We all know many historic examples of altered photographs for propaganda and other reasons, with the goal of altering our knowledge and memory of a fact. Some have even been discussed lately.
But it is very different when you are not talking about photographs of governments, advertising, news agencies and fashion magazines and when every common person is not only the power but the will to alter their memories. It is not just propaganda, it is the alteration of memories of common people, of everybody. The common memories of humanity. Beautify a face, add or erase a person, even the smallest thing can affect us greatly.
Like a time machine in reverse.
Very interesting article: I Was There. Just Ask Photoshop. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/fa...46477d&ei=5124
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aristotelis grammatikakis www.arigram.gr black & white film is sexy
Ya know what's really funny? I never PS my digital images. Never need to. They are THAT good. *chuckle!*
No, but the chimping helps. I see what I shot and retake if I missed the focus, had a bad reflection, whatever.
But my film ones... I scan everything. And with two kids, both of whom have sworn some unholy vow to Satan that they will NEVER both look at the camera with a cute smile at the same time... well, here's an example. I'd kill to have my daughter looking at the camera too, darnit! Now where's that negative from at Grandma's last Winter....
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Nothing worth doing is ever easy.
The only thing new is the relative ease with which such fakery is done.
As you well know, the portrait business has always been about idealizing images. The more so the further back you go. AFAIK, many if not most of the 19th century group photos were paste up jobs. Big negatives were cherished for the (relative) ease with which retouchers could remove blemishes or even individuals. Hollywood glamour, etc. etc. etc. Hell, it all really got started with painters, the bastards!!!
I do agree with the concern that everyone seems to have heard of Photoshop, and that there is now a reflex to assume that a remarkable image has been "Photoshopped" (you know you're in trouble when they convert trademarked names into verbs....).
the problem is when the hard drive fails from
the next great solar flare that will disrupt the magnetic field
no one will remember anything ...
it will be like one massive brainwashing event
Quote:
Originally Posted by jpeets
The only thing new is the relative ease with which such fakery is done.
As you well know, the portrait business has always been about idealizing images. The more so the further back you go. AFAIK, many if not most of the 19th century group photos were paste up jobs. Big negatives were cherished for the (relative) ease with which retouchers could remove blemishes or even individuals. Hollywood glamour, etc. etc. etc. Hell, it all really got started with painters, the bastards!!!
I do agree with the concern that everyone seems to have heard of Photoshop, and that there is now a reflex to assume that a remarkable image has been "Photoshopped" (you know you're in trouble when they convert trademarked names into verbs....).
you are right,
fakery has been around as long as drawing and photography have existed.
PS just makes it easier for people to do in minutes
what used to take a long time ...
The only thing new is the relative ease with which such fakery is done.
You mean the extreme ease that it can be done and the millions of people that can now do it. IMO, we have not even begun to address the ethics of it, even though its happening "before everyone's eyes".
... AFAIK, many if not most of the 19th century group photos were paste up jobs. ...
Many, but far from all. There were many 19th century lenses capable of the resolution necessary to allow reconition of individual faces in a group of several hundred people on a 8x10" contact print.
"19th century" is a very long time period in photography spanning everything from the invention of photography to roll films, from meniscus lenses to Anastigmats, from daguerreotypes to motion picture.
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-- Ole Tjugen, Luddite Elitist Norway
A couple of years ago, I took a family portrait of a coworker with extended family, daughter-in-law and son-in-laws (film). She loved the proofs and selected one to be enlarged to 16X20 to be matted and framed for over her fireplace. Shortly after, her son divorced daughter-in-law which she hated anyway so she asked me if there was any way to take her out of the picture. It was taken at a local park on a bridge with trees etc, in background. I took it to my local photo store and the digital person took the negative, scanned it and promptly removed the offending daughter-in-law. It cost plenty but we had another 16X20 made and she was incredibly happy. Honestly you could not tell the daughter-in-law had been there with her children. Recently the daughter divorced her husband but she didn't ask to have him removed. Perhaps it's time for another family pic. I was not offended to have it done, after all she paid me for the picture and the photoshopping.
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Prints available in the APUG GAllery
www.gaylarsonphotography.com
My brother took an old picture taken when my Mom was quite young and gave it to a friend of his. My Mom loved the picture, but it was taken before her youngest sister was born. She always lamented that her youngest sister was not in that family picture. So my brother's friend put my aunt into the picture. My Mom was in 7th heaven! She treasured that picture until the day she died... you see... the year before her youngest sister was born, one of her brothers was brutally murdered. A family picture was never taken after that.
This PSed photo represented something to my Mom. Yes, it was not "real", but for the joy it gave her to see her entire family together, who the hell cares. It was not like they were showing the launching of missiles.
I sort of wonder if the fact that making alterations to photos has become a tool of the 'masses,' rather than the 'masters' is what truly has our 'undies in a bunch!'
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Jeanette
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2 Peter 3:3
Photoshop Alters Memories 
Linear Mode
