Fauxtography, or Manipulating an Image to Tell a Story

Nice piece on photography and fauxtography by The Verge. It talks about certain automated actions in photography but I think it speaks to photo manipulation in general. Long before smartphones and Photoshop were invented, some photographers still manipulated their images in the dark room. These were under the category of fine art photography, and it helped a photographer use the picture to tell the story in their head.

For the longest time, we’ve had a seemingly clear dividing line between shots straight out of the camera (colloquially referred to as SOOC) and examples of fauxtography where the shooter has indulged in applying some after effects like filters, vignettes, recoloration, or masking and inserting objects in the frame. Phones are now stampeding over that line.

Check It Out: Fauxtography, or Manipulating an Image to Tell a Story

One thought on “Fauxtography, or Manipulating an Image to Tell a Story

  • It goes back even before advanced darkroom techniques.
    I remember hearing that a good number of the most famous pictures of Civil War Battlefields were staged. The photographer would move bodies, and guns and such to create the image he wanted.

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