The change in tone has been immediate, ever since Reuters, Getty, AFP and Associated Press killed the Prince and Princess of Wales’s Mother’s Day frankenphoto. The image was heavily manipulated, and Kensington Palace failed to respond to those media agencies’ inquiries for clarification or for an “unmanipulated” photo. The global director of AFP compared KP to North Korea and Iran and international media agencies have made it clear that everything coming out of KP is now being considered untrustworthy and possibly manipulated propaganda.
Over the weekend, two big things happened. One, a source close to William and Kate (an advisor, even) claimed that those media agencies were “hypocritical” for killing the frankenphoto, because those agencies had run manipulated photos before. Two, the Guardian confirmed something which had been speculated/known for a while, which is that Kate’s photo of QEII and her great-grandchildren (released last year) was a heavily manipulated photo too. Now Getty has added an editor’s note to the image to indicate that Kate manipulated the photo.
A photograph of Queen Elizabeth II surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, taken by the Princess of Wales, was “digitally enhanced at source”, a global picture agency has said. The photo, taken at Balmoral in August 2022, was reviewed by Getty Images after the Princess admitted that she had edited a Mother’s Day picture of herself and her three children.
Buckingham Palace released it on April 21 last year to mark what would have been the late Queen’s 97th birthday.
A spokesman for Getty said: “Getty Images has reviewed the image in question and placed an editor’s note on it, stating that the image has been digitally enhanced at source.”
Close inspection of the picture appears to show several inconsistencies, including a vertical line where the tartan of the late Queen’s skirt does not match.
A dark shadow is visible behind Prince Louis’s ear, and a similar small black patch can be seen behind Prince George’s shirt collar. There are also signs of digital repetition of Mia Tindall’s hair.
Earlier this month, the Princess’s Mother’s Day picture was withdrawn by several news agencies, which issued a “kill” notice, because of the extent to which it had been manipulated.
The latest development will come as a blow to the Princess, a keen amateur photographer, who is understood to have been distressed by the furore surrounding the more recent image. Both she and Prince William are keen to move on from the drama and put the focus back on their work.
Literally, on Saturday, official royal sources were crying to Roya Nikkhah at the Times about those big, mean hypocrites at Getty, Reuters, AFP and AP and how it’s so unfair because they’ve totally published frankenphotos before! And now Getty is like “oh what’s that??” I hope all of the other agencies follow suit and tag all of the older KP photo handouts and make a really big show of it. If Kensington Palace is going to try to “call out” Reuters and Getty, amateur photographer Kate is going to see ALL of her photos turned into fiascos.
Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day. C
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) March 11, 2024
Photos courtesy of Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace.
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