Youn Jung Choi (Yuna)
LIS 471 Management of Photographical Archives
Photography
changes everything: Photo Manipulation
Introduction
Photo manipulation has a long history from
the invention of photography. Daguerreotype, the first commercial type of
photography, also went through some retouching process. Since the early photo
process could only express monotone color, photographers painted color on the
photo to make the pictures more vivid and vibrant.
<Man by Fehrenbach: A quarter plate English tinted daguerreotype of a man with a daguerreotype on the table.>[1]
However, people sometimes did not
manipulate photo images for good reasons, simply improving the image. One of
the famous examples is the case of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths. Two
young girls who lived in Yorkshire, England claimed that they took a picture of
live fairies in 1917. People continued arguing the authenticity of the photo
until Elsie and Frances confessed their mischief in 1983.[3] They had
manipulated the photo to trick people.
Shift
to the digital world
After the invention of digital photography
and image editing programs like “Photoshop,” it became much easier to
manipulate photo images. As the technology has developed, the retouched photo
images are becoming more natural and harder to recognize. From a minimum touch,
like adjusting color balance or contrast, to completely creating a whole new
image, we encounter edited images everywhere. For example, it is essential for
entertainment, including movies as well as visual advertisements. Some images
like below cannot be made without image editing programs.
<title: Summer time London
description: It’s summer time in
London.. (eurostar) hilarious creative barber commercial.
user: Randy Orton [randyorton] country:
United States date: Jun 2nd, 2008>[4]
<Photoshop Lady-Awesome Avatar
Transformation using Photoshop>[5]
However, there are also dark sides of
photo manipulation. People can use photo editing to distort the truth or
influence people to have a slanted view.
-Political
Photo Manipulation
As Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine pointed out
earlier, the leverage which photo images has is enormous. Most of the time, an image
is more eloquent and effective than written or spoken word.[6] Because
of this characteristic, many politicians have used photo images for propaganda purposes,
censorship purposes or making good images of themselves.
<The
case of Nikolai Yezhov>[7]
Political photo manipulation caused by censorship
was especially enacted under governance of the Soviet Union. Many politicians
and key personnel were removed from photo images after they were purged. One
famous example is the case of “Nikolai Yezhov.”
Nikolai Yezhov, who is standing on the right
side of Stalin in the upper picture, was a member of the Presidium Central
Executive Committee. He led and conducted purges of hundreds of thousands of
people in the name of elimination of disloyalty to Stalin’s government. Ironically,
Nikolai Yezhov himself also fell out of Stalin's favour and was executed in
1940.[8] After
his death, the photo was retouched and his figure was removed as if he did not
exist from the beginning. This picture shows the representative case of damnatio
memoriae, which means "condemnation of memory" in the sense of a
judgment that a person must not be remembered.[9]
<The
portrait photography of Abraham Lincoln>[10]
A well-known example of photo
manipulation for image making is the portrait photography of Abraham Lincoln. The
body of Abraham Lincoln in the left image is in fact the Southern politician
John Calhoun’s body (right image). This photo manipulation was made by piecing
together multiple negatives to give more authoritative impression to the public.[11]
-Journalism
News media also have conducted photo
manipulations for more dramatic effects and impressions. One famous example is
the case of O.J. Simpson. In 1994, Orenthal James Simpson was arrested on the suspicion
of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Among multiple
publications that carried his mugshot, TIME
Magazine altered the color saturation which made the skin color darker and burned
out the corner of the image, giving a more negative impression.[12]
<O.J. Simpson mugshot>[13]
Another case of media photo manipulation
for dramatic effect is the Lebanon War photograph in 2006. The right image of an
IDF (Israel Defense Forces) attack on Beirut photographed by Adnan Hajj turned
out to be photoshopped. Compared to the original photo (left image), the
manipulated image had darker and thicker smoke. Adnan Hajj made an excuse that
he was trying to remove "dust marks,” not intentionally manipulating the
image. However, Reuters admitted the
fault and published the corrected version of the image.[14]
<
2006 Lebanon War photograph>[15]
-Fashion
and Celebrities
Fashion photography is one of the areas in
which photo manipulation is most frequently conducted. Flawless skin and
perfect body shape of cover models and celebrities are usually the result of
photoshopping.
Madonna, the pop queen, had some issues
of retouching images. In 2008, she released Hard
Candy, her eleventh studio album, and her face and body on the album were unbelievably
perfect even though she was fifty years old at that time.[16] The
left photo is the original photo and the right photo is the released album
photo which has been photoshopped.
<the photosopped image of
Madonna>[17]
There are hundreds and thousands of
manipulated pictures of celebrities. They have flawless skin without any
wrinkles, freckles, blemishes and perfect shapes without extra fat or a flat
chest.
<photosopped image of a model>[18]
<Keira
Knightley, the movie King Arthur(2004) poster> [19]
These unrealistic images could bring
about distorted aesthetic consciousness, especially in teenagers. The preference
for a skinny body forces girls to lose weight excessively
and this tendency even causes eating disorders or plastic surgery addictions. Fortunately,
several celebrities, including Keira Knightley whose poster is above, rejected
photoshopping to resist the distorted images of the body. [20]
Conclusion
Nowadays, it has become so easy to
manipulate photo images by using software like Photoshop. However, image
editing did exist even in 19th century. The history of photo
manipulation started with the invention of photography. As mentioned before,
the influence of images is enormous, so manipulation attempts were conducted to
make the image more appealing to persuade people or insist on certain opinions.
What makes this problem more complex is
that sometimes it is hard to tell whether it is intentional manipulation or not.
Photography without any retouching also already has the subjective photographer’s
view. As John Szarkowski argued in The
Photographer’s Eye, a photographer chooses the subject, the detail, the
frame, the time, and the vantage point.[21] The photographer might intentionally subtract some
object out of the frame to strengthen his opinion. Light and angle are also main
factors which can alter the intention of the image dramatically. In other
words, there are always possibilities to skew the reality outside of retouching
by software.
Therefore, there are codes of ethics for
photographers. The NPPA Code of Ethics says “visual journalists and those who
manage visual news productions must be accurate and comprehensive in the
representation of subjects and resist being manipulated by staged photo
opportunities.”[22]
Nowadays, we cannot imagine images
without editing and it is not always deceptive. Photo image editing can maximize
the effect of the photo and create an image which cannot exist in the real
world. The important thing is that when the image is manipulated, the fact
should be clearly stated and photographers know the influence of photo images
and must follow the code of ethics.
Bibliography
-Margery Long and Lynn Ritzenthaler.
Photographs Archival Care and Management. Chicago: Society of American
Archivists, 2006.
-“5 Celebrities Rejecting Hollywood's
Photoshop Fever.” DoSomething.org.
-“Adnan Hajj photographs controversy.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Hajj.
-“Awesome Avatar Transformation using
Photoshop." PhotoshopLady.com.
-“Censorship of images in the Soviet
Union.” Wikipedia.
-“Damnatio memoriae.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damnatio_memoriae.
-“English daguerreotypes.”
Dagurreotype.nl.
-“funny pic.” Funnypictures.com.
-“Lincoln photo manipulation using
Calhoun’s body.” Jess Benson URBAN to RURAL.
-“Photo manipulation.” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_manipulation.
-“The naked truth: Madonna without
Photoshop.” celebrityfix.
[1] “English daguerreotypes,” Dagurreotype.nl,
http://www.daguerreotype.nl/english_daguerreotypes/english.html.
[3] Margery Long and Lynn Ritzenthaler, Photographs Archival Care and Management (Chicago: Society of
American Archivists, 2006), 8.
[4] “funny pic,” Funnypictures.com,
http://www.funnyartpictures.com/pics-funny-stuff/?pictures/signs-ads/summer-time-london.html.
[5] “Awesome Avatar Transformation using Photoshop," PhotoshopLady.com, http://www.photoshoplady.com/photoshop-tutorial/awesome-avatar-transformation-using-photoshop/.
[6] Margery Long and Lynn Ritzenthaler, Photographs Archival Care and Management (Chicago: Society of
American Archivists, 2006), 11.
[16] “The naked truth: Madonna without Photoshop,” celebrityfix, http://celebrities.ninemsn.com.au/?blogentryid=283278&showcomments=true.
[17] “Google image search,” Google.com,
http://www.google.com/search?q=celebrity+photoshop&hl=ko&sa=X&biw=1012&bih=476&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=xf9hUYrYGsnA4AObjICoAQ&ved=0CDIQsAQ#hl=ko&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=celebrity+photoshop+before+and+after&oq=celebrity+photoshop+before&gs_l=img.3.0.0i19l2.1168655.1169902.0.1171845.7.2.0.5.5.0.123.193.1j1.2.0...0.0...1c.1.8.img.bvBv_ZM0OaE&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44770516,d.dmg&fp=1bc42dea9b3c4592&biw=1093&bih=514
[20] “5 Celebrities Rejecting Hollywood's Photoshop Fever,” DoSomething.org, http://www.dosomething.org/news/5-celebrities-rejecting-hollywoods-photoshop-fever
[21] Margery Long and Lynn Ritzenthaler, Photographs Archival Care and Management (Chicago: Society of
American Archivists, 2006), 6-7.
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