Photographic fraud: it’s been with us all along

World Press Photo announced recently that photographer Stepan Rudik, who received third prize in the Sport Feature Stories category of the competition, had his award revoked for excessive digital manipulation. Organisers compared one of Rudik’s winning submissions to its RAW file following a complaint from the Ukrainian Photography Union, and he was ultimately disqualified for excising part of a foot and its owner from one of his pictures (compare them here).

While the competition rules are simple enough, and Rudik himself accepts the decision, some dissent evidently exists. The essence of the counter-arguement is a debate over how journalism and artistic license should co-exist; that the final work is the product of the artist’s vision.

But we are of course talking about visual journalism here, not art photography so while it might make for an engrossing debating subject for some, this sort of subversion of the truth simply never flies in professional circles and is the sort of act that has cost its perpetrators their jobs time and time again.

But fraud in photography was not born out of the digital era – we can trace it back as far as 1860, only 38 years after the very first negative was exposed and there’s been a litany of lies told since.

While digital technology has made doctoring pictures into an art form in its own right, manipulation to deceive is at least now an out and out social taboo. Not so long ago the most grotesque adjustments and alterations could be made by photographers, editors and publishers in complete ignorance of the gravity of those decisions, for they didn’t look upon the photography in their publications as a record of a moment, but merely a decoration and an embellishment to the words. Times have changed – most major publications and all of the wire services now have clear policies that govern the use of post production tools like Photoshop, and leave no doubt in the minds of those tempted to violate them as to what the result will be. The status of photography as journalism is to that extent confirmed, and to doctor pictures is no less an evil to writing lies.

The digital era makes it easier to alter photographs but it also makes it harder to get away with. Most published pictures now find their way onto the internet which means that sometime, somewhere, someone in a position to verify its veracity will do so.

Here’s a compilation of examples that Dartmouth University pulled together, and you can see dozens more of them at The Hoax Photo Archive.

1860

This nearly iconic portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a composite of Lincoln’s head and the Southern politician John Calhoun’s body.

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.

1865

General Sherman with his Generals.

1930

Stalin routinely air-brushed his enemies out of photographs.

1963

In this doctored photograph, Mao Tse-tung (right) had Po Ku (left) removed from the original photograph, after Po Ku fell out of favour with Mao.

1937

In this doctored photograph, Adolf Hitler had Joseph Goebbels (second from the right) removed from the original.

1939

Queen Elizabeth and Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King in Banff, Alberta.

1942

In order to create a more heroic portrait of himself, Benito Mussolini had the horse handler removed from the original photograph.

1950

It is believed that this doctored photograph contributed to Senator Millard Tydings’ electoral defeat in 1950.

1960

In 1960 the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia to win its first Olympic gold medal in hockey. The official team photo was doctored to include the faces of Bill Cleary (front row, third from the left), Bob Cleary (middle row, far left) and John Mayasich (top row, far left), who were not present for the team photo. These players were superimposed onto the bodies of players Bob Dupuis, Larry Alm and Herb Brooks, respectively.

1968

When in the summer of 1968 Fidel Castro approved of the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, Carlos Franqui cuts off relations with the regime and went into exile in Italy. His image was removed from photographs.

1970

This Pulitzer Prize winning photo by John Filo shows Mary Ann Vecchio screaming as she kneels over the body of student Jeffrey Miller at Kent State University, where National Guardsmen had fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine. When this photo was published in LIFE Magazine, the fence post directly behind Vecchio was removed.

1971

The German Chancellor of West Germany, Willy Brandt (far left), meets with Leonid Brezhnev (far right), First Secretary of the Communist Party. The two smoke and drink, and it is reported that the atmosphere is cordial and that they are drunk. The German press published a photograph that showed the champagne bottles on the table.

1976

The so called “Gang of Four” were removed from this original photograph of a memorial ceremony for Mao Tse-Tung held at Tiananmen Square.

1982

In this National Geographic magazine cover story on Egypt by Gorden Gahen, the Great Pyramid of Giza was digitally moved to fit the magazine’s vertical format. Tom Kennedy, who became the director of photography at National Geographic after the cover was manipulated, stated that “We no longer use that technology to manipulate elements in a photo simply to achieve a more compelling graphic effect. We regarded that afterwards as a mistake, and we wouldn’t repeat that mistake today”.

1989

The cover of TV Guide displayed this picture of daytime talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. This picture was created by splicing the head of Winfrey onto the body of actress Ann-Margret, taken from a 1979 publicity shot. The composite was created without permission of Winfrey or Ann-Margret, and was detected by Ann-Margret’s fashion designer, who recognized the dress.

1994

This digital composite of Olympic ice skaters Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan appeared on the cover of New York Newsday. The picture showed the rivals practicing together, shortly after an attack on Kerrigan by an associate of Harding’s husband. The picture caption reads: “Tonya Harding, left, and Nancy Kerrigan, appear to skate together in this New York Newsday composite illustration. Tomorrow, they’ll really take to the ice together.”

This digitally altered photograph of OJ Simpson appeared on the cover of Time magazine shortly after Simpson’s arrest for murder. This photograph was manipulated from the original mug-shot that appeared, unaltered, on the cover of Newsweek. Time magazine was subsequently accused of manipulating the photograph to make Simpson appear “darker” and “menacing”.

1997

After 58 tourists were killed in a terrorist attack at the temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor Egypt, the Swiss tabloid Blick digitally altered a puddle of water to appear as blood flowing from the temple.

This digitally altered photograph of Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine shortly after Bobbi gave birth to septuplets. This photograph was manipulated from the original that appeared, unaltered, on the cover of Time magazine. Newsweek manipulated the photograph to make Bobbi’s teeth straighter and “more attractive”.

2000

Hoping to illustrate its diverse enrollment, the University of Wisconsin at Madison doctored a photograph on a brochure cover by digitally inserting a black student in a crowd of white football fans. The original photograph of white fans was taken in 1993. The additional black student, senior Diallo Shabazz, was taken in 1994. University officials said that they spent the summer looking for pictures that would show the school’s diversity – but had no luck.

2003

This digital composite of a British soldier in Basra, gesturing to Iraqi civilians urging them to seek cover, appeared on the front page of the Los Angeles Times shortly after the U.S. led invasion of Iraq. Brian Walski, a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times was fired after his editors discovered that he had combined two of his photographs to “improve” the composition.

This cover of GQ magazine featured a digitally slimmed actress Kate Winslet. Winslet said that the retouching was “excessive.” “I don’t look like that and more importantly I don’t desire to look like that. I can tell you that they’ve reduced the size of my legs by about a third”, said Winslet.

The original copy of the Beatles Abbey Road album cover shows Paul McCartney, third in line, holding a cigarette. United States poster companies have airbrushed this image to remove the cigarette from McCartney’s hand.

2004

This digital composite of Senator John Kerry and Jane Fonda sharing a stage at an anti-war rally emerged during the 2004 Presidential primaries as Senator Kerry was campaigning for the Democratic nomination. The picture of Senator Kerry was captured by photographer Ken Light as Kerry was preparing to give a speech at the Register for Peace Rally held in Mineola, New York, in June 1971. The picture of Jane Fonda was captured by Owen Franken as Fonda was speaking at a political rally in Miami Beach, Florida, in August 1972.

This political ad for George W. Bush, as he was running for President, shows a sea of soldiers as a back drop to a child holding a flag. This image was digitally doctored by copying and pasting several soldiers to digitally remove Bush from a podium. After acknowledging that the photo had been doctored, the Bush campaign said that the ad would be re-edited and re-shipped to TV stations.

2005

A political video produced by the Republican National Committee depicts a U.S. solider watching a television where Democratic leaders are speaking critically of the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq.

This digital composite of Martha Stewart’s head on a model’s body appeared on the cover of Newsweek as Stewart was emerging from prison “thinner, wealthier and ready for prime time”, as the headline reads. Newsweek disclosed the source of the cover image on Page 3 with the lines: “Cover: Photo illustration by Michael Elins … head shot by Marc Bryan-Brown.”

This doctored photo of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared alongside a USA Today news story about Rice’s comments to U.S. Lawmakers regarding U.S. Troops in Iraq. After receiving complaints from readers, this photograph was removed from USA Today’s website, and the following Editor’s note appeared alongside a ”properly adjusted copy”: Photos published online are routinely cropped for size and adjusted for brightness and sharpness to optimize their appearance. In this case, after sharpening the photo for clarity, the editor brightened a portion of Rice’s face, giving her eyes an unnatural appearance. This resulted in a distortion of the original not in keeping with our editorial standards.

2006

This photograph, showing two police officers standing by as prostitutes in Cuba hail a foreign tourist, appeared in the El Nuevo Herald under the headline “Hookers: The Sad Meat of the American Dollar”. This image, however, was a composite of two separate photographs taken by veteran photographer Roberto Koltun, and published over his objections. “Two things were put together,” commented photo coordinator Orlando Mellado.” Asked why the photograph was published, Mellado responded “that’s a decision that was made by another editor.”

2007

This photograph by Adnan Hajj, a Lebanese photographer, showed thick black smoke rising above buildings in the Lebanese capital after an Israeli air raid. The Reuters news agency initially published this photograph on their web site and then withdrew it when it became evident that the original image had been manipulated to show more and darker smoke. “Hajj has denied deliberately attempting to manipulate the image, saying that he was trying to remove dust marks and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under”, said Moira Whittle, the head of public relations for Reuters. “This represents a serious breach of Reuters’ standards and we shall not be accepting or using pictures taken by him.” A second photograph by Hajj was also determined to have been doctored.

The French Magazine Paris Match altered this photograph of French President Nicolas Sarkozy by removing some body fat. The magazine said it had tried adjusting the lighting on the picture. “The correction was exaggerated during the printing process,” the magazine said.

2008

This photograph, by Liu Weiqiang of the Daqing Evening News, won an award for “one of the ten most impressive news photos of 2006″. This photograph was recently revealed to be a composite of two separate photographs: the antelopes and the train. Weiqiang says that he never published the picture as a news photograph. Weiqiang also wrote in his blog, “I admit it’s unfaithful, as well as immoral for a photographer to present a fabricated picture. I’m truly sorry.”

Taiwan’s newspaper Liberty Times published this doctored photo of a delegation, led by the chairman of the Franz Collection, being met by the Pope John Paul II. In the original photo, Wang Shaw-lan, a publisher of competing newspaper United Daily News, was removed. A Liberty Times reporter said that she removed Wang whom she said was “not an essential presence” and in order to shrink the picture for “better display”. Later, Liberty Times said that the doctored picture came from the Franz Collection, but a Franz Collection spokesman said the newspaper had asked it to airbrush out Wang.

In response to a New York Times story that suggested the FOX network’s ratings might be slipping, the co-hosts of “Fox & Friends” broadcast photos of Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe. The photos were doctored to make the journalists appear less attractive. A FOX spokeswoman said the executive in charge of “Fox and Friends” was on vacation and not available for comment but added that altering photos for humorous effect is a common practice on cable news stations.

This image of an Iranian missile test appeared on the front page of many major newspapers. The image is from the web site of Sepah News, the media arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

This photo of Britian’s Prince William appeared on the pages of The Sun.

A magazine advertisement for an Olay beauty product featuring the model Twiggy was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom. “Olay is my secret to brighter-looking eyes,” read the ad, “… reduces the look of wrinkles and dark circles for brighter, younger-looking eyes,” the ad continued. In its ruling, the ASA said that it considered that the post-production retouching of the original ad, specifically in the eye area, could give consumers a “misleading impression of the effect the product could achieve”.

This photo of Governor Sarah Palin was widely distributed across the Internet shortly after Palin was announced as the vice presidential nominee for the Republican ticket.

After publishing photos of two deceased United States soldiers, the Associated Press retracted the photos after learning that one of the photos was digitally altered. The photo on the left is a composite of the head and the body of the soldier on the right.

2009

This photo shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (center left), President Shimon Peres (center right), along with members of the Cabinet. The Israeli newspaper Yated Neeman digitally removed two female Cabinet members from the photo and replaced them with male members. The newspaper Yated Neeman is considered to be ultra-orthodox and not supportive of females in the cabinet.

A ceremony was held in Taiwan to honor Chinese soldiers who died in Papua, New Guinea during World War II. This photo shows a “spirit tablet” used as part of the ceremony. When the photo appeared on Sina, a Chinese website, the text which read “The army of Republic of China” was digitally removed. In Taiwan, the government used the phrase The Republic of China, while the Chinese government uses the phrase The People’s Republic of China.

This photo from the web site of Microsoft’s Polish subsidiary was doctored to change the race of one of the people. The original photo appeared on Microsoft’s U.S. web site. “We are looking into the details of this situation. We apologize and are in the process of pulling down the image”, said a Microsoft representative. The doctored photo on the Polish website was removed and replaced with the original photo.

This magazine advertisement by Ralph Lauren depicts a heavily manipulated photo of model Filippa Hamilton. A Ralph Lauren representative admitted to “poor imaging and retouching”, and added, “we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the calibre of our artwork represents our brand appropriately.”

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