TOP 10 MANIPULATED PHOTOGRAPHS

There are hundreds of images that have been used to present our historical events throughout the history of mankind, but a lot of people tried to manipulate such images just to manipulate the truth or to express their views about those events. Now the latest Adobe Photoshop technology has spread image manipulation especially after the advent of Internet. Mostly images are manipulated for popularity and sometimes for humor, but sometimes they are manipulated to alter the truth. Below list describes top 10 manipulated photographs that attracted popularity across the globe.

10

Israel-Lebanon War 2006

A Reuters’ reporter, who was deputed to cover the Israel-Lebanon war in 2006, captured this below image and published in his story. Hajj, the reporter claimed that he didn’t intentionally altered this image but actually his intention was to clear the dust marks but bad lighting conditions totally changed his point of view and picture gets manipulated. But critics didn’t accept his claim and said it is impossible to give smoky look to all buildings without intentions.

9.O.J. Simpson in Time Magazine

O.J. Simpson was the person who was found involved in murdering Nicole Smith (his ex-wife) and was arrested in the summer of 1994. He killed Nicole with her friend. The mugshot of Simpson was plastered by the news publications because it was among most famous trials of that time. Time Magazine decided to go with an altered image of O.J. Simpson for their cover in which the skin color of this murderer was specifically darken by the magazine.

8

Abraham Lincoln Altered Image

The below picture of Abraham Lincoln is widely seen over Internet but probably there would be very few who know the truth behind this picture. This is eighth in our top 10 manipulated photographs. Yes, it was an altered image which actually has the body of John Calhoun (the Southern politician) and the head of Abraham Lincoln.

7

Beyonce Image Manipulation by L’Oreal

L’Oreal probably thought that the worldwide famous singer Beyonce has pretty black color. Therefore, they decided to add a lot of white shades to her body in their ad that attracted nationwide embarrassment for this worldwide famous company. It was truly the best example of photo negative created for a black person. But the accusation of face whitening of Beyonce was denied by L’Oreal management as they claimed it a result of extra lathing effects and nothing else.

6

Kent State Image Manipulation

The original picture of Kent State University was taken by John Filo which was later on awarded with the Pulitzer Prize. The image carried Mary Ann Vecchio who is sitting around a student’s body and screaming over his death. The student was Jeffery Miller who was killed by National Guardsmen at Kent State University. Miller was the part of those demonstrators who were tackled with open fire by the National Guardsmen. The fence post in original image was altered by someone in the published version.

5

Swiss Newspaper Image Manipulation

Egyptian people and government faced a horrific terrorist attack in 1997 which took 68 precious lives at a local temple. The original image below was taken outside the temple in which a stream of water can be seen very clearly. But the Swiss newspaper thought to give more sensational effects to the original image and they altered it with a stream of blood. This is yet another bad example of media manipulating the image to hide the truth.

4

National Geographic Magazine Cover

No one can even think an organization like National Geographic can be involved in image manipulation. But it has happened when they published a story on Egypt and squeezed the great Pyramids of Giza just to fit in the vertical format of their magazine. National Geographic’s director of photography accepted it was a big mistake and wouldn’t be repeated again to achieve graphic effect.

3

Saddam Hussein’s Statue Toppled by U.S. Army

Though the altered image below showed that the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled by Iraqis, but originally it was the result of U.S. Army action. How the truth was altered to reach to the world. This is yet another bad example of hiding the truth by the media. Later on, an Army report revealed the truth that the U.S. PSYOP division actually orchestrated the actual image idea and suggested to show a bunch of Iraqi people doing all this stuff to celebrate victory. This manipulated image is at No. 3 in our top 10 manipulated photographs.

2

Political Correctness

The University of Wisconsin at Madison altered the original image (taken in 1993) on their brochure just to illustrate its diverse enrollment. The university management intentionally inserted a black student digitally in the original picture of a crowd of white football fans. Senior Diallo Shabaaz was the digitally inserted black student whose picture was taken in 1994. The university managed admitted it was done only to show the diversity of the school.

1

Toy Soldier Kidnapped and Tortured in Iraq

The Iraqi insurgents proved in 2005 that the photo manipulation could be sucked by them as bad as it’s seen done by Western media, only for a minimal amount. This photo was then claimed as of “John Adam”, an American soldier and was widely spread over Internet. Later on, the authenticity of this photo was doubted by experts and finally the soldier in the photo was recognized by an American toy company as of theirs. See original image below, the toy soldier image was altered and placed to the manipulated image’s soldier, just to alter the truth.