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Many famous doctored photographs were made before Photoshop existed. Released in 1990, Photoshop gave people new digital tools, but photographers and publishers had already staged scenes, retouched prints, combined images, and changed crops for more than a century. “Photoshopped” is often used loosely; to understand an image, ask what changed, when it changed, and what claim the published version made.
The 44 in this title refers to a gallery’s example count, not a scientific or independently verified category. The examples below focus on cases the research supports and explain why a staged scene, a retouched print, and political erasure should not all be called the same kind of “fake.”
What does “Photoshopped” mean?
Photographic manipulation includes interventions at different stages: arranging a scene before the shutter, altering a negative or print, combining photographs, changing a crop, or editing a digital file. A genuine photograph can still mislead if it is selectively framed, retouched, or presented with a false caption.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Faking It: Manipulated Photography Before Photoshop traced altered photography from the 1840s through the early 1990s. The Met describes methods including photomontage, combination printing, overpainting, and retouching, and observes that “the urge to modify camera images is as old as photography itself—only the methods have changed.”
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| Type of intervention | When it happens | Example of what changes |
|---|---|---|
| Staging | Before exposure | People, props, or poses are arranged for the camera. |
| Retouching | On a negative, print, or digital file | Details are concealed, added, or altered. |
| Composite | During image production | Elements from multiple photographs are combined. |
| Cropping | When an image is framed or published | Part of the original scene is excluded. |
| Political erasure | Often during retouching or republication | A person is removed, changing the apparent historical record. |
These categories have different implications. An artistic staged photograph is not automatically a fabricated news event; cosmetic retouching is not the same as erasing a political figure. The relevant questions are what the image claimed to show and what evidence supports the account of its alteration.
Famous examples before digital editing
Lincoln portrait: reversal and retouching
The Library of Congress catalogs a reversed and retouched copy of a portrait of Abraham Lincoln associated with photographer Alexander Hesler. It is evidence that photographs could be changed by altering their orientation and surface long before digital software. Describe it as the cataloged copy, not as an untouched camera original.
The Cottingley fairies: cutouts and print retouching
In 1917, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths made photographs that appeared to show them with fairies. Research by the Science Museum Group says the figures in the first photographs were drawings cut out and mounted on pins. The pictures began as a family joke, then attracted public attention after Edward Gardner and Arthur Conan Doyle promoted them.
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The production history involved more than staging. The Science Museum Group reports that Harold Snelling retouched a copy of Elsie’s “Alice and the Fairies” before its publication in The Strand in December 1920. Later recollections were not entirely consistent: in the early 1980s Elsie and Frances described how the images were made, while Frances later maintained that the fifth image related to real fairies she had seen. The evidence therefore supports a careful distinction between the first four staged images and the more complicated recollections about the fifth.
Political erasure in Soviet photographs
Removing a person from a widely circulated photograph can change the apparent story of who was present and who held influence. NewseumED documents published Soviet versions that removed Nikolai Yezhov and Leon Trotsky from photographs. These examples show how revised images could suppress former officials from the visual record.
Nikolai Yezhov removed from a photograph with Stalin
NewseumED describes a photograph of Yezhov with Joseph Stalin beside the Moscow-Volga Canal in April 1937 and a later version in which Yezhov was removed. The visible change and its historical context are important; do not claim that Stalin personally ordered or performed this specific edit unless a separate source establishes it.
Trotsky removed from images associated with Lenin
NewseumED also describes versions of images associated with Vladimir Lenin from which Leon Trotsky was removed after Trotsky fell from power. The altered versions changed who appeared in the visual record. As with the Yezhov example, distinguish the documented before-and-after history from assumptions about the individual responsible for each retouch.
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How to assess a famous altered image
A before-and-after graphic shared online is not, by itself, proof of an image’s history. Use a source record and keep visible evidence separate from interpretation.
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- Find the earliest documented version. Look for a record from an archive, library, museum, photographer, or rights holder.
- Record provenance and dates. Note what is known about the photograph, the altered version, and where each appeared.
- Identify the intervention. Say whether the evidence shows staging, retouching, compositing, cropping, or removal of a person or object.
- Separate observation from motive. “The later version omits Yezhov” is different from a claim about who ordered the edit or why.
- Check the caption and context. An authentic photograph can mislead if its date, location, or explanation is wrong.
- Check rights before republishing. Historical importance does not automatically grant permission to reproduce an image.
What the examples teach us
Photographs acquire meaning through how they are made, edited, captioned, and circulated. The Cottingley photographs show how staging and later print retouching can occur in one image’s history. The Soviet examples show how removing a person can revise the apparent historical record. The Met’s survey places these practices in a much longer history of photographic alteration.
The answer is neither to trust every photograph blindly nor to dismiss every image as fake. Identify the version you are seeing, establish what changed, and rely on documented provenance before repeating a claim about its editor or purpose.
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FAQ
Were all 44 images made with Adobe Photoshop?
No. The Met says Photoshop 1.0 was released in 1990, while photographic manipulation dates back to the nineteenth century. The gallery count groups examples of different kinds of intervention, including pre-digital practices.
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What is the difference between a staged photograph and a retouched photograph?
A staged photograph arranges the scene before exposure. A retouched photograph is altered on a negative, print, or digital file. A single image’s history can include both: the Cottingley case involved staged figures and, for one published copy, print retouching.
Were the Cottingley fairies drawings?
Science Museum Group research says the figures in the first photographs were drawings cut out and mounted on pins. The later recollections about the fifth image were more complicated, so it is best not to describe every image and recollection as identical.
Why were people removed from Soviet photographs?
NewseumED documents versions that removed Nikolai Yezhov and Leon Trotsky from photographs, illustrating how republication could suppress former officials from the visual record. Claims about who personally ordered a particular edit require supporting evidence beyond the visible change.
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Does an altered photograph mean the event never happened?
No. An image may be staged, retouched, cropped, or composited without proving that every depicted event was fabricated. Assess what the photograph was intended to show and what the alteration actually establishes.
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