Gallery: Infamously Altered Photos, Before and After Their Edits
Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP01Kim Jong Il
November 2008. Kim Jong-il poses with soldiers of the 534th unit of the People’s Army. Western publications suspected Jong-il was digitally inserted into the photo. Rumors had been circulating that he had fallen ill or died, but the Korea Central News Agency released images showing their leader healthy and active.
Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center02THE-ECONOMIST-OBAMA
June 2010, *The Economist*. President Barack Obama stands alone on a Louisiana beach examining the aftermath of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
LARRY DOWNING/Reuters/Corbis03U.S. President Obama walks along the Louisiana coastline while touring damage caused by oil spill
June 2010, *The Economist*. In the original photo, President Obama is standing next to two other people who were digitally removed and cropped from the cover. Deputy editor Emma Duncan admitted to and defended the manipulation. Duncan said “ \[she\] wanted readers to focus on Mr. Obama, not because \[she\] wanted to make him look isolated.”
Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center04Iran-Missiles-01
July 2008, Iran. Released by the official online news site of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the photo was published in numerous American news outlets as an example of missile testing in the Iranian desert.
Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center05Iran-Missiles-02
July 2008, Iran. In reality, only three of the four missiles launched successfully. The failed missile was masked out for publication.
Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center06Altered Images-Adnan Hajj
August 2006, Beirut, Lebanon. Adnan Hajj, a Lebanese freelance photographer for Reuters, used Photoshop to clone and darken the smoke to exaggerate bombing damage by Israeli warplanes. After the manipulation was uncovered, Reuters immediately fired Hajj and withdrew his 920 photos from their database.
Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center07Altered Images-TIME-OJ Simpson
June 1994, *TIME*. This cover featuring OJ Simpson was significantly darkened by photo illustrator Matt Mahurin. The photo angered a lot of people, as the case was already heavy with racial tension. *TIME’s* editor made a public statement that “no racial implication was intended, by *TIME* or by the artist.”
Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center08Oprah-Diptych
August 1989, *TV Guide*. In this image, the head of Oprah Whinfrey was grafted onto the body of ‘60s movie star Ann-Margaret. The image was created and published without the actress or the dress designer’s consent.
Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center09Altered Images-National Geographic
November 1982, *National Geographic*. This cover is one the earliest well-known cases of digital photo manipulation. The magazine’s photo editors condensed the image to fit the cover, bringing the two pyramids closer together. Photographer Gordan Gahan complained about the change.
Yevgeny Khaldei/Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center10Khaldei/Obit
May 1945, Berlin, Germany. Red Army soldiers raising the Soviet flag over the Reichstag (parliament) as they defeat Hitler’s Army. This photo became a WWII icon and one of the most widely published war photos of all time.
Yevgeny Khaldei/Courtesy of The Bronx Documentary Center11Altered Images-Yevgeny Khaldei
May 1945, Berlin, Germany. Yevgeny Khaldei, a Soviet Army photographer in Moscow, had his uncle sew a tablecloth into a large Russian flag. Khaldei then flew to Berlin and took soldiers onto the Reichstag roof and had them pose in a journalistic fashion. Dark clouds of smoke were added to a later version of the photo. When asked about the manipulation, Khaldei responded, “It is a good photograph and historically significant. Next question please.”
Roger Fenton/SSPL/Getty Images12The Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1855.
1855, Ukraine. Taken during the Crimean War, Roger Fenton’s photo of cannonballs scattered across a battlefield is one of the earliest and most famous images of war. Fenton took two photos from the same vantage point that day, one with cannonballs strewn across the road and one where they are in a ditch. It’s been suspected that Fenton placed them in the road for a more dramatic picture.
