From Buckingham to Instagram:

How the Kardashians & Ancient Royalty Have Visually Altered Generations.

Modern image control is a reflection of ideologies royals had in the past. A need to perfect personal image to keep themselves in a powerful position. Similarly, families like the Kardashians now have the capital to completely curate themselves on the internet to align with current agendas. 

My second year of college, I was faced with the scholarly duty of signing up for a mandatory art history class. It was pretty brutal. The only thing I got from it was some scattered knowledge about the Renaissance - and a good friend named Via (we bonded over our inability to correctly name paintings). I also learned that art is, on a very large scale, a way for time periods to be understood. Allowing us years later to better understand the history & culture from the past. One thing I found particularly interesting was royal portraits, and the copious amounts of them over the globe. To this day, royal families get portraits done with the aim of preserving their mark on the world. They have filled the halls of castles, museums, & homes since as early as the 13th century. But when you take a deeper dive in royal portrait culture, there are some creepy parallels.  Mirroring the social attitudes we see today associated with visual representations of powerful people. We as humans are continuously evolving, but these meticulously painted artifacts beg to ask some questions. One being, if social values are really shifting, or have they just started to ‘look’ different? 

I can recall learning about iconic portraits such as Marie Antoinette (1775), & the Queen Elizabeth I paintings (mid 1500s). If you haven’t seen any of these ‘masterpieces’, the women are adorned in jewels and expensive looking fabric, staring ominously back at the viewer. Art historians claim that portraits didn’t get remotely accurate until around the 1600s, and that each one is jam packed with unique symbolism. You can find entire web pages dedicated to breaking down each inch of the paintings, like this one [here]. Portraits tend to follow the same sort of ambience, uncomfortable looking figures in fancy clothes positioned in a dimly lit room. However, ‘portraits’ were actually a carefully constructed image. These portraits would often be the only visual image the masses got of their so-called, ‘betters’. So royalty made sure artists were painting what people wanted to see. More jewels, paler skin, taller stature, and rosier cheeks - just to name a few of these ‘tweaks’. I mean, they kind of invented image control. Ensuring they looked good in these paintings sent the message that peasants were below them. 

The message is that they are powerful, and being powerful is something only royals can do. 

Let's get back into the 21st century, where the only royal that mattered died in a car crash in the 1990s (rip Diana). The most powerful people on earth aren't even royals anymore, more like elected officials to keep face at fundraisers and funerals. In my opinion the closest thing the US has to a ‘royal family’ are the Kardashians. Rich socialites, with a mass of wealth, & a busy calendar. Kim has been a budding icon since the early 2000’s. She got her start as a real west coast party girl, pictured drinking Grey Goose out of the bottle on multiple occasions (iconic). When looking at these old photos, I thought about something I hadn't noticed much before. The Kardashian’s virtual image. It has totally transformed since their early days in the limelight. Bad photos of this family just don’t really ‘exist’ anymore. Back in the early 2000’s you could see skin texture, pimples, & minor imperfections. Every picture nowadays of the Kardashians, appears to have the manicured perfection of a Renaissance painting. 

For a reference point, I can think back to the MJ scandal that happened in April of last year. For people who aren't chronically online, MJ - the Kardashians sweet old grandmother accidentally posted a picture of Khloe. It was removed within minutes. But It shocked a lot of people, mostly because it looked vastly different than the Khloe we were used to seeing. The weirdest part of it all was that for a while that picture was impossible to find online. I remember wanting to show my friend at lunch and it had seemingly vanished from the internet, where things supposedly ‘last forever’.  Controversially, people who posted it and shared it with their following were hit with lawsuits & copyright infringement claims from Khloe’s team. To put it blatantly, the family has become obsessed with having complete control of their visual footprint. It's no shocker that the family uses photoshop on almost every photo, but they take it as far as co-working with street photographers to edit ‘raw’ photos. They have the money to out bid every single news outlet for access to their paparazzi photos first. Then they can carefully comb through images of themselves tweaking any imperfections, & release it back to the paps. Giles Harrison, a celeb photographer & owner of ‘London Entertainment Group’ says, “They want control over the images, and if you put it out through Getty, you have limited control. If you get a paparazzi that you have a relationship with to do it, then you have better control.” 

Marshall McLuhan a well known communications theorist argues the biggest takeaway from media is that ‘the medium is the message’. Images are messages, whether it be a renaissance painting or a paparazzi photo. Interfering with these messages - is a message. The fact that the women in the Kardahsian family edit photos to make themselves skinner, have smoother skin, & a smaller waist - fits directly in line with their brand of being a beautiful untouchable force. Every picture we have from the Kardashians in the last 5 years has probably been carefully selected and edited by a team.  Just like the women in the renaissance paintings, but in a nuanced 21st century way. Kim and Kylie have made billions selling their face to us - and monetizing it into a palatable beauty line anyone can buy. Both royalty and the Kardshians attempt to have complete access to their image architecture, ensuring their being portrayed in ways that benefit their agendas. We wouldn't trust an ill-favored, & skinny woman to stand beside a king in the 1800s, or a woman with pimples to sell us bronzer in 2022. Image control is a way to convince normal people that our superiors are otherworldly. Dangling a piece of a bliss right in front of us, and to get our piece we have to give into the idea they exemplify perfection. 

I find it funny how the internet has radically changed our lives, but the same sociology ideas haven't left. They just found a way to shapeshift into the nuances of modern living. Image control keeps people in power - this is not a new idea. It has just found its way to the richest family in America, where small pieces of their lives are carefully crafted to media outlets, almost like a painting.