The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is allowing internet photographers to explore the building after hours, take pictures and share them online.

Called an '#empty event', the gallery, in Edinburgh, will allow 35 people using the Instagram app on their phones to create images of the empty galleries and share them with their followers online.

Instagram is an online mobile photo and video sharing app with over 300 million users.

Its #empty theme aims to provide access to iconic cultural institutions once they are closed to the public.

Previous empty events were held at Tate Modern in London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, The Guggenheim in New York and The Royal Opera House in London.

Among the Instagrammers invited to the empty event are Steve Oates (@wilde_oates) and Jemma Craig @jemmacraig, whose feeds are followed by over 220,000 combined users.

From 6pm on 21 March, photos from the empty event will be shared on Instagram with the hashtags #empty, #emptyscotmodern and #WWIM11_Edinburgh.

The empty event will coincide with the Worldwide InstaMeet 11, taking place on 21 and 22 March where Instagrammers from across the world organise events to meet and take photos.

Simon Groom, director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art said: "We are delighted to open our doors to the Instagram community.

"Visiting the Gallery and our exhibitions outside of our opening times is a rare opportunity, and we hope it will be an inspiring experience.

"I look forward to seeing their photos."