offers behind-the-scenes commentary on what it takes to photograph one of the world's most scrutinized families.
Rizzoli Modern Majesty: The British Royal Family Today
Assembling the book and narrowing down the photographs was, by his own account, often overwhelming. Jackson says he gravitated toward the angles that aren't used that often by wire services, like wide frames of theKing and Queen before the Roman Colosseumwith the press corps following them, or a long-lens view of the table laid for a banquet in St. George's Hall at Windsor Castle. Those images are rarely chosen for the front pages of newspapers or magazines or even lead images on online articles, but are prominently highlighted in this archive.
Jackson has watched the economics of royal imagery fluctuate radically around social media's appetite for the immediate and the close. Wide-angle exposures and artistic angles at grand ceremonies rarely trend. The images that perform, he says, need to be impactful: a reaction shot, a fashion detail, and usually an animated exchange between royals and members of the public.
Among the most followed recent royal stories in the past few years has been thePrincess of Wales's cancer diagnosis, announced in March 2024. After undergoing abdominal surgery in January of that year, Kateannounced in a filmed messagethat cancer had been found during the surgery and that she had begun preventive chemotherapy. She sharedin early 2025 she was in remission.
One of the images from the book that Jackson says affects him the most comes from this period in January 2025, when Katereturned to the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, where she had received her treatment. He caught her glancing up at the entrance as she arrived. "In the blink of an eye, you could see so many emotions running through her mind right there," Jackson says.
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In the book, Jackson describes how the Princess of Wales spent the day meeting with and listening to the stories of other patients in the cancer ward that day: "Doctors, nurses, and patients gathered to catch a glimpse of the famous visitor, cramming into corridors and doorways and breaking out into impromptu applause as she left the building."
The year before, Kate madeher first public appearancefollowing her cancer diagnosis announcement at Trooping the Colour, riding in a carriage withher three childrenbefore stepping out onto the Buckingham Palace balcony. While Jackson has photographed Kate's complete career as a royal and Prince William for many years, he has documentedPrince George,Princess Charlotte, andPrince Louisacross their entire lives.
"It's really so special, and we don't see them often," Jackson says. He describes Louis as reliably present and interactive with a crowd: grinning, reacting, looking outward. George, approaching his teenage years already, is already growing into his role. Charlotte, Jackson says, photographs with a poise that has become increasingly apparent as she gets older. "She's really growing into such a young lady," he notes.
More than the royal children, however, Jackson has covered King Charles across multiple decades, first as Prince of Wales and now as sovereign. The photographer says the most noticeable change is the formality and security on the King's outings, whether they are on royal tours or in small towns in the UK. But he says the formality—and the King's health struggles (he, too,was diagnosed with cancer in 2025)—hasn't changed Charles's eagerness or commitment to his workload.
"King Charles has an incredible ability to connect with people in a short amount of time," Jackson says. "He is both so curious and passionate, and has spent decades meeting people around the world, getting 'stuck in' at any event he goes to."
However, the change in command has allowed for a few new possibilities. Among them, the image on the book cover, from the perspective ofKing Charles and Queen Camilla on their Coronation Dayin May 2023, looking out over the crowd. Queen Elizabeth did not permit photographers on the elevated balcony at Buckingham Palace. That permission alone, he suggests, marks a change in how the royal family wants to present itself.
"Recent years have presented the British royal family with several significant challenges," Jackson writes, citing chief among them the passing of Queen Elizabeth, whose 70-year reign was something of an anchor amid decades of social change. "Navigating these times could have provoked one of the biggest crises the modern monarchy has faced. Yet the way the family rallied round…ensured a continuity of service in the face of personal circumstances."
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