Photos are two-dimensional images of three dimensional reality; by definition, they are distortions. I have numerous photos of my girlfriend, all taken within a year of each other, and it is amazing how many different looks she has. She can look 25 and slender, middle-aged and chubby, look like a total fox, look frumpy, look light-hearted, look serious, be wearing glasses or without glasses, and so on. These are not doctored photos, yet if I posted them on here, and if she were a liberal politician, people would probably say they were photo shopped because she looks so different from one photo to the next. It is the nature of photography to flatten and distort reality. And when you are looking at grainy, 30-year-old pics that have maybe been reproduced and copied many times, the distortions are even worse.
OK Steve, I think we all get your point.