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President Abraham Lincoln
This portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (left) is a composite of Lincoln's head and the body of southern politician John Calhoun (pictured right). -
General Ulysses S. Grant
In this image, General Ulysses S. Grant was on a horse in front of his troops at City Point, Virginia, during the American Civil War.
However, the Library of Congress revealed that this print is a composite of three separate prints:
(1) the head in this photo is taken from a portrait of Grant;
(2) the horse and body are those of Major General Alexander M. McCook;
(3) the background is of Confederate prisoners captured at the battle of Fisher’s Hill, VA. -
General Francis P. Blair
The photo on the left is original photo taken by famed photographer Mathew Brady. General Francis P. Blair (far right) was added to the original photograph. -
Paris Commune massacres
This is a photograph made by Ernest Eugene Appert. Even though based on real events, the photograph were utterly fabricated. Appert hired actors to restaged each scene in his studio then cut and pasted the figures onto the appropriate backgrounds; atop the actors’ bodies he pasted headshot of the Commune’s key participants. -
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Photo-Secession Movement
Photo-Secession Movement, created by Alfred Steiglitz, lasts until World War II. This new style was focused on “art photography” which used a number of techniques to manipulate a photograph to look like a painting or etching. It was which was popular during this era. It’s important to understand this movement because for the first time photographers weren’t interested in just accurately recording history. -
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Made by William Henry Jackson, this photo is a both gelatin silver prints and applied media. It looks more like an etching than a photograph which follows the Photo-Secession Movement’s ideals They sought to elevate photography to a higher form of art from the “snapshooters” or regulars with a point and shoot camera. -
Early 20th century techniques
Techniques for manipulation in the dark room emerge. In addition to special filters and lens coatings from the Photo-Secession Movement, burning, dodging, cropping, multiple exposures, and alternative printing processes helped achieve a more unrealistic photograph. Photographers also began to utilize several mediums to print photographs like sepia toning, platinum printing, and gelatin silver printing that all affected the photograph’s outcome. -
Political figures
Manipulation of photography in the 1930s often had to do with political figures. Regimes in this time period removed people who had fallen out of favor with the parties from photographs. Lenin and Stalin are both well-known for this practice. By doing this, these political figures attempted to change history to fit with their goals. This practice would be continued into the Cold War. -
Room with Eye
This photo, made by Maurice Tabard and Roger Parry, is clearly a manipulation. It is more “art” than realistic representation. They employed a soft focus and floating eye from two gelatin silver prints to break traditional rules of photography. -
Stalin
No stranger to removing people from photographs, Stalin removed Nikolai Yezhov, chief of the Soviet Union’s secret police, after falling out of favor with Stalin. This was common practice in the Soviet Union. “Enemies of the people” were removed from photographs in an attempt to remove them from history. -
Mao Tse-tung
This is another example of a powerful political figure trying to control his image through photo manipulation. Mao Tse-tung removed Po Ku from the photograph when he fell out of favor with the Chinese Chairman. -
Raising a Flag over the Reichstag
After the Battle of Berlin, Soviet photographer Yevgeny Khaldei staged a photo of Russian soldiers raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag in Germany. When it was discovered that a soldier in the photo was wearing two watches the Soviet Union doctored the photo to remove the watch. The second watch was thought to be a symbol of looting, which hurt the heroic message conveyed in the photo. -
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Damnatio Memoriae
During the Cold War governments continued the Lenin/Stalin style of photo manipulation, known as Damnatio Memoriae. Damnatio Memoriae is the process of removing images of prominent officials from public documents to promote a political objective. There are several examples of governments doing this throughout the Cold War, even with programs that were not explicitly political. -
Russian Cosmonauts
The Cosmonaut program was one of the most heavily photographically altered groups in the Soviet Union . Astronauts who had left the program for whatever reason (medical or ideological) and secret technology were often removed from photos . The constant editing of photos by the Soviet Union has created conspiracy theories over massive Soviet space failures, but those rumors have largely been disproved . A notable example of this photo alteration occurred during a photo-shoot in Sochi. -
Alexander Dubcek
Alexander Dubcek was a reformist Czech leader who was arrested by the Soviet Union and ultimately forced to resign in 1968 . Subsequently, the Czechoslovakian government removed him from official photos, including one of him with Czech leaders in Prague . -
Kent State Massacre
Another notable photo alteration of this time period occurred during the Kent State massacre. During the shooting, John Filo took a Pulitzer Prize winning picture of a grieving girl standing over a dead body . The original photograph featured a distracting pole above the girl’s head. Media organizations have removed the pole from the pictures in subsequent use. The removal of the post has been part of ethical controversies surrounding the editing of photographs in American photojournalism. -
Gang of Four
When Mao Tse-tung died a power struggle resulted in the arrest of four political leaders in Communist China. After the arrests, the four members were removed from official photos. Mao’s widow, a member of the gang of four, was even removed from biological depictions of Mao’s life. -
Invention of Photoshop: 1988-1990
In September 1988, the Knoll brothers' created a demo of Photoshhop and pitched it to Adobe's internal creative team. It was well-received and a license agreement was struck soon after. There was a delay in production until 1990 when Photoshop 1.0 was shipped after 10 months of development. -
Oprah Winfrey:1989
In 1989 a cover of the TV Guide featured Oprah Winfrey. However, under closer examination it could be seen that Oprah's head was edited onto the body of actress Ann-Margret. The image was created without the permission of Oprah or Ann-Margaret at the time and became a large issue of controversy. -
OJ Simpson: 1994
Similar to the Oprah controversy, a photograph of OJ Simpson appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1994 that had been digitally altered. Shortly after Simpson’s arrest for murder, his mugshot was released and was shown on the cover of Newsweek. Later, Time ran the same image but was accused of manipulating the photograph to make Simpson appear “darker” and “menacing”. -
British Soldier in Basra: 2003
An image of a British soldier in Basra was taken gesturing to Iraqi civilians urging them to seek cover. This image appeared on the front page of the Los Angeles Times shortly after the U.S. led invasion of Iraq. Brian Walski, a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times and a 30-year veteran of the news business, was fired after his editors discovered that he had combined two of his photographs to “improve” the composition. The altering of the image gained immense controversy. -
Ralph Lauren: 2009
In 2009 Ralph Lauren ran an ad that portrayed Filippa Hamilton with extreme body proportions. The public backlashed to these unrealistic features and a Ralph Lauren representative came clean to "poor imaging and retouching", and added, "we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging." Ralph Lauren later recalled the ad.
