Royal photographers share opposing views on Kate's photo
Was it a massive error of judgement, or have we made a mountain out of a molehill?
Hello Royal Clubbers,
I know a lot of you have probably reached your limit reading the different theories and opinion pieces about Princess Kate's edited Mother's Day photo. I promise we will put this to bed soon, but I wanted to focus today's newsletter – perhaps our final post about it – on the perspective of royal photographers.
They are the people who actually have a professional eye when it comes to dissecting a digitally manipulated image, instead of the armchair sleuths who have been churning out theory after wild theory in the past week. So, I wanted to know what they thought of the whole furore.
And it seems, just like with any good talking point, they don't all share the same view. Just like how some of you may not have agreed with my fellow Royal Clubber Andrea's column on Saturday, where she argued that Kate should have learnt her lesson from past editing experiences and not altered this latest picture.
I caught up with photographer Ben Stansall, who works for AFP, one of the first international photo agencies who issued a "kill notice" on the royal portrait. My colleagues at HELLO! also spoke to Liz McAulay, who has worked with the Middletons on their Party Pieces website and who has photographed Kate's mother Carole countless times.
I want to start with Ben's perspective first, as he gave me a bit of context as to why this particular photo would have been pulped by an agency. Ben, by the way, has covered Prince William and Kate's 'crazy' 2010 engagement photoshoot, the births of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and more recently, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.