Media scrutiny of the Princess of Wales and her personal photoshopping of her Mothering Sunday photograph has been intense. One important set of players has escaped attention, however: the picture agencies. It was they – AP, Getty Images, AFP, Reuters, Shutterstock and PA – who issued a ‘mandatory photo kill’ of the image. They doubted what PA called its ‘veracity’. I hope it is not unduly cynical to point out that these agencies hate the fact that HRH distributes her own pictures (without charge). Her homemade pics take the bread out of the agencies’ mouths. Suppose other world figures get the DIY habit: what will become of the professionals then? Are the agencies trying to teach the Princess a lesson?

Trinity College, Cambridge, houses de Laszlo’s portrait of A.J. Balfour, which was vandalised last week. One perpetrator was filmed by another for social media, while she sprayed paint on Balfour’s face and slashed the painting repeatedly. As a Trinity undergraduate, I often used to look at the portrait. It captured the slightly drooping elegance of the original, a Trinity man who was chancellor of Cambridge University and also prime minister. I imagine the ‘crime’ for which Balfour was being ‘punished’ last week was his 1917 Declaration. It said, in full:

His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

There! The man wanted a home for the Jews. Damned out of his own mouth! What need we any further witness?

The Master of Trinity, Dame Sally Davies, says she was ‘shocked’ by the ‘act of vandalism’ against the picture.

QOSHE - Notes / Why are the photo agencies punishing Kate? - Charles Moore
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Notes / Why are the photo agencies punishing Kate?

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14.03.2024

Media scrutiny of the Princess of Wales and her personal photoshopping of her Mothering Sunday photograph has been intense. One important set of players has escaped attention, however: the picture agencies. It was they – AP, Getty Images, AFP, Reuters, Shutterstock and PA – who issued a ‘mandatory photo kill’ of the image. They doubted what PA called its ‘veracity’. I hope it is not unduly cynical to point out that these agencies hate the fact that HRH distributes her own........

© The Spectator


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