Stand Up to the Photo Police, Kate, it’s the Digital Age

I am amazed by the flurry of social media posts about the Mother’s Day photo of the Princess of Wales and her children. When flaws or discrepancies in the photo were reported, the Princess, Kate Middleton, admitted to doing her own amateur editing of the photo taken by her husband, Prince William.

Should she not have edited it? Should the Palace not have released it? Considering the media storm, it might well have been a public relations disaster, but it is the best PR disaster I can imagine. I now know how many children Kate and William have, and good for her to be able to edit her own photo!

To me, this is the crux of the issue: She owns it – at least Kate Middleton has some claim to owning the photo. It was a photo of her and her children, taken by her husband. She created it for Mother’s Day in the UK. Thank you, Kate. She allowed it to be posted. She had every right to touch it up. All the edits were irrelevant to her health.

Health? The argument was that the editing added fuel to a conspiracy theory about the family covering up the state of her health. Why was she not more visible after her surgery? What did the edits have to do with her health? And, what conspiracy? Who are the conspiracy theorists? Since when must we try to counter conspiracy theories? Impossible. No information can sway a conspiracy theory, so that is a lost cause.

In my view, the bottom line is that a person plays multiple roles, in this case, as a Princess, a mother, a spouse, a photographer. She stood in all these roles in this case, and she had every right to decide what she would permit the Palace to send to the press.

Arguably, palace staff – assuming there are such people – should have asked about the photo’s provenance, or authenticity, such as whether it was edited. But it may well be a new thing for members of the Royal Family to take their own photos, or edit their own photos, rather than have their staff do this work. But this is the digital age of social media. It is a time when the expectation should be that an individual can and may curate their own image.

The photography police are simply old-fashioned. Get over it. Authenticity in the digital age is in giving up more control to networked individuals, even if they are members of a royal family. The internet and social media put more power in the hands of networked individuals – such as yourself. Use it.

Finally, it might be the most famous photo yet taken of Kate and her children, proving again that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Afterword

I am an American, so let me know if I don’t understand some fundamental aspects of Britain’s Royal Family. Having learned of Kate’s cancer blow, there are many around the world who wish her and her family the very best: She is not alone and has already become a role model for others being treated.