Some faked photos

Of course, fakery is sometimes a way of illuminating truth . . .

I'll post some more, when I can, having trouble with maintaining a connection, on scientific photography, and of course, spirit photography as well as a synopsis of my thoughts on real photography and truth.

Above: c.1860. This portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a composite of Lincoln’s head and the Southern politician John Calhoun’s body. Technique of Fakery: Composite Images, Drawn-in Details.


 

IN THIS PHOTO BY MATHEW BRADY, GENERAL SHERMAN IS SEEN POSING WITH HIS GENERALS. GENERAL FRANCIS P. BLAIR (FAR RIGHT) WAS ADDED TO THE ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH.

C. 1864. THIS PRINT PURPORTS TO BE OF GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT IN FRONT OF HIS TROOPS AT CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. IT IS A COMPOSITE OF THREE SEPARATE PRINTS:

Photography lost its innocence many years ago. Only a few decades after Niepce created the first photograph in 1814, photographs were already being manipulated”

- Hany Farid professor of computer science at Dartmouth College. I lead the image science group whose research focuses on topics in digital forensics, image analysis, computer vision, and human perception

With thanks to howtobearetronaut.com


From the museumofhoaxes.com

Portrait of the Photographer as a Drowned Man - Hippolyte Bayard

 

 Technique of Fakery: False Caption, Staged Scene.


During the 1830s there was a race among inventors to be the first to perfect the photographic process. Louis Daguerre won the race (at least, he was the first to patent a process) and gained all the glory. This left some other inventors feeling bitter. Frenchman Hippolyte Bayard had independently invented a rival photographic process known as direct positive printing, and had done so as early as Daguerre, but his invention didn't earn him fame and riches. Frustrated, he created a photograph to express his feelings. It showed himself pretending to be a suicide victim. He wrote an explanatory note on the back of it:

The corpse which you see here is that of M. Bayard, inventor of the process that has just been shown to you. As far as I know this indefatigable experimenter has been occupied for about three years with his discovery. The Government which has been only too generous to Monsieur Daguerre, has said it can do nothing for Monsieur Bayard, and the poor wretch has drowned himself. Oh the vagaries of human life....! ... He has been at the morgue for several days, and no-one has recognized or claimed him. Ladies and gentlemen, you'd better pass along for fear of offending your sense of smell, for as you can observe, the face and hands of the gentleman are beginning to decay.

So while Bayard is not remembered as the first to invent photography, he is remembered for a different kind of first — the first to fake a photograph.

Despite his frustration at being underappreciated, Bayard continued to be a productive photographer. Two years later, in recognition of his contributions, he was given a prize of 3000 francs by the Societe d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale.

References:
Hippolyte Bayard. Wikipedia.
Lester, P. (1991). Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 91-92.

Street Urchins with Chestnuts

 Technique of Fakery: Staged Scene, Movable Prop.                           

 A street urchin tosses a chestnut in the air as his bored companion looks on. It may look like a real-life scene caught by the camera, but in fact it is staged. Cameras were too slow in the 1850s to record something as quick-moving as a tossed chestnut. Therefore Oscar Rejlander (who is sometimes called the Father of Art Photography) suspended a chestnut in mid-air with a piece of fine thread in order to create the scene. The thread is barely visible if you examine a larger version of the picture.

References:
Lester, P. (1991). Photojournalism: An Ethical Approach. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 92.

A Sharpshooter’s Last Sleep

Technique of Fakery: Staged Scene, Movable Prop.




Alexander Gardner and his assistants took a series of photographs showing the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg. These photos were published in Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War, a work which proved very influential in defining the image of the Civil War for many Americans.

But in 1961 Frederic Ray, art director of the Civil War Times, noticed that two of the photographs, taken in different locations on the battlefield, appeared to show the same corpse. In one scene (top) a Confederate soldier's corpse lay on the southern slope of Devil's Den. Gardner had captioned this photo "A Sharpshooter's Last Sleep."

But in another scene (bottom) the body had moved forty yards to a rocky niche. Gardner captioned this photo "The Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter." Apparently Gardner had moved the soldier's corpse to the rocky outcropping for the sake of creating a more dramatic image. He even turned the soldier's head to face the camera and leaned a gun against the rocks.

Although Gardner identified the soldier as a sharpshooter, the weapon beside him is not a sharpshooter's rifle. It was probably a prop, placed there by Gardner.

References:
Moving the Body, Hoaxipedia article.
The Case of the Moved Body, Library of Congress.
Ray. F. (Oct 1961). "The Case of the Rearranged Corpse." Civil War Times. 3(6): 19.

Dickens in America - Technique of Fakery: Drawn-in Details.


In 1867 the popular author Charles Dickens toured the United States. His tour manager signed an agreement with the New York photographers Jeremiah Gurney & Son, assuring them they would have the exclusive right to photograph Dickens during his visit. However, in December 1867 the New York Daily Tribune proudly announced it had persuaded the author to sit for a photo at the Mathew Brady studio on Broadway. The public was invited to go view the portrait (top). This prompted a protest from the Gurneys who denounced the Brady photo as a fake. Modern research indicates the Gurneys were right.

Historian Malcolm Andrews discovered that somehow the Mathew Brady studio had obtained an 1861 portrait of Dickens (middle) taken by the Watkins brothers in England. It was a portrait Dickens had never liked, privately remarking that he looked "grim and wasted" in it. But the Brady studio tidied it up, offering an early example of what was possible, even in the 1860s, with darkroom techniques.

The Brady studio thickened and combed the author's hair, smoothed his face, gave him a stylish mustache, and added a buttonhole to his lapel as well as a dress-shirt front. The result was a significantly fresher-looking Dickens. The Daily Tribune promised its readers that the portrait showed "Mr. Dickens just as he is in his readings."

In reality, Dickens looked quite different, because by 1867 he had lost much of the hair he had in 1861. The bottom photo, taken by the Gurney studio, shows what Dickens actually looked like during his American tour.


References:

• Andrews, M. (2004). "Mathew Brady's Portrait of Dickens: 'a fraud and imposition on the public'?" History of Photography. 28(4): 375-379.