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Retouching of royal photos is 'very important', curator of new Buckingham Palace exhibition says after Kate's Mother's Day picture controversy which saw agencies 'kill' the edited image
The curator of a new exhibition of royal portraits at Buckingham Palace has defended the practice of retouching images despite controversy over a Mother's Day photo taken by Prince William.
Alessandro Nasini, the curator behind the exhibition celebrating 100 years of royal portrait photographs, said retouching - which can vary from simply cropping an image to removing entire backgrounds - remains a vital tool in royal portrait photography.
Many of the photos on display to the public at the King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from today have been retouched and notes describe the process.
His comments came two months after five major news and picture agencies issued 'kill notices' withdrawing a photograph of the Princess of Wales with her children for Mother's Day because it had been digitally altered. Kate later admitted she had been experimenting with editing the family photo.
The curator of a new exhibition of royal portraits at Buckingham Palace has defended the practice of retouching images despite controversy over a Mother's Day photo taken by Prince William. Above: The image of the Princess of Wales with her children Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte that was released to mark Mother's Day before sparking controversy after it emerged that Kate had edited it
In spite of tougher media guidelines over image manipulation amid concerns that the public has to be able to trust that pictures are genuine in an era of AI and deepfakes, Mr Nasini, curator of photographs at the Royal Collection, said it was a vital tool.
He said: 'I am not familiar with those particular [media tests] but retouching per se has always been part of photography really since the inception of photography.
'It's very important specifically for portrait photography because it's a creative process. It's not press photography, it's not reportage, it's not commercial photography.
'It's just simply a tool that has always been used by photographers to translate their vision, the aesthetics, into the final print.
'It's part of the creative process. It's just one of the tools.'
Mr Nasini was steered away by a PR minder from commenting further on the controversy over the photo of Kate with her children, which came during a period of wild and inaccurate speculation about the whereabouts of the Princess.
The exhibition, open to tourists until October 6, reveals the stories behind many iconic royal photographs down the decades and displays more than 150 pictures or other items.
Among the treasures featured are a previously unseen family photo marking the birth of four royal babies, the Queen Mother's personal copy of her daughter's Coronation portrait, and the earliest surviving colour photographic print of a member of the Royal Family.
Many of the photos on display to the public at the King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from today have been retouched and notes describe the process
The photo of four royal mothers shows Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, Princess Alexandra and the Duchess of Kent all holding their newborn babies.
It was taken by Princess Margaret's photographer husband Lord Snowdon as a personal token of thanks for Sir John Peel, the royal obstetrician who delivered all four babies within two months in 1964.
The babies are Prince Edward, now the Duke of Edinburgh, Lady Sarah Chatto, James Ogilvy and Lady Helen Taylor, who all turned 60 this year.
The picture is displayed alongside a handwritten letter from Margaret to her sister the late Queen, asking 'Darling Lilibet' to sign the print 'as a souvenir of an extraordinary two months of delivery'.
Margaret also suggested they take a trip to the theatre to see Noel Coward's 'witty' comic play Hay Fever.
'If you enjoyed 'Private Lives' this is just the ticket. Would you like to see it? It would be such fun to see it together,' Margaret wrote.
The exhibition, Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography, features some of the most famous photos taken of the royals by celebrated snappers including Dorothy Wilding, Cecil Beaton, Annie Leibovitz, David Bailey, Andy Warhol and Rankin.
In sharp contrast, Jamie Reid's infamous image of Elizabeth II for the cover of the Sex Pistols single God Save the Queen, released a week before her 1977 Silver Jubilee and showing her eyes and mouth covered by typography resembling a ransom note, is also on display.
Visitors can see Paolo Roversi's memorable 40th birthday portrait of the Princess of Wales in which Kate's dress and pose bear a striking visual resemblance to an 1864 portrait of Alexandra, Princess of Wales by Franz Xaver Winterhalter from the Royal Collection, which hangs nearby.
It shows how innovations in colour and digital photography between the 1980s and 2020s revolutionised the art form, ushering in a new sense of experimentation and playfulness.
Bold and colourful examples on show include Rankin's 2001 photograph of a smiling Queen Elizabeth II, superimposed against the Union Flag; Polly Borland's Golden Jubilee portrait of the late Queen set against a glittering gold backdrop; and Andy Warhol's1985 portrait of Her late Majesty, sprinkled with diamond dust to make it sparkle in the light.
The earliest surviving colour photographic print of a member of the Royal Family shows Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (sister-in-law to King George VI and Edward VIII) on her wedding day.
The photograph was taken in 1935 by Madame Yevonde, a pioneer of colour photography and champion of women photographers.
Previously unseen wartime images taken by Cecil Beaton are also on display for the first time, demonstrating how King George VI and Queen Elizabeth used photography to project a sense of stability and hope for the nation.
A photograph of the King and Queen inspecting bomb damage at Buckingham Palace in 1940 shows them smiling comfortingly at each other amid the debris, while a 1943 portrait taken at Royal Lodge in Windsor shows them gathered around the King's desk with Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, conveying a reassuring sense of domesticity and calm.
Beaton photographed the Royal Family over the course of six decades and was chosen as the official photographer for Elizabeth II's Coronation in 1953.
Cecil Beaton took this beautiful photograph of Princess Elizabeth in 1942. It is on display in the new exhibition
Visitors can see a contact sheet of proofs from the Coronation photography sitting, alongside a note from Martin Charteris, the Queen's Assistant Private Secretary, recommending to Prince Philip which images should be sent as personal mementos to the Royal Family and maids of honour. The photograph subsequently sent to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, signed by Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Cecil Beaton, are also on display.
Mr Nasini said: 'The Royal Collection holds some of the most enduring photographs ever taken of the Royal Family, captured by the most celebrated portrait photographers of the past hundred years – from Dorothy Wilding and Cecil Beaton to Annie Leibovitz, David Bailey, and Rankin.
'Alongside these beautiful vintage prints, which cannot be on permanent display for conservation reasons, we are excited to share archival correspondence and never-before-seen proofs that will give visitors a behind-the-scenes insight into the process of creating such unforgettable royal portraits.'