How Photograph Manipulation Is Used to Affect Society - Report Example

Photograph manipulation is used to affect society Introduction Roland Barthes’ photographic theory is built around the concept that the ‘rhetoric of the image’ reveals the vulnerability of photographic images to manipulation and persuasion. According to Barthes’ punctum theory, although a photographic likeness captures an image in time and space, it can communicate something entirely different to its at-face representation, depending on the time of reception and contributing social factors (Gelder and Westgeest, 2011). For example, a photographic advertisement for Italian pasta and sauce at first glance simply demonstrates the ingredients used and freely available. However, the red and green colours used tend to capture something far more profound: national identity in the colours of the Italian flag. From Barthes’ perspective the image captured by the photograph contains embedded symbols and those symbols are all the more significant and persuasive because a photograph alone conveys a message of authentic representations as opposed to manipulations that can be accomplished through a painted picture. Photography theorist Susan Sontag (1973) more directly alleged that photographic images not only record history, but can also alter or ‘invent history’ (p. 67). Photography is therefore a subjective art that enables the photographer to manipulate the image captured and how it will be received and interpreted by the audience. The ability to manipulate photographs is no longer limited to lens positioning, lighting, colour, and cropping since today’s digital technologies facilitate a number of photo-shopping capabilities. In addition to misrepresenting history or moments captured by a photograph, photographs have emerged as powerful tools used to manipulate consumer shopping decisions. Photographic manipulation crosses over to the entertainment industry and quite often manipulates news stories to such an extent that what might be news turns into entertainment. Photographic manipulation is also used for political ends, with images being with fashioned in such a way as to manipulate and influence voter choices. At the end of the day, the claim that the ‘camera never lies’ has been turned on its head by evidence to the contrary; indeed, it can legitimately be argued that the camera hardly ever tells the truth (Black and Roberts, 2011). This paper explores how photographs have been manipulated since the emergence of photography and how these photographic manipulations impact upon society. As revealed thus far, photographic manipulations are used for influencing audience perspectives and eventual behaviour. For example, photography manipulations in advertising are aimed at influencing purchasing behaviour while photography manipulations in political campaigns are used to influence voter choices; entertainment photographs however are self-explanatory since these photographs are obviously intended to entertain their audiences. This paper will investigate the impact of photographic manipulations in advertising and political campaigns; the first part will provide a brief historical perspective of photographic manipulations covering the early processes and examples of photographic manipulations. The second part will highlight the photographic manipulations in political campaigns while the final section will analyse the impact of photographic manipulations in advertising. Historic perspective of Photography manipulations Previously known as airbrushing, photography manipulation or photoshopping, as commonly known with the rise of Photoshop software, is the use of image editing techniques to create illusions or deceptions of original photographs long after they have been taken. In the history of its development, that is before computers were invented, photos were manipulated through a variety of ways including retouching with ink, paint as well as through double exposure; photo manipulation was also achieved when photos or negatives were pierced together in the dark room and Polaroids scratched. The use of airbrushes in photo manipulation later resulted to the term airbrushing while darkroom manipulations have sometimes been regarded to have been somewhat traditional art instead of typical job skills. The most vivid early example of photo manipulation can be found in the 1860’s Abraham Lincoln’s photo that was manipulated using the body from John Calhoun’s portrait and Lincoln’s head from the legendary Mathew Brady’s seated portrait. Adopted from: http://www.fourandsix.com/photo-tampering-history/ Digital retouching using Quantel computers that ran Paintbox as well as the Scitex imaging workstations was born in the ‘80s; the late ‘80s photo manipulations were slightly advanced with the rise of silicon Graphics computers that ran Barco Creator, which were later replaced by Adobe Photoshop. Oscar Rejlander’s 1957’s Two Ways of Life is also a remarkable example of photo manipulation since the photo is a combination print that was made from 30 separate negatives printed onto one extensive piece of paper. Adopted from: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/collection/photography/royalphotographicsociety/collectionitem.aspx?id=2003-5001/3/39373/1 Photography manipulation is not just about physical manipulation of photos, but about staging; that is, the choices photographers make to get the desired outlook of their subjects on the photos they have taken. For instance, Bernarr Macfadden was a pioneer photojournalist famed for his manipulation of images for news value by creating staged scenes of reality. Macfadden’s mid-1920’s composograph process entailed re-enacting real news events with costumed body doubles, photographing the staged scenes and pasting real faces of the news personalities drawn from unrelated images onto the staged images. Politics and propaganda The concept of photo manipulation is not a new phenomenon considering that it is somewhat as old as photography itself, finding widespread application and significance in its regular art of deception or persuasion of viewers; similarly, photo manipulation is effectively used to enhance storytelling as well as self-expression of individuals. For that matter, photo manipulations have effectively been used in politics and propaganda to enhance stories and self-expression of political leaders. Photo manipulation has proven to be quite an invaluable tool in politics and propaganda since even the most subtle and discrete alterations on a photograph can have profound impacts on how viewers interpret and judge the photograph. Photograph manipulations found great use as tools of political propaganda as early as in the civil war era, when more than one negative was used to publish photograph engravings; Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union leader, was notorious for the use of photograph manipulations, particularly photograph retouching for propaganda purposes. During Stalin’s era of political purges, the Soviet government erased the memories of certain figures that had fallen out with Stalin from Soviet’s history by manipulating official images and destroying film; for instance, Stalin retouched Nikolai Yezhov out of an official press photo, the Vanishing Commissioner, which had been taken before his execution in 1940. Adopted from: http://www.newseum.org/berlinwall/commissar_vanishes/vanishes.htm Roger Fenton’s photo Valley of the Shadow of Death documenting the Crimea war represents an early example of a photographer creating a reality to capture, rather than capturing reality after making a conscious decision that the original photograph taken was not dramatic enough (Boese, 2014). Roger Fenton’s Crimea War photographs depict a nearly true record of the war landscape and its participants only that a depiction of the real combat scenes or scenes of the horrible effects of the war has been avoided, to influence the perception of the war to viewers. Fenton’s manipulation of the photos, particularly the Valley of the Shadow of Death that depicts a simple and haunting view of a cannoball-strewn road, were staged to create more dramatic scenes of the war. Before staging manipulation After staging manipulation Adopted from http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/photo_database/image/the_valley_of_the_shadow_of_death Dorothea Lang’s photo of the Migrant Mother is a defining photo of the Great Depression and despite that Lang had taken many photographs on that day, for this particular shot she made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction (Library of Congress, 2004). Manipulated photography in advertising Photographic images in advertising are often manipulated to create a profound appealing effect on viewers; models in fashion magazines are airbrushed and digitally manipulated to enforce certain images of beauty among the readers. For instance, Ralph Lauren advertisements have often used photographic stills that depict extremely thin models which have been manipulated to promote the idea of ideal body. Photographic manipulation did occur even in the pre-modern times, where art directors chose very petite women, which indicate that the perception of an ideal body has not changed over the years. John Noble’s 1897s Half-Guinea costumes are typical 1890’s fashion advertising photography depicts petit models thereby reinforcing a normative cultural idea of the ideal body. Mabel Stephenson Limited’s 1956’s and Bon Marche’s 1958’s fashion photography also depict petit models, which were aimed to further reinforce the ideal body image of women. Adopted from http://historyworld.co.uk/advert.php?id=373&offset=0&sort=1&l1=Fashion+%26+Clothing&l2=Ladieswear Adopted from http://historyworld.co.uk/advert.php?id=1592&offset=25&sort=1&l1=Fashion+%26+Clothing&l2=Ladieswear Adopted from http://historyworld.co.uk/advert.php?id=1693&offset=25&sort=1&l1=Fashion+%26+Clothing&l2=Ladieswear Victorian photography manipulation in fashion photography went beyond the subtle airbrushing used in celebrity magazines today as the Victorians were able to manipulate photographs to create rather bizarre images. Victorian photographers combined images from several negatives to create sensational photographs; for instance, the Victorian’s beheading craze epitomized the 19th century photo manipulation practice e for advertising purposes, where amusing images of beheaded models were used for advertising (Tomlinson, 2013). Adopted from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2256159/How-Victorians-beat-internet-beheading-craze-100-years-Bizarre-pictures-19th-Century-photoshopping.html Conclusion Ultimately, photography manipulation has been a prevalent phenomenon in the history of photography from the pre-modern times through to the modern times as photographers have been known to manipulate images to achieve certain effects on the viewers. Photography manipulation has been applied in fashion photography to create sensational fashion photographs especially in fashion magazines; photography manipulation has also been utilized in the arts of politics and propaganda where leaders have altered photos to enhance storytelling as well as self-expression to manipulate and influence voter choices. References Gelder, H.V. and Westgeest, H. (2011). Photography Theory in Historical Perspective. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Sontag, S. (1973). On Photography. New York: Picador. Black, J. and Roberts, C. (2011). Doing Ethics in Media: Theories and Practical Applications. New York: Routledge. Tomlinson, S. (2013). How the Victorians beat the internet to beheading craze by 100 years: Bizarre pictures show 19th Century photoshopping. Dailymail. [Online]. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2256159/How-Victorians-beat-internet-beheading-craze-100-years-Bizarre-pictures-19th-Century-photoshopping.html Boese, A. (2014). The Valley of the Shadow of Death. Museumofhoaxes. [Online]. 29th April 2014. Available at: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/photo_database/image/the_valley_of_the_shadow_of_death Library of Congress. (2004). Dorothea Langes "Migrant Mother" Photographs in the Farm Security Administration Collection: An Overview. [Online]. Available at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html Read More