Can a photograph lie? A photograph can tell a 1000 words – but sometimes those words may be a misconception or they may be interpreted differently from on person to another – depending on your own general knowledge of current affairs etc. you may be less educated about a subject than someone else and therefore a lie may be different for each person.
Even something like the photograph above comparing a naturally coloured image to a manipulated black and white image can be classed as lie because it is not showing the image in its natural colour once converted to black and white and therefore because of this change in colour of highlights and shadows, the whole meaning and mood of the image is transformed – in the coloured image, the mood is much more cheerful due to the bright sky behind and the healthy and vibrant skin tones of the subject, however, once converted to black and white, the shadows become much darker and the highlights become much lighter – affecting the mood and ,making it more melancholy and serious and we immediately feel much more sad emptions when looking at the black and white alternative. This image is not telling the truth and it is a very simple example but something that it is evident as a lie in phtooagrohy everyday as on photo editing and sharing apps such as Instagram – editing an image is the norm and it is what is used to attract the attention of the viewer and improve the quality of an image by enhancing colours etc. but it is a lie!
A more serious example of this is in Dimitri Baltermats’ image of grieving family members seeing the deceased bodies of their loved ones after the Crimea War in 1942. Due to the inability and inaccessibility of digital cameras in these days, images were shot on negative and then developed in dark rooms with the use of chemicals etc. However, photographers till has the ability to choose to enhance or alter some of the colours in black and white images they were developing by changing the qualities of chemicals. This was the old way to manage the ‘levels’ we are now familiar with in photography when we are editing image on Photoshop and artist could change the shadows by lightening them or darkening them to change the mood – exactly what Baltermats did in his controversial image of the 1940’s (below).
As you can see, in the image, the sky looks quite dramatically dark and this is because of Baltermats efforts to alter the darkness of the shadows produced by the clouds in the sky. The original would have been much lighter but the artist chose to darken these colours in order to overall alter the mood and tone of the image. The image consist of families grieving and mourning over their loved ones lost in the war as they look lovingly yet full of grief and sadness over the dead bodes on the floor. The whole context and content is hard-hitting alone but the use of darkening the shadows in the sky has added to this but it is a way of lying in an image and it is the true representation of what was happening but it was used as a way to provoke sympathy from the audience.
There is no doubt, that generally in life, we all class a lie as something forbidden against and something it is classed as morally and ethically wrong due to its consequences that cone with it after a lie has been committed, if you like. We are taught not to lie as this is not right and may result in controversy and we always want to tell the truth but a lie can be used a s a manipulation tool to play with the minds of people, whether it be a little white lie or bigger – it has its often negative results and that’s why we intend to always speak truth – however, people can also lie through photography and imagery and cab be seen as less inflicting on society or people due to it being non-verbal – a pre-conception that it is a lie in itself because a lie in photography can be just as risky as that of information passed on by people. Therefore, the answer to whether a photograph can lie is ‘YES’, it can but the severity of the lie can depend on the hands the image may be in and how far of a lie it may be made into.
The image above (above) can even be called a lie inn photography. This is an image taken by famous celebrity and fashion portrait photographer, Rankin. The image is called ‘3 Lips’ and can be argued to be a lie and not true due the use of make-up and special effects to manipulate the physical look of the models face. Her face would originally be naturally free of make-up and instead is now caked in make-up and sequins to benefit the look of the image’s outcome – it is not a true representation of the subject as she is covered up by make-up and this is essentially a lie.
You can argue that a lie in photography is the use of Photoshop’s very handy and useful tools such as skin touch-ups and the ability to turn a slice of pizza into a ‘supermodel’ for magazine cover, and you can also argue that a lie in imagery is cropping part of an image of frame so that it is does not exist anymore, or a lie a may be manipulating an image manually, like in Jonny Briggs’ work where he uses other subjects such a chewing gum to cover the faces of two people in a portrait. However, a very iconic lie in photography is derived from the image of that of Robert Capa’s – the world-renowned war photographer whose image of a loyal soldier mid-fall from being shot by the opposing country as a result of appearing above the ditch on no man’s land (below).
The truth of the phot above was not revealed by Capa at the time it was taken and then published because he did not feel comfortable talking about it – which is understandable. In the image Capa captured above, it was amazing at the time and it has gone down in history as images that changed the notion of photography. The image shows a soldier being shot down and then falling on the ground as he releases the grip of is shot gun – and thi is what happened and what Capa captured so very conveniently ands at the perfect moment in time as he has just been impacted with the bullet and it is nit very pleasant ot see and we as the audience can feel a sense of anger towards the photographer who hasn’t done anything except see it as a perfect opportunity to take a photograph when someone is dying on a battlefield and although it is useful he documented this moment in time with his camera as it shows the camera as a tool which can act a witness for events like this, we have only recently learnt how the moment actually came about. Capa has recently spoken out about how the soldier got shot and he said that he asked the soldiers he was with for the last few days as he documented their life on the battlefields to get out of cover on this particular day and “act out war” and “play out” what war would look like and surprisingly, the soldiers did as he asked and as a result of this very light-hearted act of kindness and humour, one soldier received the inevitable punishment of putting himself out on No Man’s Land by getting shot by the opposition. So although the death of this soldier is real and true, the tragedy never has to happen and can be argued to be a lie. We struggle to see whether truth has been depicted.
Although there has been the introduction of digital photography and the ease of capturing a second in time with a digital camera and then uploading it to a computer through the advancements of technology all within a couple seconds of each other, manipulation of the reality and actual truth of images in the 19th and 20th centuries was very common.
Concept Analysis
The image above is an image of Tom Pope’s from the series ‘The Escapades of The Higher Man’. Tom Pope is a young British photographer and has previously done a residency in Jersey fro Archisle like what Jonny Briggs and Tanja Deman have just completed over the last six months of this year.
‘Escapades of a Higher Man’ is a new body of images and is derived from Nietzsche’s idea of ‘Gods successor’ as being the higher man, an un-conformist, who lives by a new set of social values and interactions. This lifestyle has potential to veer between brilliance and madness, which makes it a wonderful creative space for art to occupy.
Pope’s work is influenced by the likes of Yves Kline and in particular his 1960 image of himself diving horizontally from a rooftop onto a French street. The image below is named ‘Leap Into The Void’. Most of Pope’s work is inspired by this artist and his use of a suit that he pictures himself margin in each image. The suit becomes an outward sign of conformity, but it is worn by the artist as a means of social camouflage and to show a juxtaposition of conforming to the need to appear sophisticated yet at the same time, have fun and feel a sense of freedom. In the image below and in the images Pope has previously created and exhibited widely, we can begin tot question the notion of truth because us as ethically correct audiences feel it very wrong that this subject has appeared to be falling out of a building window and onto a street without any protection below or without any safety equipment – we force ourselves to not accept the reality of what is actually happening within the frame because it seems wrong and socially unacceptable due to the absurdity.
A concept we have to address when looking at images like the above where there is a subject floating in mid-air within the frame of a photograph without nay explanation as to how they got there is how it is manageable and how he actually managed to capture this moment in time which seems very unrealistic because it goes against the knowledge that humans cannot fly – that we belong on the ground on our feet and not floating in the air.
Many conclusions can be drawn from what is shown above and the one that is most common as Pope told me after working with him at an old school during his residency on the island, is that people assumed he had photoshopped himself into the image of the vast fields he had pre-photographed. However, this is not the case and in fact Pope has psychically jumped into the air on the edge of this hill I assume to capture the background and whilst in mid air, the camera he has set up on his tripod is connected to a shutter release remote and Pope would have this in his hand and once in the air, he would press the button to release the shutter. Using a slow shutter release speed, he as manged to capture the blurred movement of himself coming up then down again and it creates a very futuristic yet confusing concept which is actually true and real.