Kate’s doctored photo has plunged us into a trap where we question nothing because we’ve already dismissed it as fake. That’s where the truth goes to die, argues Andy Blackmore

Again, against my better judgement, I feel it is my professional duty as a picture editor to add a further two-pence worth on the latest episode in the “Kategate” saga: the sudden appearance of an image of the Princess of Wales visiting a farm shop.

I’m still gripped by one overwhelming question: why? Why didn’t the Princess of Wales just cut the head off the snake and issue the original, unedited image or images? What on earth could be so bad that it’s preferable to the vacuum its absence has created? A veritable army of conspiracy theorists has stepped into the void. I’ve looked. I’ve dived down the rabbit hole and what I’ve found is closer to Alice in Wonderland than any plausible version of the truth.

To those of you who say “who cares?”, I say this: it’s quite literally my job to care, and I do care very much about photography. You see photography has looked after me very nicely for the last 40 years, both providing me........

© City A.M.