Infamously Altered Photos, Before and After Their Edits

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/bronx-documentary-center-infamously-altered-photos-edits/?mbid=social_fb 
Photographers have been altering images long before Photoshop. One of the earliest examples of international photojournalism–Crimean War photographer Roger Fenton’s 1855 image of a bombed-out landscape in Ukraine–was staged. “This [photograph] is the granddaddy of [what] we do,” says veteran photojournalist Michael Kamber, “and yet there’s a version with cannonballs on the road and a version without cannonballs.”
Kamber has curated an exhibit of more than 40 doctored photos in Altered Images: 150 Years of Posed and Manipulated Documentary Photography at The Bronx Documentary Center. The show digs through history to highlight images that broke the basic rules of photojournalism: Don’t direct the scene; don’t drastically alter in the post-processing; and don’t change the context in the captions. The images underscore the elusive, slippery quality of truth when it comes to photography.

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October, 2012, National Review. This cover features Barack Obama delivering a speech at the DNC. The cheering crowd waves blue signs saying “ABORTION” when in the original photo the signs read “FORWARD.” Bronx Documentary Center

Some examples are obvious deceptions. In 1945, Russian photographer Yevgeny Khaldei had his uncle sew a Communist flag from an old tablecloth, then flew to the defeated German capital of Berlin just to take a picture of Soviet soldiers raising it symbolically over the Reichstag. In 2008, The Korean Central News Agency released a photo of Kim Jong-il digitally inserted in front of Korean troops, even though he was rumored to be deathly ill at the time. And in 2012, National Review published a cover showing President Obama speaking to crowd at the Democratic National Convention, all holding blue “ABORTION” signs which originally read “FORWARD.” The photograph was attributed to Reuters, but National Review publisher Jack Fowler later admitted they altered the signs.
More often that not, marketing is why photographs get altered–especially when it comes to magazine covers optimized for newsstand sales. In one of the first major cases of digital manipulation, National Geographic squeezed a photograph of the Pyramids of Giza so the whole scene would fit on its 1982 cover. When this action came to light, it deeply embarrassed the publication. TIME had a similar situation with its OJ Simpson cover in 1994. It featured a mugshot of the subject weirdly darkened to evoke a “dramatic tone,” as TIME’s photo illustrator Matt Mahurin later explained. It might have been an error in judgement–given the racially charged environment surrounding the murder–but was it actually wrong? Photographers use lighting to set a mood, and cover images have to be powerful if they’re going to grab readers’ attention. Where is the line?

Photographers use lighting to set a mood, and cover images have to be powerful if they’re going to grab readers' attention. Where is the line?

Whether a magazine cover or a documentary image, Kamber believes it isn’t acceptable to alter a photo. “People have to be able to believe, ‘I’m seeing this picture, this picture was vetted by a professional, it really happened, and it happened as I’m seeing it in front of me,'” he says. “Once you start making it permissible that editors and photographers can change things, you get to a point where nothing means anything anymore. What are you going to believe in? You have to question every single magazine or newspaper photo that you see.”
This becomes especially true when a photo can be drastically altered with a click of a mouse, making it even more tempting to make small (and large) improvements. Journalism ethics have given way to getting images out first and fast.
Kamber thinks one way to minimize the problem is for established professionals to do a better job of mentoring the next generation so that journalistic images remain as close to reality as possible. “When I was starting out, I would come in with a roll of negatives and my editor would see the whole roll,” Kamber says. “A lot of photographers are out there on their own and I think they do want to get it right. We need to give them the means to do that.”
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Caption: November 2008. Kim Jong-il poses with soldiers of the 534th unit of the People’s Army. Western publications suspected Jong-il was digitally inserted into the photo. Rumors had been circulating that he had fallen ill or died, but the Korea Central News Agency released images showing their leader healthy and active. He was publicly declared dead six weeks later. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP

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Caption: June 2010, The Economist. President Barack Obama stands alone on a Louisiana beach examining the aftermath of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center

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Caption: June 2010, The Economist. In the original photo, President Obama is standing next to two other people who were digitally removed and cropped from the cover. Deputy editor Emma Duncan admitted to and defended the manipulation. Duncan said “ [she] wanted readers to focus on Mr. Obama, not because [she] wanted to make him look isolated.” LARRY DOWNING/Reuters/Corbis

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Caption: July 2008, Iran. Released by the official online news site of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the photo was published in numerous American news outlets as an example of missile testing in the Iranian desert. Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center

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Caption: July 2008, Iran. In reality, only three of the four missiles launched successfully. The failed missile was masked out for publication. Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center

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Caption: August 2006, Beirut, Lebanon. Adnan Hajj, a Lebanese freelance photographer for Reuters, used Photoshop to clone and darken the smoke to exaggerate bombing damage by Israeli warplanes. After the manipulation was uncovered, Reuters immediately fired Hajj and withdrew his 920 photos from their database. Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center

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Caption: June 1994, TIME. This cover featuring OJ Simpson was significantly darkened by photo illustrator Matt Mahurin. The photo angered a lot of people, as the case was already heavy with racial tension. TIME’s editor made a public statement that “no racial implication was intended, by TIME or by the artist.” Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center

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Caption: August 1989, TV Guide. In this image, the head of Oprah Whinfrey was grafted onto the body of ‘60s movie star Ann-Margaret. The image was created and published without the actress or the dress designer’s consent. Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center

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Caption: November 1982, National Geographic. This cover is one the earliest well-known cases of digital photo manipulation. The magazine’s photo editors condensed the image to fit the cover, bringing the two pyramids closer together. Photographer Gordan Gahan complained about the change. Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center

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Caption: May 1945, Berlin, Germany. Red Army soldiers raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag (parliament) as they defeat Hitler’s Army. This photo became a WWII icon and one of the most widely published war photos of all time. Yevgeny Khaldei/Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center

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Caption: May 1945, Berlin, Germany. Yevgeny Khaldei, a Soviet Army photographer in Moscow, had his uncle sew a tablecloth into a large Russian flag. Khaldei then flew to Berlin and took soldiers onto the Reichstag roof and had them pose in a journalistic fashion. Dark clouds of smoke were added to a later version of the photo. When asked about the manipulation, Khaldei responded, “It is a good photograph and historically significant. Next question please.” Yevgeny Khaldei/Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center

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Caption: 1855, Ukraine. Taken during the Crimean War, Roger Fenton’s photo of cannonballs scattered across a battlefield is one of the earliest and most famous images of war. Fenton took two photos from the same vantage point that day, one with cannonballs strewn across the road and one where they are in a ditch. It’s been suspected that Fenton placed them in the road for a more dramatic picture. Roger Fenton/SSPL/Getty Images

Altered Images: 150 Years of Posed and Manipulated Documentary Photography is showing at The Bronx Documentary Center until August 2.