A Brief Tutorial on the Early Arts of Photo Manipulation
"I believe it was probably less than ten minutes that went by from the invention of photography to the point where people realized that they could lie with photographs."--Errol Morris
(Below) This composite photo by Henry Peach Robinson used
five separate images and shows the sophistication of the state of the art of photo manipulation as early as 1858.
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| photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art |
The photographic manipulation (below) was the placing of
Lincoln's head on John Calhoun’s body in 1860. The photographer used a composite
technique.
During the American civil war (1861-1865), well known photographer, Mathew Brady, enhanced many of his photos to better show the carnage and horrors of the Civil War. The photo on the left was released in 1864 from a composite of the three photos on the right.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as Artist and Model by Maurice
Guibert, ca. 1900
The above examples are just a few of the myriad of manipulated photographs done between the mid 1800's and 1900.
By the turn of the century, the state of the art was highly professional.
Techniques that were used until the advent of "Photoshop" included airbrushing.
The first working airbrush prototype was developed by Liberty Walkup of
Mt. Morris, Illinois. Walkup patented the work under the name of
"air-brush." His wife would later go on to be the founder of the
Illinois Art School where airbrushing was taught to students.
The first atomizing type of airbrush was invented by Charles Burdick
four years later in 1893. It was presented by Thayer and Chandler art materials
company at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago that same year.
As can be seen, manipulating and faking photographs was a sophisticated
art even before 1900. The tools and techniques continued to develop. A faked photo
early in the twentieth century could compete with the results of a modern day
"Photoshop" product.
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