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Opening Thoughts As a photographer, I have spent a lot of time considering how the media I create and put out into the world is percieved. Short after my photos started gaining traction I realized that the process of going out and taking the photos as well as editing them myself results in me viewing them a completely different way then someone viewing them for the first time. This simple concept led to an interest in taking this giant world we live in and capturing small moments which in my opinion, do not really exist. I continue to practice using photographs to bend reality as we have come to understand it. Throughout this book I have included many photos I have taken throughout the past year., but remember, nothing is as it seems.
Michael Hameister GDES
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Table of Contents Social Commentary in Horror.................................6 The End of Photography as Truth..........................12 Introduction............................................................14 The History of Photo Manipulation in Film..........15 The Truth Claim in the Past...................................16 The Truth Claim in the Modern World..................18 Contemporary Editing Techniques.........................21 Anatomy of Dishonest Photography......................22 Photos of Evidence in a Court of Law...................25 Photography and “Fake News”..............................26 Future Implications...............................................29 Conclusion.............................................................30 Citations.................................................................32
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Social Commentary in Horror Due to the current dehumanizing climate, media intending to be social commentary has been leaning towards the genre of horror. This mirrors the millennial mindset of the time we live in and the deteriorating social state of the country. I will discuss the films ‘Hereditary’, directed by Ari Aster, Get Out’ directed by Jordan Peele, ‘Raw’ by Julia Ducournau and the seventh season of the television show ‘American Horror Story’ created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Fulchuck. All relatively new pieces of media which fall into the horror genre while developing a social commentary about life today. Whether you are a liberal or a conservative, the last few years have felt like things are a mess. In the past people used to look at the future with the hope of flying cars and world peace, we now as a society almost exclusively view the future with feelings of dread. To a lot of people, the last few years have felt like everything in the world is going to shit, creating the perfect environment to use the world of horror to make social commentary. Hereditary tackles an issue that scares many of us every day, the terrifying brutality of reality. The catalyst of 2018’s ‘Hereditary’ is the death of the family’s matriarch. At its core, the movie is about a group of ritualists pull-
ing the strings to find the next bodily vessel for the King Paimon, the film’s version of a less, stereotypical devil. On its surface, the movie is about a normal family that unravels when life tears them apart. At around the 30-minute mark in the film, the older brother accidentally decapitates his younger sister in a car accident that could have been easily avoided if the character remembered an EpiPen. From there the movie introduces some red herrings leading you to believe the second half will be about a ghost or entity. These red herrings only make the plot themes of brutal reality that much more brutal. The most horrific thing about the whole movie is how commonplace and real it feels. Until the last act, anything portrayed in the movie could happen to anyone, and it would completely destroy them. That is why real-world horror is so terrifying. In a day and age where I see someone tweet “We’re living in Hell” at least twice a week, it is not surprising that the scariest thing a horror movie can be is real. Showing that any of our lives could deconstruct right in front of our eyes, and it wouldn’t even be a surprise.
The most infamous socially conscious horror film as of late is 2017’s ‘Get Out’. The story of an African American man, Chris, who finds himself meeting his girlfriend’s family, who turn out to be wickedly and weirdly crazy. In the third act, it is revealed that the white family has been taking the bodies of people of color and putting their consciousness in them so they could use their body. The white people in this movie view people of color as simultaneously lower than them and as something they strive to be. Mirroring in society how people will guiltlessly steal black culture and then judge the people of the actual culture when they are proud of their culture. The family in the movie starts out on a good note, we feel as though they might actually be good people. Then the microaggressions start to show, and they never stop. Showing that no matter how microscopic or small these aggressions seem, they are still aggressive. In this case, they turned out to be deadly. In recent years racial topics have been becoming more and more relevant. Despite our country acting like we are past racism, racially motivated crimes seem to somehow be on the rise. Life for a person of color can be terrifying, the racism in this world is scary, and has literally killed countless people of color. People of color who have seen
horror genre’s latest trope, writing about how harsh real life can be.
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the film have commented on how even though the film is extreme is still relatable, and that fact alone is terrifying. This is how a supernatural horror movie about racism becomes a number one hit. ‘Raw’, which came out in 2017, follows the life of a prodigy student, Justine, as she goes through hazing at the beginning of her career in veterinary school. Though she, as the main character, is straight, this film made major leaps for gay horror cinema. When she moves into her dorm and sees she has a male roommate she is immediately upset. The first thing she says to him is “I asked for a girl roommate” to which Adrien quickly responds by saying “well they gave you a fag, it’s all the same to them”. Quickly after meeting him, Justine is forced to eat raw meat during a hazing ritual which sparks an unending lust for flesh in Justine. Justine’s journey mirrors Adrien’s sexuality throughout the film. While he spent most of his life hiding from his uncontrollable desires, Justine ends up doing the same. Horror is a genre where there is not much give and take for queer characters, they usually end up being used more as token gay characters than actual characters. With Adrien being the best friend of the protagonist and actually relating to the plot in a meaningful and metaphorical way, a big leap was made for queer horror cinema. Using cannibalism as
a metaphor for being trapped in the closet is odd and very extreme, which can turn some viewers off. This intenseness makes sense in 2019, a time in history when it can be utter torture to be anything but yourself. When some people are in the closet, it can feel to them as though they have some horrible disease they have to hide. Some members of the LGBTQ community have always felt this way, but it was never appropriate to portray in this way in a movie until now.
the not so subtle message that since our society is at a very unique time in its history, a time where the real horror is society itself. Horror is a genre that has been used to make films of mindless gore and porn, but in the past few years, it has been used as a vessel to make comments for a social change. These concepts and messages have been portrayed in various different genres before, but only now is it becoming common for horror. This is due to the extreme state the country is currently in. In the past things like giant monsters or demons were the most terrifying things to make movies about. If you are a person of color, queer in any way, or a woman, this world can be additionally terrifying. Now voices from these communities are finally being given the chance to create, they make media that in some way embodies their experience. Creating horror films about racism, sexuality, and more. The truth is that today, nothing is scarier than reality. Despite countless advantages and forward strides, history has made socially in the last hundreds of years, the simple act of living in this world is still a nightmare. The horror genre noticed this and began capitalizing on it. Resulting in the horror genre’s latest trope, writing about how harsh real life can be.
Our lives could deconstruct right in front of our eyes, and it wouldn’t even be a surprise.
The seventh season of American Horror Story, aptly titled ‘Cult’ takes place the night of the 2016 presidential election, a night that many of us remember well. The tv show did not attempt to trash Trump or Hilary, but just to show that both sides have made horrible decisions. The whole point the season tries to make is that we are living at an insane time in American history. Despite every other season of the show featuring supernatural elements, Cult did not feature anything that wasn’t completely real and possible. Living in a world where Trump and his tweets are so pertinent, seeing it all on screen feels almost eerie. Today a reality tv star is president, products tweet about how much they want to die, and climate change is more of a threat than ever. The season ends with
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Additional Thoughts The world we live in can be a scary place. Every day the news throws tragedy and death at the viewer. In addition to this, the state of the planet has never been viewed more negatively. The easiest way to see this is by noticing that most futeristic media from the current years view the future with dread and apocalypse, far from the flying cars and Shangri-la future that used to be imagined. Living in this world it is no surprise that the horror genre has been ditching supernatural elements for real life terror.
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The End of Photography as Truth abstract
In this essay I researched how we as humans percieve photography, and what can happen when our perception is decieved. Through a historical and modern perspective I researched photo manipulation and trickery through the history of photography. I have found that contrary to popular belief, photography has never been about the truth. The only thing that has changed since analog is that it is now easier, cheaper, and faster to manipulate photos. This leads to the general public being decieved again and again by fake news and fake photos. In this essay I do my best to explain why and how this has come to be our reality.
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Introduction There is a subconscious belief about photography named the ‘Truth Claim’, which states that when we view a photograph, unless explicitly told otherwise, we will believe it is rooted in truth (Sontag, 2001, p. 87). This causes problems when we view photos that have been altered or manipulated and believe them to be true with no question. The truth claim has led to many controversies surrounding fake photos. In this essay, I will explain the history of the photograph as it has been used to deceive, how the truth claim is still relevant today, the many ways you can alter a photograph, and what this means for the future.
The History of Photo Manipulation in Film When photography was invented it was nothing more than a scientific invention, just light reflected onto a surface. In fact “traditional photography is an analog science. Light enters through the camera’s lens and the image the camera views is faithfully recorded onto a negative.” (Parry, 2009, p. 117). Originally there was no photoshop or advanced editing techniques to alter photographs,
altering photos was a difficult task, and harder even to make it look believable. Despite being used to deceive countless times, Parry (2009) explains that “analog photographs maintain their integrity because alterations and manipulations to an analog print have always been very easy to detect”. He explains that by looking at four factors: “density, shadows, splice lines, and image continuity” (p. 178), a fraudulent film photograph
can easily be spotted. In addition to this, altering analog photos, “is a complicated and costly ordeal”, it would take an expert with a lot of money just to create basic edits in the darkroom. Since it is so expensive and complicated to create believable alterations to film, it never became common, this helped create a subconscious false belief that what a photo portrays is real life.
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The Truth Claim in the Past In the past, before advanced photo editing was so widespread and easy to access, the truth claim led to big controversies. Historically, dishonest photos that have caused debate were faked and not manipulated. With photo editing so hard to do, when a photo that suspended belief was released, people tended to believe it. This often led to the photographer being exposed and everyone learning the truth. One excellent example of this is the ‘Cottingley Fairies”. In 1917, sixteen-yearold Elsie Wright took photographs of her cousin Frances Griffiths with small cardboard cutouts which they claimed to be real fairies. When these photos were published, they deceived people all around the world, including adults. The original glass plate negatives ended up being sent to a photography expert named Harold Snelling who would state that “the two negatives are entirely genuine, unfaked photographs ... [with] no trace whatsoever of studio work involving card or paper models” (Magnusson, 2006, p. 104). Despite countless other sources declaring these photos were fake, Snelling’s claim would only fuel the fire. Elsie Wright ended up admitting the photos were faked in her old age, but people still believe in the Cottingley Fairies to this day.
A less extreme, but possibly more problematic version of the truth claim in the past is war photography. During the Civil War, photojournalist Alexander Gardner took photos of dead bodies on the battlefield. His photos became popular immediately, with no reason to suspect deception, immediately accepted as legitimate. These photos were believed without question until 1917, 52 years after the civil war. In 1917, a historian named William Frassanito noticed the same dead soldier in different positions in other photographers photos. It was then revealed that Gardner would reposition dead bodies and even add props so that the viewer would perceive the message he wanted to send (Admin, 2004). In many fields of photography, posing models is normal and expected, but photojournalism “is a practice of reconstructing the reality. It needs credible images to support its evidence” (Mäenpää, J., 2013, p. 123). These are just two examples of photography being used in the past to distort the truth, and in both of these examples, the fake photographs caused people all over the world to believe in a lie. These photos would both be publicly outed as fake, but what happens becomes easier to make a fake photo?
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The Truth Claim in a Modern World Today, we are almost completely desensitized to the idea of the Truth Claim. Although we know that most photos have been edited to a degree, we all believe to some extent that most photos we see are showing the truth more than they are not. This has led to what Brand S., Kelly K., and Kinney, J. referred to as “the end of photography as evidence for anything” (1985, p. 42). Even when film photography was popular, photography has always made “reality more malleable than many people realize” (Brand S., Kelly K, and Kinney J, 1985, p.47). The authors of this article believe that as editing techniques evolve “this increasing slipperiness and elusiveness of truth will encourage an exhaustion where attempts to distinguish between reality and image are abandoned” (1985, p.47). This means that as it gets harder to tell what is true and false, many people will become tired of always wondering what is real and what is not. Thus, unless something in the photo is clearly edited, people will either blindly believe photos as truth or end up being neutral, always knowing a photo could be edited and that they will likely never know how.
Additional Thoughts I believe that every photograph should be taken with a grain of salt. I can promise that almost every single photo you see has been altered in some way. As the days go on, highly edited photos are becoming much more common. Even things that could easily be done with some clever techniques are now being created digitally. Unless you are viewing the raw original file of a photo, there is no way to know what it really looked like.
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Before
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Contemporary Editing Techniques In the present, most people are accustomed to advanced editing techniques. Photoshop can be used to make people look a hundred pounds thinner or to create surreal image collages that can make almost anything look believable (Caruso, R. D., & Postel, G. C., 2002, p. 15). Photoshop is an advanced program and can be expensive, but cheaper options can yield the same result with a seasoned photo editor. This software is not only now extremely advanced, but accessible to anyone who has a computer and internet connection. Most people understand the ferocity in which photos can be edited, but some people still believe most things they
see without question. As long as someone has access to google images and a decent amount of photo editing skills, they can make a photo of anything. Today photography is used to exploit the average people’s desire to believe what they are seeing is real. Recently, one of the most popular modern photojournalists was exposed for altering many of his photos after he released a photo with subpar photo editing. Steven McCurry, who shot the infamous National Geographic ‘Afghan Girl’ photo, was revealed to have been altering his photos for years. Many of McCurry’s photo edits were not ex-
treme, he tended to collage many of his photos together to make them more visually appealing (Sharma, J., & Sharma, 2017, p. 92). As a photojournalist, this discovery tainted his whole portfolio. In a photographic genre where the most important aspect is the truth, none of McCurrys photos will ever be trusted again. With photojournalism being the only type of photography which is expected to be truthful and unedited, as more photojournalists are discovered to have altered photos over history this final frontier will be viewed to be just as dishonest as every other genre.
Additional Thoughts While contemporary editing techniques can make it harder to believe in the photos you are viewing, I would never want to live in a world without them. Photography without editing techniques would be like an illustrator without an erasor. Sometimes, especially when viewing photography as an art, even just simple editing can make all the difference. On page 20 I have an example of the original file of a photo I took as well as the final version with only minimal editing. Can you spot all the differences?
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Anatomy of Dishonest Photography In its current form, and as long as technology continues to advance, photography will always be rooted in dishonesty to some degree. Despite just being light bouncing off mirrors, even without any editing, modern photography “ idealize[s] the subjects; the framing is arbitrary, lends importance and veracity at the same time it levels an event to a very thin slice of reality� (Templin, P. S. 1978, p.15). What Templin means by this is that every photo will make the subject look like the most important object or person in the scene. This goes along with the framing as even a photo taken of a bank robbery could be cropped to be focused on the dog tied up outside, completely ignoring the crime going on right outside the frame. Most of the information in an environment is lost when it
is made into a short sliver of the truth. A photographer can ignore everything in the scene that they choose not to show. In addition to this, we as humans do not experience life in still images. This becomes a problem when we start believing in photos as real life. Just as a photo that was taken of a person can turn out to make them look different than the way they do in real life, any still photo creates a false reality that we all feed into. Something as simple as a low angle can tell a completely different story by making the subject seem bigger and more powerful. Every photo leaves out a plethora of important information and history that the viewer will likely never know. This is why even with no editing whatsoever, a single photo could never accurately depict real life.
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Photos as Evidence in a Court of Law A point in history has been reached where photos cannot be trusted, even as evidence in a court of law (Parry, 2009, p. 175). With today’s advanced editing techniques, alterations can be difficult or even impossible to spot. Modern technology has even made it possible to digitize film negatives, making it possible to edit them digitally, killing the last bit of integrity analog film was holding on to. This becomes a problem when photos are used as evidence, in court “a picture‘s power to persuade cannot be overemphasized” (Parry, 2009, p. 184). Parry explains that “jurors often are bored, confused, and frustrated when attorneys or witnesses try to explain technical or complex material”, and studies have shown that “jurors may retain as much as 85% of what they learn visually and as little as 10% of the information they hear” (2009, p. 185). Thus, when visual evidence is used, it can be so effective that it completely changes the outcome of the case.
With photos able to hold so much weight in court it would be expected that every photo goes through a formal inspection to determine their authenticity. In reality, to admit a photo as evidence in court it only needs one witness to testify it is real. This causes problems for three reasons, “often the witness is questioned about the photograph years after it was taken, frequently the witness would not notice if the photograph had been changed, and too often the witness is lying” (Parry, 2009, p. 187). One notable case involving the use of photo manipulation is the State v. Swinton in 2004. Swinton was on trial for the murder of a 28-year-old woman, and there was a plethora of evidence against him. This included photos of the bite marks on the victim and a mold of Swinton’s teeth. Edited images of the defendant’s teeth almost swayed the whole case until the court discovered they were edited (Guthrie, C., & Mitchell, B., 2006, p. 30). An institution as important as the court system should take digital manipulation more seriously, but it will never be known how many cases were skewed because of an altered photo being used as evidence.
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Photography and “Fake News” More than anything photography “fuels the spread of fake news” (Mallonee, L., 2017). One believable photo posted on a social media site with a fake caption can make countless people believe in a complete lie. Where in the past a ‘War of the Worlds’ spread of false information would be cleared up officially by an expert, today people get so much fake information it is impossible to fact check it all. Most of the time no one will tell you what is real and what is fictitious. In her Ted Talk, “How Fake News Does Real Harm”, Stephanie Busari tells a story of a hundred of young girls taken hostage by Boko Haram terrorists. In October of 2013, 21 girls were finally saved but two hundred remain still missing. For two years the news spread deceitful photos and videos to
push a “hoax narrative”. Busari “firmly believes” that the fake news spread by the media “was part of the reason for the delay in their return” (Busari, 2014). This is just one example of fake news can cause real harm, but with countless fake photos and stories pushed every day, it can be hard to tell what is real and what harm has been done. Studies have shown that most people cannot tell when a photo has been doctored. The average person can tell when a photo was manipulated “only 60 percent of the time, and they were able to identify what was specifically wrong with the picture only 45 percent of the time” (Nightingale, S. J., Wade, K. A., & Watson, D. G., 2017, p. 20). Knowing this, how can the average person trust anything they see?
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Future Implications Today, it is safe to believe that almost every photo has been doctored in some way. Even if a photo is just edited slightly, such as color editing, it is dishonest and will have a different impact. As this trend continues growing, moving images like video will be the only truthful form of media. At its current form, it can be hard to edit a full video to the extent in which a photo can be manipulated. Advanced video editing software is expensive and complicated to do, much like film editing was originally. But futuristic video editing such as FaceAp, where with just one photo can be made to look as though a person is saying something they have never said, already exists. These video editing softwares tend to
be choppy and simple, and can also easily be proven fake. But as video editing techniques continue to advance and become more widespread, easy, and accessible, it will become hard to tell when moving images are being honest. When this happens, the video will be lost as a form of evidence just like photography was. With video being the final frontier of honest media, there will be no media left that we can trust to be inherently honest with us. What will happen when we cannot believe in photos and video as truth of any sort?
Additional Thoughts The implications of this can be scary for some. A world where we cannot trust any media seems almost like an episode of ‘Black Mirror’ or ‘The Twilight Zone’. In reality though, we have already been living this for quite awhile, and there is really nothing we can do about it. Every photo and every video you see on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, has been altered in some way to change the impact. Even if this is just cropping the photo or taking it from an odd angle. Think about all of the photos we take of ourselves just to get the perfect one, everything you see is thsat one perfect photo. Evven for me, for every single one of the photos I show in this book, I have countless that will never see the light of day.
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Conclusion Since its creation, photography has transformed from a tool showing a fraction of light, to an art which can portray anything people decide. Combined with the truth claim where most people believe photos they are seeing depict reality, this creates dangerous mindsets. Photography in the modern world cannot be trusted to show the truth to any degree. Even without any alterations, a photo is taken so that the viewer perceives what the artist wants them to. Photos today can so easily be doctored or edited to show anything desired. This has been proven many times in the past to cause problems by deceiving humankind’s belief that photos are depicting reality. Even photojournalism, the only genre of photography we look to expecting truth, has lied to the public time and time again. This creates fake news which in turn then harms the public. Today the only media we can believe to any degree are moving images. As video editing becomes more advanced and accessible, it soon will follow the path of photography, becoming obsolete as a form of authentic truth. In the age we live in, nothing that has ever passed through a screen can be trusted.
Final Thoughts Throughout this book I have made a lot of claims about the world we live in. I hope they could make you think a little bit about the harsh reality we live in. I have also made some conflicting claims. How can the horror genre be monetizing the terror of real life, when nothing we see is actually the truth? This is a question you have to answer yourself. We live in a world of questions and contradictions, nothing ever seems to make sense. This is what I aim to show in my photography. A surreal world where anything is possible. All I ask of you is to remember we live in an absurd world, even though any and everything we see can be faked, trust your instincts, and enjoy your time here.
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Colofon Book Design: Michael Hameister Photography: Michael Hameister Printed at:
Citations Admin, M. (2014, November 24). The Bizarre Practice Of Staging Civil War Photographs. Retrieved from https:// knowledgenuts.com/2014/11/24/the-bizarre-practice-of-staging-civil-war-photographs Brand, S., Kelly, K., & Kinney, J. (1985). Digital retouching: The end of photography as evidence of anything. Whole Earth Review, (47), 42-49. Busari, S. (2014, April) Stephanie Busari: How Fake News Does Real Harm [Video file]. Retrieved from https:// www.ted.com/talks/stephanie_busari_ how_fake_news_does_real_harm?language=en Caruso, R. D., & Postel, G. C. (2002). Image editing with Adobe Photoshop 6.0. Radiographics, 22(4), 993-1002.
Guthrie, C., & Mitchell, B. (2006). The Swinton Six: The impact of State v. Swinton on the authentication of digital images. Stetson L. Rev., 36, 661. Mäenpää, J. (2013). Photojournalism and the notion of objectivity–The Particularity of Photography and its Relationship with Truthfulness. Past, future and change: Contemporary analysis of evolving media scapes, 123-133. Magnusson, M. (2006). Fakers, Forgers & Phoneys: Famous Scams and Scamps. Mainstream Publishing. Mallonee, L. (2017, June 03). How Photos Fuel the Spread of Fake News. Retrieved from https://www.wired. com/2016/12/photos-fuel-spread-fakenews/
Nightingale, S. J., Wade, K. A., & Watson, D. G. (2017). Can people identify original and manipulated photos of real-world scenes?. Cognitive research: principles and implications, 2(1), 30. Parry, Z. B. (2009). Digital manipulation and photographic evidence: defrauding the courts one thousand words at a time. U. Ill. JL Tech. & Pol’y, 175. Sharma, J., & Sharma, R. (2017) Analysis of Key Photo Manipulation Cases and their Impact on Photography. Sontag, S. (2001). On photography (Vol. 48). Macmillan. Templin, P. S. (1978). Still Photography: Can It Provide Program Portrayal?.
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