@Sayril 18 July 2020

Manipulated Old Photos I'll talk about the times wherein photo manipulation has been used to alter **World History**. **Photography** has been one of the best ways of influencing popular opinion since its inception. **Propaganda, revisionism and lies** have been spread for more than a century using fake pictures. It wasn't long after the **first photograph was taken in 1814** that people started to modify them. This was done by ****painting or bleaching the negatives or combining different ones in the darkroom.**** Around **1860 a portrait of Lincoln** was created by stitching his head to another print.

Still in **American History**, this picture of ****Ulysses S. Grant****, Civil War general and later president, was made by combining **3 different negatives in 1902.** Take a look at it and you'll see the seams!

As you can see, a lot of these are done to create an ****exageratted**** sense of **heroism**, to glorify a character. ****Photomanipulation**** was also often used to add people that weren't there for the shoot. On the right here, **General Francis P Blair** was added later. (1865)

Another widespread use of **photomanipulation is propaganda**. You know the famous picture of the soviet flag over the **Reichstag**, right? Well, appart from being staged, it was manipulated. Turns out in the original one of them had a watch on each hand, suggesting he had been **looting**!

**So, what have we learned from these photos?** • **Manipulating pictures is as old as photography.** • **It's often used by people in power for propaganda, gloryfing people and removing uncomfortable truths** **• It's still very much done to this day, and it's only getting subtle.** Watch out for my next article: **How to know if the photo is manipulated?**