Working with photographs

People trust photographs
Doctored images can alter or replace our real memories
People are more liable to be persuaded by false images that add weight to their beliefs
Humans are remarkably inept at telling fake photos from real ones
When faced with doctored images, even if we know they’re fake, over time we may remember the image but not remember knowing that it's doctored

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121213-fake-pictures-make-real-memories

Variations of Migrant Mother taken by Dorothea Lange for FSA

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34- 009093-C, LC-USF34- 009058-C, LC-USF34- 009095-C, LC-USF34- 009097-C

Photographs are not disinterested records of truth
The photographer has selected what to photograph, how to frame it, and decided which image will be released

This photo set shows four photographs taken by Dorothea Lange as part of her work for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression. As you can see, she took photographs from many angles and from several distances. Photographers want to select the photograph that best represents what they are trying to portray, and many images that seem to be “in the moment” aren’t.

There were also censors at the FSA that denied certain images: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/may/06/censored-images-of-1930s-america-to-go-on-show-in-london.

Titles and meaning

Migrant Mother famous shot

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, LC-USF34- 009093-C, LC-USF34- 009058-C, LC-USF34- 009095-C, LC-USF34- 009097-C

“Nipomo, Calif. Mar. 1936. Migrant agricultural worker's family. Seven hungry children. Mother aged 32, the father is a native Californian. Destitute in a pea pickers camp, because of the failure of the early pea crop. These people had just sold their tent in order to buy food. Most of the 2,500 people in this camp were destitute.”

Photo captions also contribute to the story being told by the image. In this case, Lange strives for a documentary tone, but includes appeals to the emotions like “hungry children”. Misleading or incorrect captions are often one way undoctored images are used to misrepresent events.

Adams Occidental type

Ansel Adams
Girl smiling (Occidental type)
Manzanar War Relocation Center
1943
https://www.loc.gov/item/2002695328/

Ansel Adams
Girl smiling (Oriental type)
Manzanar War Relocation Center
1943
https://www.loc.gov/item/2002695400/

Captions can also be an entry into implicit cultural ideas. Adams’ captions for these photographs show a belief in “types” of Asian physiognomy, a concept tied in to the racial prejudice against the Japanese that led to the internment camps. LIFE magazine published a feature in 1941 called “How to Tell the Japs from the Chinese” that helps illuminate American racial ideas and prejudices during this time: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/foster/lifemag.htm.

Manipulated images

People were manipulating photographs long before Photoshop

Yezhov vanishes

Nikolai Yezhov (right) walking along the Moscow-Volga canal with Joseph Stalin, K. Voroshilov, and V. Molotov in 1938. The canal had been built with slave labor under Yezhov’s direction

Altered photo with only Stalin, Voroshilov, and Molotov remaining after Yezhov fell out of favor and was executed in 1940

From: David King, The Commissar Vanishes (New York: Metropolitan Books) 1997, p. 163.

Manipulated photographs have a long history. Not long after photography’s invention in the 1830s, people began experimenting with doctored images. Sometimes this was accomplished by altering the negative, other times printing processes like multiple exposures accomplished the task.

In this case, the manipulation of the photograph is intended to rewrite history. Nikolai Yezhov, having fallen out of favor, is removed from the image and therefore from memory and history. Without the earlier version, we would not know the image was manipulated.

We should have a healthy distrust of images, as well as video, which is also easily edited and can leave out important elements of context.

Staging photographs

Clues and context can tell us whether a photo has been staged rather than taken on the spur of the moment

Staged Civil War photo

cwpb 04337 https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpb.04337

Other photos show that the soldier was probably an infantryman, killed while advancing up the hillside
The photographers noticed the picturesque sharpshooter's den, moved the corpse, and photographed him again
The type of weapon in the photographs was not used by sharpshooters. This firearm is seen in a number of Gardner's images at Gettysburg and was probably a prop.
In modern times, it is usually easier to use image manipulation software to create the desired scene. However, it is important to realize that images we regard as historical documents can be misleading.

Further details at: https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-war-glass-negatives/articles-and-essays/does-the-camera-ever-lie/the-case-of-the-moved-body/

Visual literacy and fake news: tools for spotting fakes

Use Google reverse image search, Tineye, or other image search engine to determine the image’s origin
Usually, the image with the highest resolution/size should take you to the original source
Check for metadata (EXIF): information embedded in an image. If the image is an original, there’s a good chance you will see this metadata. You can use Photoshop (look at file information) or free online tools like Fotoforensics.com or Findexif.com. Unfortunately, the majority of social media sites strip out most of the original metadata when they are uploaded onto their platforms, if not all.
Clues about location and time can come from license plates, weather, landmarks, clothing, signage, and identifiable buildings. Google Translate can help with signs in other languages
An image may be authentic, but it could be inaccurately labeled
It’s always worth double-checking if a particularly strong image you come across appears on Snopes.com, which specializes in debunking urban legends and misinformation on the Internet

This free web book contains a lot of useful information and examples for students, and gets into special topics like how to verify a Twitter account: https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/

Trushar Barot, “Chapter 4: Verifying Images”, in Craig Silverman, ed. Verification Handbook. Maastricht: European Journalism Center. 2014