By Alanah Khosla For Mailonline and Jo Tweedy For Mailonline

Published: 08:11 EDT, 16 June 2024 | Updated: 11:58 EDT, 16 June 2024

The Princess of Wales demonstrated her photography talents once again on Sunday as she released a touching Father’s Day photo of Prince William and their children – as the royal trio paid a loving tribute to their ‘Papa’.

The photo showed Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six, on a beach trip alongside their father, posing with their backs to the camera as they looked out to sea on the Norfolk coast, near their Anmer Hall home.

Watching out at the peaceful sands, the two brothers had their arms around each other while Charlotte wrapped hers around her father. William reached out to hold all his children as they stood on a grassy dune.

Kate has a longstanding passion for photography, despite a photo editing drama that saw six global picture agencies withdraw the family’s official Mother’s Day photo over fears it had been ‘manipulated’.

The released image, which had several signs of editing, including part of Princess Charlotte‘s sleeve being missing, was, it later emerged, taken by Prince William on Friday before Kate edited it twice in Photoshop to ‘make it the best it can be’. 

The family photo was the first picture of the Princess of Wales, 42, to appear since her abdominal surgery earlier in the year and sparked a swift apology from Kensington Palace. 

Amid the ensuing furore, the Princess issued a statement on Twitter and Instagram admitting she ‘edited’ the image – adding that she does ‘occasionally experiment’ as an ‘amateur photographer’ and apologising for ‘any confusion’ the image caused.

However, the royal hobbyist can be forgiven for the photographic blip, for her previous skill behind the camera has gifted insight that many professional snappers have struggled to capture – with her family her biggest muse.

Here FEMAIL looks at some of the many photographs of the royals the Princess has released over the years, including touching photos of Prince William with his father and the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip with their great grandchildren… 

PRINCE GEORGE 

The Prince and Princess of Wales’ eldest son, now ten, is more than used to posing for his mum, with snaps of the heir-to-the-throne appearing regularly – and marking milestones such as his first day at nursery in Norfolk, and supporting the England squad in a team shirt in 2019.  

On his seventh birthday, two photographs were released, taken in July 2020 during lockdown – at their then Norfolk home, Anmer Hall. 

His eighth birthday also saw him photographed at Amner Hall and showed the future king perched on the bonnet of a Land Rover Defender.

Prince George turned nine in 2022, and his mother was behind the camera once more. The young royal posed in a polo-style top with a sandy shoreline and water behind him in his birthday snap. 

PRINCESS CHARLOTTE   

The middle child of Kate and William has also been an adorable subject for her mum’s favourite hobby. An early photo of Princess Charlotte sees her being cradled by her older brother George. 

Other highlights include a second birthday photo of her wearing a snuggly lemon cardigan, and holding the family dog for a portrait to mark her seventh birthday. 

PRINCE LOUIS  

The youngest of the Wales siblings, little Prince Louis, has been seen in a variety of photos since he was born in 2018.

First pictures snapped by Kate show him as a red-cheeked bouncing baby, with one photo showing him in the arms of his big sister Princess Charlotte. 

More recently, Prince Louis has been photographed cycling to nursery on his bicycle – and in group family photos with dad Prince William.  

FAMILY PORTRAITS 

KING CHARLES AND QUEEN CAMILLA

Kate’s father-in-law, the King, and Queen Camilla have also featured in some of the photographs the Princess of Wales has chosen to make public over the years.

In 2018, Kate captured an image to mark both Father’s day and the 38th birthday of the then Duke of Cambridge. The father-and-son photo sees William with his arm protectively around his father, with both royals laughing warmly at the camera. 

A black-and-white photo of the King, then the Prince of Wales, taken with Prince Louis as he turned two, offered rare insight into the close bond the monarch has with his grandchildren to Kate and William. 

And Queen Camilla has also acknowledged Kate’s skills with a camera in hand, asking the then Duchess of Cambridge to photograph her to mark her 75th birthday.

The Queen is seen in the summertime shot with a basket of cut flowers, wearing a pretty blue dress.  

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND PRINCE PHILIP  

Kensington Palace published an unseen photograph of Queen Elizabeth II on what would have been the late monarch’s 97th birthday in 2023.

The previously unseen picture of the monarch was captured by the Princess of Wales at Balmoral in August 2022 – weeks before her death on September 8th. 

Happy in the Scottish Highlands she so loved, Her Majesty is surrounded by some of her adored grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Several years earlier, Kate had also photographed the late Queen and Prince Philip with their great-grandchildren at Balmoral in 2018.

A$AP Rocky is sharing a glimpse into his personal life!

The 35-year-old artist poses in a new photography series from artist Carrie Mae Weems called “Portraits of Fatherhood” by Bottega Veneta, commissioned by Creative Director Matthieu Blazy.

The series of six images were released on Father’s Day (June 16), and show the star in a home setting with his two young sons, RZA, 2, and Riot Rose, 10 months.

Keep reading to find out more…

“This is the evolution of Mr. Mayers,” says A$AP Rocky in a statement, who was announced as Bottega Veneta’s latest brand ambassador.

“This is me embodying and embracing fatherhood, parenthood, companionship, and family, while still working on all aspects of my career.”

In one picture, he lifts up his youngest son and kisses his forehead. Another shows the young boys at a toy piano, with Rocky playing alongside them on a keyboard. There is also a short film, directed by Carrie Mae Weems, with music direction by Rocky.

Carrie says the project with A$AP Rocky represented “an important gesture that cannot be understated.”

“Rocky’s concerns as an African American man with children profoundly moved me. Historically there has been a deep lack of honest representation of the Black family. It has been distorted for centuries. This was a unique opportunity to say something not just positive, but truthful – not just about Rocky’s own experience, but about how that reflects out to the broader population. In the wake of all the atrocities committed against Black men — particularly because of their masculinity — Rocky can be seen with his children, in love. To be able to speak that authenticity through him was galvanising,” she continued.

“I first encountered Carrie’s photography as a student,” adds creative director Matthieu Blazy. “I was deeply moved by its originality, engagement, and social impact. Over the years since, I have carried the power and importance of her work with me. I am honoured that she has brought her lens and vision to this project with Rocky, exploring fatherhood and what it means today. The images shows the realness of Rocky as a father and as a man beyond the public figure. What strikes me first and foremost in the pictures is their intimacy.”

“I don’t think there are many people in my culture who advocate for fatherhood and parenthood. This player persona is very pushed. When you think about a rapper, you think about adolescence, about the single bachelor lifestyle. When you think about A$AP Rocky, you think about a playboy, pretty boy, bras being thrown on stage. This is about me as one-woman man, as a family man. It is about what completes my life now: being present as a partner and a parent,” Rocky adds.

“To me, this is the first of its kind. It is a collaborative, collective art piece that shows the sincerity of my place and interactions as a father.”

The couple recently celebrated RZA‘s second birthday together!

Some Instagram users have recently noticed a ‘Made with AI’ tag appearing in the top left of reels and posts. In many cases, the tag is appearing on real photos and not images made using an AI image generator as the tag implies, and photographers aren’t happy about it.

So what is going on? Instagram users @colinandsamir posed the question to the Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) to clear things up (see below) and he said: 

“It’s just the metadata on the image. People are doing benign things in Photoshop that are technically using AI. And then we’re just respecting the file’s mark saying ‘Hey, AI was used to make this.’ We have to figure this out because clearly this is frustrating and not the ideal experience.”

Disgruntled photographers have not taken kindly to the suggestion that their images are fake, but are instead real photos that are edited using Adobe Photoshop which has improved AI editing tricks.

For some creators such as Peter McKinnon, Instagram’s binary tagging approach feels like an overreach.

Matters get complicated and fast: Instagram is also adding the ‘Made with AI’ tag on many AI-generated images and ultimately expecting viewers to use their own judgement as to what’s real, so we’re back at square one. 

In a time when AI will make it almost impossible to know the truth, Instagram’s degree of caution is understandable but that’s of little comfort to photographers sharing real albeit edited images that are being tarred with the same AI-generated brush. 

And, as Mosseri goes on to say, there continues to be content online that is generated by AI that is not tagged to that effect and could therefore be assumed as being real, “There will be content on all platforms that is made with AI and is not marked with AI because the person who made it specifically tried to avoid that.”

Handling AI content online remains a complex task.

What else can Instagram do?

Instagram scans the metadata of an image to ascertain if it’s real or AI-generated. Those savvy enough to upload an image without metadata – for example, a screenshot – can circumvent Instagram’s tag with their fake images.

Meanwhile, a photographer who used Photoshop’s content-aware tools to remove a blemish on skin of a real person or a stain on clothing could be lumped with the ‘Made with AI’ tag if those changes are in the image metadata. Clearly, the situation is far from ideal, but it’s also far from straightforward to navigate. 

Instagram users have been responding to Colin and Samir’s Instagram posts with mixed feelings and their own ideas of how Instagram should point out fake images. 

User @voust says, “There should be ‘edited with AI and made with AI’… ‘made’ kind of implies the whole image is artificial”. 

@voust suggests an alternative to Instagram’s binary approach for photographers for whom authenticity matters: it could scan real photos with Adobe‘s Content Credentials metadata that proves authenticity, along with if there were any edits made to the image to avoid the ‘Made with AI’ tag, and that an ‘edited with AI’ tag is acceptable.

Photographers have been faking and manipulating photographs ever since the invention of photography, but we’re on new AI ground that adds a whole other layer. Photoshop’s Generative Fill AI tools are pushing what’s possible in its flagship editor, and confusing what’s real.

In photography circles, AI-generated images aren’t seen as photographs, nor is replacing an entire sky in your photo using Photoshop’s Generative Fill, while light editing of real photos is on the whole acceptable – and it’s verging on insulting that these edited photos are being tagged as ‘Made with AI’. 

A single ‘Made with AI’ tag leaves too many questions and in some cases unfair suspicion. To a degree, ‘edited with AI’ also leaves questions: how much editing has taken place; an entirely new landscape around your subject or simply a small piece of litter removed from the ground?  

I think Instagram is on the right track, but I also hope that it listens to photographers and finds a more acceptable way forward.

You might also like

The following is a press release issued by the Ukiah Photography Club:

The Ukiah Photography Club meets on the first Saturday of every  month at MEDIUM Art Gallery, in the Pear Tree Center in Ukiah, next to  the AT&T store. Meetings start at 10:00 a.m. and continue until around  noon, allowing members time to connect, share their work, and discuss upcoming projects and events. An online meeting link can be provided  for those who cannot attend in person. 

The theme for July 6, 2024 is “shadows”, a subject that offers endless  possibilities for creative interpretation, both literal and metaphorical – a  perfect opportunity to showcase creativity and photographic skills. 

Also during the July meeting, Tom Raymondson will demonstrate how to  mat and frame your artwork at home. Whether you’re an artist with a  collection of pieces that need to be framed or you simply want to frame  your favorite family photos, this demonstration will show you exactly  how simple it is to get a professional look. 

Photography enthusiasts of all levels are welcome to attend Club  meetings. These are excellent opportunities to network with local  photographers, learn new techniques, and share your passion for  photography with like-minded individuals. 

The Ukiah Photography Club is a community of Mendocino County  digital and film photographers, each representing a unique style,  experience, and expertise. Monthly meetings and periodic outings  include instruction, photo critiques, and lively discussions, all aimed at  enhancing the understanding and appreciation of photography. For more information, including the online meeting link and details on how to submit photos for the monthly theme, please visit ukiahphoto.club or email ukiahphotoclub@gmail.com.

SOU art museum opens exhibition with images by three contemporary Oregon artists

By Art Van Kraft for Ashland.news

Schneider Museum of Art’s summer exhibition, “PACING: Photographs by Dru Donovan, Melanie Flood, and Tarrah Krajnak,” features photographs by three contemporary Oregon artists. 

Museum Executive Director Scott Malbaurn says this exhibit is unique. 

“We haven’t put forth a photography exhibition is quite some time, but this is really taking a moment and putting photography in the spotlight. We chose three different kinds of photographers for different voices in the field,” Malbaurn said.  

“We are thrilled to collaborate with Portland based curator Yaelle Amir, renowned for her expertise in photo-based art,” he added. 

Amir is a curator, educator and editor in Portland. She said her expertise is examining the ways “exhibition space can serve as a tool in community building and also focus on artists.”  

“I was real interested in female photographers that were working in performative ways,” Amir said. “Also, women who were reflecting on the role that women play in rewriting how photography is perceived. It’s very male-dominated, and these woman artists are working up against the works of male masters.”

Amir’s male-dominated concept is famously described in Thomas Berger’s 1972 art book “Ways of Seeing.” Amir says the description is something contemporary female artists are pushing back on. 

According to Berger’s hypothesis, “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed is female.” 

Amir says “these works completely erase that (Berger’s) idea and let women make their own story.” 

According to Amir, the act of “pacing” involves moving forward in a measured, rhythmic manner, where each step is taken in consideration of the one before it. She chose three mid-career female-photographers to express that idea. 

Donovan is an assistant professor of art at Lewis and Clark College in Portland. Her photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally since 2010. In “Scrum” (2019), Donovan posed rugby players to send a message — one that might surprise viewers.  

“I like to work with athletes such as dancers, strong women rugby players, cheerleaders,” Donovan said. “I usually come in with as very specific idea. Over here you’ll see a scrum from rugby. It’s a specific arraignment with two rugby teams. I removed their jersey’s and redressed them in all white.” 

Then Donovan did a surprising switch: “I was interested in the collaboration that happened in the scrum. There’s this immense force and aggression and power that can also look like care or collaboration or unity. I see it now as a large embrace.”

Flood says her photography has been lifelong and shows both growth and aging. She was invited to show her work on contemporary femininity, both in how women are viewed in public and private and also how public space is altered by gender. 

“My work has been taken over the course of my life. The first photograph is from 1988 and the most recent from 2024, so it’s really an exploration of my growth and aging and gender,” Flood said. “The work was for me and about me and I kept it in a box. Fast forward to an older adult and the photography is more about how I see myself now versus the younger work. I’m more self-aware now; the younger stuff was more performance.”

Dawn Bassett, a guest at the exhibit’s opening reception at the museum Thursday, is a new resident of the Rogue Valley. As she roamed the gallery, she said she was struck by one of Flood’s photographs.  

“What I see in this right now is my 2-year-old daughter who wants her ears pierced. In the photo, I see the pin used to pierce the ear, and then the bra underwire. The whole palette is late ’80s. It’s that needle that gets me, it’s what was used when kids’ parents wouldn’t let them pierce ears,” Bassett said. 

Krajnak is from Eugene, where she teaches photography at the University of Oregon. 

“My work in particular has to do with landscape photography and thinking about what landscape photography actually is. A lot of my work is involved with the masters and rethinking how we teach the history of photography” Krajnak said. 

In making her piece “Racing Moonrise,” Krajnak held a live performance in Cologne, Germany, where she erased three photographs by Ansel Adams by dipping her hair in hot coffee and rubbing the surface of the photograph. 

Krajnak said she was making both an homage and critique of Ansel’s work. 

“I found that I took photographs many of the same places as Ansel and I used a lot of the same materials,” she said. “It was my way of writing myself into this history and recasting myself as the master of photography.”

Art Van Kraft is an artist living in Ashland and a former broadcast journalist and news director of a Los Angeles-area National Public Radio affiliate. Email him at artukraft@msn.com.

The celebrated New York-born photographer Joel Meyerowitz was 28 when he went to Málaga in 1966. He was on a road trip through Europe, 20,000 miles and 10 countries, but in Andalucia he found something like the authenticity he had been looking for. A friend of a friend introduced him to flamenco musicians in the Romany quarter, and he spent six months taking pictures, observing their lives. The Escalona family, members of which are pictured here, could trace their musical lineage back to Antonio Escalona, whose guitar-playing had inspired the revolutionary poet Federico García Lorca.

By the time Meyerowitz reached Málaga, the city had lived under General Franco’s dictatorship for nearly 30 years. Flamenco had an ambiguous position in a society dominated by church and state. It was allowed as a symbol of Spanish nationalism – a natural barrier to subversive rock’n’roll – but carried with it traditions of rebellion and freedom. A new exhibition of Meyerowitz’s pictures from that period has just opened at the Picasso Museum in Málaga.

Many of the images, such as this one, are celebrations of Meyerowitz’s pioneering use of colour film at a time when nearly all serious street photography used black and white. The intensity of life in Málaga seemed to demand that shift; it involved a new way of looking that found interest in every corner of the frame. The four figures here, backed by the two-tone walls, are a case in point: each could be a study in singular character – the old man with half an eye on the wine bottle; the young woman beginning to respond to the age-old dance rhythm of clapping and guitar. The commitment to colour required a painter’s eye, Meyerowitz, now 86, has suggested, and could be made to capture not only a focal point of drama, but a whole field of vision; a way of life.