Windsor Castle, where Queen Elizabeth II is to reside more after she turned 80 on Friday, is staging a photographic exhibition to celebrate the queen's 80th birthday.

The Royal Photograph Collection traces the queen's public and family life over the past 80 years, with formal records of state events and official portraits to little-known family photographs and intimate snap-shots.

The exhibition opens with the childhood of Princess Elizabeth, including images of her aged 5 weeks and as a laughing toddler seated on a windowsill and in a high chair.

Soon after the accession of the Princess's parents as King and Queen in 1936, photographs of the close-knit royal family strengthened the country throughout the years of the Second World War.

Official photos mark Princess Elizabeth's engagement and marriage in 1947 to Prince Philip, here coronation in 1953, and the birth of her four children.

The official 80th birthday portrait by Lord Snowdon is also present at the exhibition which lasts till March 11 of next year.

The Queen's collection, over 600 pieces in total, contains the world's most important group of the artist's drawings.

Source: Xinhua