Us humans can’t help ourselves. Show us something new and it is pretty much guaranteed that, not long after, we will be trying our best to find a way to use it for something other than its original intent.

Tonight we welcomed Sue Gray LRPS CPAGB AWPF to the club, via Zoom, presenting her talk on how, right from the start, the photograph has been manipulated, edited and altered – not always for photographic reasons, as we shall see.

Sue’s interest in photography came about for reasons she does not recall. Suffice it to say, it seems what she wanted to do was paint but, like your blogger this week, such artistic skills were a bit too far away and so a camera became the means to record holidays, etc. A purchase of a slide projector (her husband is also a keen photographer so they had many to view) brought a copy of Photoshop 4 into the house. A CD, no instructions…err…where to start? Like many people then, Sue just had to play with the software and use trial and error. She was soon hooked!

2002 saw her take the plunge into digital with a Nikon Koolpix and she’s not looked back. Magazines and courses gave Sue much more insight and her confidence grew – she could finally make her images look as she wanted. Drawing on her interest in painting and drawing, Sue also went deeper into the manipulation and compositing parts of Photoshop, while also carrying on “playing” with her images. Joining a camera club in 2010, Sue had a bit of pushback from those who were still not considering digital as “real” photography but as the letters after her name above show, she has moved on!

From this dive into editing and all its uses, Sue saw that many of the most useful tools in Photoshop had names whose origins were clearly from the darkroom. Dodging, burning, cut and paste, use of layers and masks; all come from physical aspects that are used to this day in a traditional darkroom to produce a final image. So began Sue’s desire to know more about all aspects of photo editing and how it has been used (and abused) over the years.

We do not know why he removed the fifth friar but it is one of the earliest recorded edited images. It is assumed he simply cut out or painted over the fifth friar.

Sue gave us such a detailed history, explaining the development of photo editing in all its various forms. As is always the case, the materials used to develop the image and the skills needed were changing. The use of various, often dangerous chemicals and light-sensitive materials ran alongside the growth of lenses and the ability to “see” more light. Pioneers like Henry Fox Talbot and Hippolyte Bayard were changing the way a final print was being produced and we finally arrived at the age of the photo negative. This was a springboard for photography in general and the Victorians soon embraced it all. But of course, once people could see themselves, they wanted to change how they looked. And so began a new age of editing skills, as can be seen by this example; compare the lady on the left, as taken and then how she changed for the right side.

Postcards and scenic views were perhaps obvious targets for “editing” to give people more in what was a small size image. Again, over time, it was possible to produce bigger and bigger prints and more editing uses were found.

Of course, we were still in the black and white photo era but colours could be added either by filters or just painted on. An example here is the famous train crash at Montparnasse Station in Paris.

Over time, we have seen colourised photos of many famous people such as Brunel and Darwin. Research was carried out to make sure the colours were accurate.

Photo editing covered far more than just adding, removing or colourising. Lenses could still struggle to capture all the light and so we had vignettes. Over time, these were added rather than simply there as the outcome of the actual image taken. By the end of the 19^th century, photo manipulation had become a standalone business and of course, it was also being used for far more than just everyday family images.

Sue gave us many examples of photos being used to create or uphold a certain type of persona when it came to political and military leaders.

One of Abe Lincoln’s most famous images came after his assassination. With it being hard to find a suitable “statesman” like image, one was created by imposing Lincoln’s head on someone else’s body! The head had to be reversed to fit the body and so Lincoln’s mole switched sides!

The phenomenon was worldwide and the Russian Revolution also had images to promote its aims that were altered to fit the message. Lenin and Trotsky quarrelled and so Trotsky had to go from the photo.

This trend really took off with Stalin and below is a selection of alterations made to one photo of Stalin and his associates…before each one was taken outside…

It has always been the case that images can work for propoganda and the use of compositing has been seen in places that we might not expect. The top image below is “showing a soldier warning a refugee to stay low”. It is, in reality, a composite of two images taken a little time apart.

Then there are times when we might just want to see a colour version of a well known image, just because it can be done!

In the arts, how would one capture the essence of Salvador Dali in a photo? The ones below are not necessarily a result of manipulation but, on the left, everything in it has been set up. The water, thrown in, the cats too; the chair held by an assistant of the photographer, Philippe Halsman. There were at least 26 shots taken to get this just right and the image on the right keeps the assistant’s arm in the frame.

We also have a shot that one could probably guess at how it was taken but at least there are photos to show us the reality.

As Sue took us through the 20^th century, she made it clear to us all that these image alterations have been used in far more areas than we might expect. Yes, we can often see the obvious, when that is the aim, but in the worlds of fashion and advertising, can you really believe what you see?

One of the most bizarre examples Sue shared with us was this of Filippa Hamilton. What on earth made anyone publish the one on the left?

For a lot of photographers, one of the most disheartening things to hear from a judge or anyone looking at your image is the dreaded phrase “Was that really there?” It is practically a default to too many people to think that what they are seeing cannot have been simply edited to enhance without having something else above and beyond done to it.

So I end with an example of an image that was meant as a joke among friends but went rather beyond that. “Tourist Guy” posted an image he’d had taken on the roof of the WTC before 9/11 and altered the date of it…plus added the plane!!! Why? He said it was just for his friends but once online, it is pretty much fair game. It seems there are endless reasons people edit their images.

As I am sure both my readers will appreciate, it is nigh on impossible to do justice to Sue’s talk without it simply being a repeat of it in writing…and that would take some time. So I leave you both to ponder that today, in the world of rampant fake news, social media and selfies, the craft of photo manipulation and creativity is stronger and more alive than ever. Built-in camera filters, specialist software for any genre of photography and those two bad letters, A and I. Who knows where it will end?

The camera never lies…but the photograph can!

Thanks so much to Sue for a most enjoyable and informative talk that we all really appreciated.