And the reason that this photograph was important was because
there had been a great deal of speculation about the
health of the Princess of Wales.
We hadn't seen her officially since
Christmas, and also she had undergone
a major abdominal surgical operation and was recuperating.
We expected her doctor's advice permitting to be
back for doing royal engagements after Easter.
But this was a very long hiatus and there was
speculation in all the speculation,
particularly after William pulled out at the last minute of
memorial service for his godfather,
King Constantine of Greece, even though he lived practically next
door.
And that led to an enormous amount of worldwide speculation
as to the state of
Catherine's health. The purpose of this photograph was to allay
those fears.
It's certainly not done that.
The fact that four major agencies have alleged that the
photograph
has been manipulated is clearly damaging.
I mean obviously it damages your credibility,
the sort of thing we know that a certain amount
of what could be called touching up
for certain photographs goes on.
The whole point is if you do it,
you shouldn't be caught. The Palace haven't commented,
but I would think that a statement would be reasonable
under the circumstances.
When Catherine does return to royal duties this will be
a historic moment which will be
probably
an embarrassment and people won't forget it,
but it's not something that is likely to
be dwelt on endlessly in the future.
Last Christmas, the card that the whales is sent had
a photograph that some people alleged had been somewhat altered,
but the facts are however that to do so
that this has happened at this moment is unquestionably embarrassing.
There's certainly a history of manipulating image,
particularly with the portrait where Kings and
Royals and prominent figure well with the portrait where prominent
figures
could hide under the cloak of an
artist's skill. Van Dyke's Charles the First was perhaps one
of the finest examples of this.
It was the royal propagandist,
and down the centuries as there,
there's a history of photo manipulation
going back to them, well,
roughly when photography was invented,
beginning with an image of President Lincoln.
So this isn't anything new.
But if you are involved in this,
shall we say, these ambiguities of behaviour
don't get caught, it doesn't look good and it doesn't
help your image.
No, I think in the future will they will make
very certain that this sort of touching up or manipulation
which has been alleged,
does not happen because it damages your credibility.
There's no doubt about that.
I think that I can't explain why this has been
done.
For example, why certain items of clothing appear to be
or look
out of place, or the fact that Catherine doesn't have
an engagement ring.
That's extraordinary. That's not benefiting anyone to show that.
Quite the contrary, considering some of the ghastly trolling that's
been evident online.
So I really can't tell if this is a clumsy
or this appears to be a clumsy botched job.