The Perfect, Imperfect Royal Family Photo
A scandal erupts in Kensington Palace over a doctored image. Nothing new, carry on.
On January 17, 1852, Queen Victoria gathered her children for a family photo. The Queen tapped famed photographer William Edward Kilburn to shoot the portrait, a Daguerreotype. But, to the Queen’s dismay, her eyes were closed in the photo. The Queen looked, as she wrote in her diary, “horrid.”1
So, Queen Victoria edited it…
…by scratching out her face.
One hundred and seventy-two years later, the Princess of Wales, Catherine “Kate” Middleton, gathered her children for a family photo. The Princess tapped her husband William, the future King of England, to shoot the portrait. And it’s a lovely photo — until you take a closer look.