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First great picture show from curator Kate
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent29.11.07
Kate Middleton has curated her first exhibition - and was immediately tipped as a future star of the art world.
The 25-year-old girlfriend of Prince William was praised as she organised an exhibition by celebrity portrait photographer Alistair Morrison.
The prince showed his support by making a late appearance at the show. The exhibition - The Time To Reflect, at The Shop at Bluebird, in Kings Road - features dozens of Morrison's celebrity photographs including Tom Cruise, Kate Winslet, Ewan McGregor, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sting.
Many were taken in a special photobooth installed in the Dorchester Hotel in London and in venues in Los Angeles and New York as part of a project to raise money for the United Nations' children's fund, Unicef.
Limited editions of the originals are being sold at the show with half the proceeds going to the charity. All the proceeds from a £60 book of the passport-style images - complete with personal messages from the sitters - will benefit the same cause.
Morrison had high praise for Miss Middleton's talents as a photographer in her own right.
Speaking at the launch, the 51-year-old photographer said: "She is very, very good, and it shows. She takes very beautiful detailed photographs. She has a huge talent and a great eye. I'm sure she will go far."
Morrison has known Miss Middleton since she was a history of art student in St Andrews, where she met Prince William.
He added: "She approached me when she was at university to come and do a little bit of work with her and we've kept in touch. She came to my gallery (in Windsor, Berkshire) and we talked through some of her work. She was looking to get a little help. She's very excited about the show. It's great that most of her family and friends came to support her."
At the launch were Prince William's friend Guy Pelly, Kate's parents Michael and Carole Middleton, her sister Pippa and Camilla Parker-Bowles' heavily pregnant daughter Laura.
Gemma Billington, a friend of the Middletons, said the exhibition was a fantastic success. She said: "The venue is very cool, and the art on display is amazing."
Morrison has been photographing stars nearly all his life, including Bette Davis and Laurence Olivier.
The idea for his book came from the notion that everyone, however distinguished or glamorous, was equal in the eyes of the passport camera.
He initiated the photobooth idea after being asked to help raise funds by Unicef. He knew he needed key personalities for it to work and Tom Cruise, who was photographed while in Britain filming Eyes Wide Shut, was the first to agree.
The exhibition runs at The Shop at Bluebird until Christmas. It is owned by Belle and John Robinson who also own clothes store Jigsaw, for whom Miss Middleton worked as a buyer until earlier this autumn. It opens to the public today.
Miss Middleton is planning the exhibition to be the first in a series at The Shop.
