Top 10 Doctored Photos

Time ^ | 9-16-2009 | none given

[DukeBillie]

Civil War Generals, c. 1865 Generally regarded as the world's first commercially successful photojournalist, Matthew Brady was also one of the medium's most accomplished manipulators. In this group portrait of William Tecumseh Sherman and his top officers, he added one figure. For the record, the men are, standing, from left: Oliver Otis Howard, William Babcock Hazen, Jefferson Columbus Davis and Joseph Anthony Mower; seated, from left: John Alexander Logan, Sherman, Henry Warner Slocum and Francis P. Blair.

The Original Image: Brady added Blair at the far right. One of Sherman's corps commanders in the critical final offensive in Georgia, Blair led the XVII Corps, which protected the rear of Sherman's army during the Atlanta campaign. Like the other men in the photo, he played an important role in the March to the Sea, helping deliver one of the final blows to the Confederate cause.

[DukeBillie]

The Matthew Brady photo is amazingly well done considering it was before photoshop. He added both a person and a curtain.

The article shows more historical doctored photographs of Lenin, Hitler, the Beatles, Oprah Winfrey, North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, and others. My favorite is Oprah's head on Ann-Margaret's body - like anyone would believe THAT.

[cripplecreek]

[La Lydia]

The Oprah one is really a scream. Also, at the time I wondered if those Iranian missile photos hadn’t bee doctored.

[ez]

Do they have Algore with his airbrushed package?

[cripplecreek]

The Iranian missiles were an obvious photoshop job. This is the first time I’ve seen the originals with an explanation of why.

[Carpe Cerevisi]

[Jedidah]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting. Brady was, indeed, a master of his craft, considering the technology available at the time.

[a fool in paradise]

Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

Well there was Vanity Fair's fake:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0202061vietnam1.html

And Time-Lies photoshopped this:

And a hired journalist/artist photographer photoshopped this:

And USA Ptooey photoshopped this:

And the LAtte Times photoshopped this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030409.htm

And the Daily Mirror ran a staged photo of a British soldier (NOT in Iraq) urinating on a man the press claimed was an Iraqi prisoner (he was not).

http://www.stinkyjournalism.org/editordetail.php?id=294

But let's pretend that the media doesn't play these games in the West to slur our military efforts as they engage in naked treason.

[bolobaby]

[a fool in paradise]

They also "forgot" this photo composite made with MS-Word, a scanner, and a fax machine.

[ctdonath2]

[a fool in paradise]

The press ran them as genuine. Bloggers/pajama people exposed the hoax.

The pravda media lies daily.

[NCC-1701]

They had to co-op the body of a white woman, and a dam#ed fine looking one at that, to sell Øprah magazines. Wouldn’t that be in some way racist?

[a fool in paradise]

Not a photoshop, this is just the Presstitutes playing their tricks to deceive the public and make them think that Tommy Dasshole is taller than he really is.

[dead]

They left out the famous skinny Katie Couric doctoring:

[a fool in paradise]

Hey now, there are plenty of fat white women who photoshop too:

[a fool in paradise]

There is another Beatles image they could've used. Blame the damned Smoking Nazis stamping out all historical images of cigarettes.

(the second image is from a 1984 release)

[dead]

The following photo has been certified as undoctored by the Dan Rather Institute of Trueness:

[a fool in paradise]

Contribute your favorites they missed.

[KarlInOhio]

:p

Seriously, I remember one of Stalin with three people, then with two, then with one, and finally Stalin alone as the other three fell out of favor. Sorry, I couldn't find it in a hurry.

[dfwgator]

The “Dead Kennedys” logo in the back was a nice touch.

[discostu]

My personal favorite, it’s the background on my Harmony remote control.

[ssaftler]

[ctdonath2]

Brilliant catch! Something about that symbol was gnawing at the back of my mind, but just didn’t realize it was part of the fake.

[dfwgator]

[Tublecane]

I find the list wildly unbalanced, and unfairly favoring the last few years. I mean, really, who cares that much about Martha Stewart?

[CharlesWayneCT]

Time is so stupid. They couldn’t realise that a photo-essay of doctored photos, would only be useful if they put the pictures side-by-side, instead of requiring a page re-load....

[ctdonath2]

Tourist Guy (photo from World Trade Center observation deck)

[uncitizen]

That was very cool, but i agree the Matthew Brady one has to be the most immpressive!

[ctdonath2]

Honorable Mention goes to the plethora of doctored photos playing the meme "All Your Base Are Belong To Us".

[BlueStateBlues]

This thread can become a classic if everyone keeps going. Can it be BTTT?

[a fool in paradise]

Well, if we are going to consider staged photos:

[a fool in paradise]

And this isn't a faked photo, just a picture of a fake soldier and lousy mayor:

[razorback-bert]

ping me

[Huck]

That one is amazing.

[jaydubya2]

[dfwgator]

[KarlInOhio]

Time is so stupid. They couldn’t realise that a photo-essay of doctored photos, would only be useful if they put the pictures side-by-side, instead of requiring a page re-load....

They want twice (or more) as many pageviews for twice as many ads. The news is just there to get you to read the ads. Why do you think so many paper newspaper/magazine stories are not on a continuous list of pages?

[jaydubya2]

LOL!

[Liberty Valance]

one of my fav's ...



Harry and Nancy at the nighthawk ;o)

Props to Andy.

[BuffaloJack]

I like the magnet. It’s a nice touch.

[ctdonath2]

The trick is sticking with GREAT doctored photos - fakes which impacted society to a non-trivial degree.

#6 caused a brief stir in international news, depicting a captured US soldier until someone pointed out the photo was of a toy.

#9 provided circumstantial evidence that something is wrong with the Obama’s eligibility for President (why post a lame fake as proof of eligibility when the real thing would resolve the issue in minutes for a few dollars?).

#10 ended Dan Rather’s long career as top news spokesman.

#11 was the first great “photoshop job”. Obvious fake/funny, but showed how a very convincing fake could be made in minutes.

#28 was allegedly found in the 9/11 WTC rubble and was a sentimental news hit - until proven a fake.

#30 became one of the great modern Internet fads.

Others above are notable for being outrageous for gall to fake & publish so publicly, but did not have quite the resounding cultural impact.

[a fool in paradise]

More photoshop:

[freedomlover]

That wins my vote hands down. That has always made me LOL.

Roland D-80 LOL

[trisham]

LOL!

[dfwgator]

[a fool in paradise]

#11 may or may not be a photoshop composite but the original concept of that was cranked out in the 1980s (that may be a revisit of it, I don’t know).

[ctdonath2]

Be sure to print & post a copy on a wall on November 24th.

[Red in Blue PA]

ROFL!

[trisham]

It’s amazing. :)