PJ Vogt

It felt like we needed to talk to someone who actually had royal connections, who could get inside the palace with a camera in their hand.

Can you just introduce yourself, like say your name and what you do?

Chapter two, The Palace Photographer.

Ashley Hicks spent months roaming Buckingham Palace, taking these beautiful, naturally-lit, shadow-drenched portraits of the interior rooms.

He also has a personal connection to the palace.

His grandfather was Lord Mountbatten, uncle of the late queen's husband, Prince Philip.

Ashley's relatives were central enough to the royal family that as a kid, every June, he would get an invitation to the queen's birthday parade.

How were the sandwiches at the palace?

They were pretty good, actually.

Ashley, a person more intimate with the palace and its residents than most, he understood why we'd become curious about the palace interiors.

Unlike its closest American relative, the White House, Buckingham Palace just feels inherently more shrouded.

I mean, that Oval Office.

I mean, I feel like I've lived there, don't you?

I do.

Of course, Ashley has seen many more of these interior rooms than most of us.

In 2018, the Royal Collection Trust enlisted Ashley to document the formal spaces of the palace.

The Grand Hall, the Throne Room, the Royal Closet.

What was it like to photograph it?

How many of the 775 rooms were you allowed to photograph?

You can hear me, I think, cautiously approaching the object of our interest here.