Can a photograph lie?

‘Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we’re shown a photograph of it’

– Susan Sontag from her book ‘On Photography- In Plato’s Cave’

In our world today, photography is accepted as an art, being a form of expression. However it was not always like this. After its invention as a new technology in the early 19th century, photography was immediately seen as a threat to the world of art, artists refusing to see it as another medium. Photography was an outcast, being seen as a danger to artists and it was even believed that ‘when the process of taking photographs in colours has been perfected and made common enough, the painter will have nothing more to do’, as said by the artist Henrietta Clopath in a1901 issue of Brush and Pencil. This fear caused the early form of photography to create a sense of distaste in the minds of these seemingly closed- minded artists. It was a fear of a photograph being able to capture the likeness of something perfectly, in a way no artist could ever do. If not fearful of the new invention, critics were very dismissive of the new medium, one even saying how photography could never recreate ‘that refined feeling and sentiment which animate the productions of a man of genius’ in a 1855 issue of The Crayon. Therefore, photography was simply seen as a mechanism that recorded visual facts of the world, which contrasts with the more modern idea of photography not always being truthful. Despite photography having a primary purpose of representing reality, it can easily create illusions. In the essay I will be exploring how photos can depict made up scenarios, creating staged photographs.

Nowadays, AI has the same effect on the world as photography once had, if not even more extreme. Artificial Intelligence has a massive impact on our world, whether it is used to create images or generate text. AI is quite a controversial topic, provoking many disputes since it can easily deceive people with its ability of obtaining realism. AI is based on a massive amount of data that has been inputted into the internet, helping it become more and more accurate through the years. Today, we are at a stage where prompts can be put into generative AIs such like Midjourney which creates images based off of existing images and any prompts the user inputs and ChatGPT, a chatbot that can even produce essays on any topic. Despite such applications showing the development of our technologies, such programs create many issues in our society, even simple things that helping students with their homework. Most people are aware that AI has many benefits as well as dangers, but the dangers of it were especially highlighted when Geoffrey Hinton, commonly referred to as the ‘Godfather of AI’, stopped working with Google as he wanted to ‘focus solely on his concerns about AI’. Hinton believes AI could find a way to be ‘very good at manipulation’ and even find a way to ‘manipulate people to do what it wants’. Coming from someone with so much knowledge about the matter, it is quite concerning to learn that Hinton believes that ‘it (AI) will figure out ways of getting round the restrictions we put on it’. Judging by how quickly AI is generating, I think there is truth in this statement, especially coming from such a powerful individual. It does seem very extreme however, like something that would happen in the sci-fi movies that people my age grew up watching.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/02/tech/hinton-tapper-wozniak-ai-fears/index.html – Why the ‘Godfather of AI’ decided he had to ‘blow the whistle’ on the technology.

In this essay I will be analysing the work of two artists: Robert Capa who created the famous ‘Death of a Loyalist Soldier’ and Philip Toledano who creates AI generated images of Donald Trump. Capa’s photo was arguably ‘staged’ and Toledano’s photo isn’t real, and I think these two images have a bigger link that people would think. Both of them could be controversial in the world of photography, especially the top one which appears as though it is a documentary photo.

Manipulating Images in the Past

When we think of manipulating/ editing images, we immediately think of Photoshop, or some other form of online editing program. However, photographic manipulation has been around since photography itself became a technology. It was done both in a darkroom and the camera itself. Developing pictures in a darkroom is a skill in itself, having to cut up the film, assure the temperature if the mixture is correct and there being a constant risk of ruining your images (a more in depth explanation in the video featured below).

Manipulating photos was a difficult process that took many hours in the darkroom to master. Some of the common techniques for darkroom manipulation are dodging, burning, and collage creating. Dodging decreases the exposure for areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be lighter, a commonly used editing technique to improve the overall look of an image. To do this you hold back or shade the problem area with a dodge tool (a piece of dark cardboard or plastic on the end of a thin metal wand). The dodge tool should be in motion during the exposure, as this helps feather/ smooth the effect and makes it blend into the rest of the photograph. It can also be used on shadows to bring texture into the print. On the other hand, burning is the opposite, when the majority of the image is well lit, so additional exposure would make it too dark. For burning, you add additional light only to the bright area. To do this you cut a hole in cardboard or use your hand in a cup shape to project a beam of light back onto the paper after the main exposure. Overexposure happens a lot in skies or if a heavy flash has been used. Burning is also used to add a vignette to an image.

Collages or combining photos was also a popular technique used in photo manipulation. In the 1850s, French photographer Gustave Le Gray composited segments from several negatives to produce images (mostly seascapes) that had richer and more balanced tones than a single negative could produce. His technique gained popularity and became a good way of correcting photos by using different areas from a range of shots.

 Pictorialism was a twentieth century movement that highly valued artistic expression in photography and intended to create photographs that were viewed as esteemed works of fine art. It was very different to the original dislike of photography, finally considering it as a medium of art. Pictorialist photographers used complicated techniques to manipulate their photographs and demonstrate proof of their hard work, such as the use of soft focus, special filters and lens coatings. For example, using a special diffusing lenses produced a softer, dreamier look. Straight photography is more concerned with realistic, straightforward depictions of photography, which opposes the manipulation used by pictorialist photographers.

‘Death of a Loyalist Soldier’ is a famous photograph claimed to have been taken on Saturday, September 5, 1936. It depicts the death of a Republican Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth soldier, during the Battle of Cerro Muriano in the Spanish Civil War. This image is a simple one, with a bad composition, the sky undefined, however it is one of the most discussed photographs in the world. So what makes it so special? This photograph was taken by Robert Capa, a Hungarian–American war photographer and photojournalist, who look many action shots throughout his life. He took it while being in a battle field with a group of soldiers. Capa began to become inpatient and asked the soldiers to act out a war scene, jumping out of the trenches and pretending to shoot. After some time, Capa was photographing one of the soldier’s when suddenly he was shot (truly this time) by a sniper. When presented to the public, many disputes arose, questioning the photograph’s authenticity. Despite obviously being a real photo, if Capa hadn’t encouraged the men to jump out from the trenches, the man would’ve most likely have survived. So could this photo count as a documentary one, or was it staged?

Even after so many years, there are still many discussions about this photo. The main doubts began in 1975, but many were still being considered in the 2000s. In his 2009 book, ‘Sombras de la Fotografía’ (“Shadows of Photography”), José Manuel Susperregui of the University of País Vasco noticed that landscape was from Espejo and not Cerro Muriano, where Capa claimed it was taken. Furthermore, the 2007 documentary ‘La sombra del iceberg‘ claimed that the picture was staged and that Borrell (the man who reportedly died that day) is not the individual in the picture. Considering this, the credibility of the photo being ‘real’ without any distortion of the truth is disrupted, however I do believe this photo still counts as a documentary photo. I understand the way the picture could be viewed as staged, since the acting Capa encouraged did contribute or even result in the man’s death, many of the ‘facts’ supplied by Capa proven to be inaccurate. Despite this, the precise moment this photograph captured was real, the man’s death one of many that occurred due to the civil war, by a sniper who most likely had no idea about the photographing taking place. The photo still captures the essence of war, the suffering and insignificance of lives that war portrays. War photography is an attempt at capturing moments that represent the true horror of it, as this photo does.

Manipulating Photos Today

Since 1980, around when the digital age began, photography has been much more successful in altering reality, since the manipulation process has gradually much simpler and more effective. Digital cameras have many functions nowadays, whether it is controlling the exposure or shutter speed, or even immediately applying colour filters. I believe that staged photographs are much more common these days, and that truthful documentary photos are quite rare- due to the amount of editing and staging that occurs in the photography industry.

There are also many types of software that help with image manipulation, the most famous being Photoshop, which makes it extremely simple to adjust photos and change their look. Photoshop and other similar software can even add, erase and stitch together areas of photos, allowing photographers to choose what story their photograph portrays. Despite it creating many controversies and misshaping reality, I think photographers mainly utilise such tools to make their work more interesting, beautiful and artistic. It can create issues however, as undeniably manipulation of photos in the past was mostly only used to enhance the quality/ effectiveness of a photo, whereas now it can be single subjects that are changed (mostly people) and made to look ‘better’ or more interesting. This is mostly seen in fashion magazines, that change the looks of celebrities and models to fit into society’s harsh stereotypes even more. However, it can also be found in seemingly trustworthy places like documentary magazines, making images look more dramatic to attract more attention, rather than showing people the reality.

Many, if not all photos of celebrities that are seen in magazines like Vogue, are edited and changed to look more appealing. The example above clearly indicates this.

This is a AI generated image prompted by Philip Toledano of Donald Trump working at a fast food restaurant, a complete opposite of his real life. He uses MidJourney to create his work and gains some interesting results. Despite the background of the image being slightly obscured, some of the people having distorted faces, at first glace this image is still very realistic- provoking a reaction. This example is clearly generated, Trump would never have a picture taken in such a place due to his high social status, however, Toledano still receives a lot of comments and responses to these images. He wrote how these pictures are an ‘exploration of what might be his (Trump’s) deepest fear- to become what he despises the most’ and I think this is a very interesting use of AI. This image is very enticing as it shows an entirely different side of Trump, and almost mocking him in the process, showing how he is still in fact a human and isn’t ‘better’ than others. It has a strong message of equality within it, with is why I think Toledano’s work is so powerful.

Generative AI such as DreamStudio, Midjourney or DALL E 2 is becoming better and better each day, using either specific photos you put into it or data from the internet. It creates such images from taking information from real pictures similar to the prompts we give it, however, managing to make them completely unique and original, or in different words, making them entirely fake.

Toledano mentioned how ‘AI has its own voice’ and I think this is a very interesting observation. AI creates photos in a way no human ever could, despite it’s outcomes being purely based on images that were taken by humans. Moreover, despite being given prompts, AI doesn’t always apply them all, sometimes even adding things, seemingly making it’s own decisions. I do however think that AI is much more limited than people, lacking imagination and I don’t think that is something it will ever have.

So, can a photograph lie? I think any photograph can lie, however it is mainly due to it’s manipulation and the photographer. Both of these pictures have some aspect of a lie within them, despite one being real and the other fake. Robert Capa’s photo is a lie since a lot of the information about it is questioned or has even been proven wrong, the moment itself (although real) heavily influenced by staged photography. Philip Toledano’s image is AI generated, having no truth in it whatsoever. Both the photo and AI generated images have a great affect on society, however are images slowly becoming more and more untrue? Manipulation of photos is given much less though and effort than it used to, being made simpler by software and AI. Nowadays, photos can completely change or even make up scenarios, whereas in the past they could simply slightly distort it. I don’t believe this is a negative but it is something humans should be wary of, and should learn to not trust everything we see. I think we are much more aware of such manipulation than past generations were however, as Capa’s legendary photo provoked so many reactions and debates due to its lack in reliability. In contrast, editing these days doesn’t create such confusion, except possibly merely giving us something to think about. I think AI is a next big step in the manipulation of images, provoking many different reactions (especially when very realistic). With a click of a few buttons, anyone can create beautiful art or horrific rumours, things we have not learnt to be prepared for. I think photography will always play such an important role in our daily lives as it does today, perhaps even more in the future since it provides us with so much knowledge and leads to many new technologies and findings. On the other hand, I believe AI will slowly be more and more normalised, but will also cause people to be much more hesitant and make anything and everything on the internet untrustworthy, which is a disturbing thought. Our world will never stop developing, which has its positives as well as negatives, and I just hope we will develop with it and learn to control it.

Bibliography

Korn. J (2023), Why the ‘Godfather of AI’ decided he had to ‘blow the whistle’ on the technology. CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/02/tech/hinton-tapper-wozniak-ai-fears/index.html

Rod. S (2021), The Contrasting Ideals of Pictorialism and Straight Photography. Scalar: https://scalar.chapman.edu/scalar/ah-331-history-of-photography-spring-2021-compendium/shanya-rod-essay 3#:~:text=Pictorialist%20photographers%20used%20extensive%20techniques,Pictorial%20Photography%2C%E2%80%9D%20Peter%20C.

Sontag. S (1971), On Photography. London: Penguin Books

Teicher. J (2016), When Photography Wasn’t Art. JstorDaily: https://daily.jstor.org/when-photography-was-not-art/

(2016), Dodging and Burning. Panopticonmaging: www.panopticonimaging.com/wordpress/post_id-4

(2021), The Falling Soldier: The story behind this iconic photograph, 1936. RareHistoricalPhotos: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/falling-soldier-1936/#:~:text=The%20Falling%20Soldier%20became%20famous,practice%20at%20the%20time)%20staged.

DreamStudio

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Photoshop Beta

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I added more features to the image using the generative fill.

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I added some extra features using generative fill

Edited Versions

I think editing all my images into black and white was a good decision as it linked in more with Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work. I think my results were quite successful in capturing St. Malo, especially the people.

Images from camera

Images from phone (already edited)

St. Malo

Saint-Malo is a port city in Brittany, in France’s northwest. Tall granite walls surround the old town, which was once a stronghold for privateers (pirates approved by the king). The Saint-Malo Cathedral, in the centre of the old town, is built in Romanesque and Gothic styles and features stained-glass windows depicting city history. Nearby is La Demeure de Corsaire, an 18th-century privateer’s house and museum.

Saint Malo was born in Alet, one century B.C. The Gallo-Roman port made way for a city founded on an island in the 12th century. In the 18th century, the privateers Duguay-Trouinand Surcouf confirmed the prestige of Saint-Malo, whose banner flies above the French flag. After the 1944 bombings, most of the buildings were rebuilt, in the exact same style as before, keeping the antique look of the town. It was done over a 12-year period from 1948 to 1960.

I think Jersey and St. Malo have a lot in common, since they both have many historic sites and old buildings. I think it was good to go there as it was easier to take pictures (since no one knew us there) but still keeping the look that pictures of Jersey would give us.

Our Route

https://www.brittanytourism.com/destinations/the-10-destinations/cap-frehel-saint-malo-mont-saint-michel-bay/saint-malo/

William Klein

William Klein was an American-born French photographer and filmmaker noted for his ironic approach to both media and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in the context of photojournalism and fashion photography. William Klein is best known for incorporating unusual elements into his photographs and videos.

He was born on the 19th of April, 1926 in New York, United Status and died on the 10th of September, 2022 in Paris, France.

Vivian Maier

Vivian Dorothy Maier was an American street photographer whose work was discovered and recognized after her death. She secretly took more than 150,000 photographs during her lifetime, primarily of the people and architecture of Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, although she also travelled and photographed worldwide.

She was born on the 1st of February, 1926 in New York, United Status and died on the 21st of April, 2009 in Illinois, United States.

About Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer who is considered to be one of the fathers of photojournalism and masters of candid photography. He sought to capture the ‘everyday’ in his photographs and took great interest in recording human activity.  He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment, which he later wrote a book about. He was influenced by Surrealism and began his career in film working with renowned French director, Jean Renoir as second assistant director. He was born on the 22nd of August, 1908 In Chanteloup-en-Brie, France and passed away on the 3rd of August, 2004 in Céreste, France.

He came from quite a wealthy family and since his parents were providing financial support, Henri pursued photography quite freely. His father assumed that his son would take up the family business, but Henri was strong-willed and also feared the idea.  In 1929, Cartier-Bresson’s air squadron commandant placed him under house arrest for hunting without a licence. Cartier-Bresson met American expatriate Harry Crosby, who persuaded the commandant to release Cartier-Bresson into his custody for a few days. The two men both had an interest in photography, and Crosby presented him with his first camera.

Cartier-Bresson ended up falling into an intense sexual relationship with Caresse Crosby (Harry Crosby’s wife) however, two years after Harry Crosby died by suicide, Cartier-Bresson’s affair with Caresse Crosby ended in 1931. After reading the book, Heart of Darkness, which gave him the idea to try and find adventure in Côte d’Ivoire, Africa. He survived by shooting game and selling it to local villagers. From hunting, he learned methods which he later used in photography.

He acquired the Leica camera with a 50 mm lens in Marseilles that would accompany him for many years. The anonymity that the small camera gave him in a crowd or during an intimate moment was essential in overcoming the formal and unnatural behaviour of those who were aware of being photographed. He enhanced his anonymity by painting all shiny parts of the Leica with black paint. In the beginning, he did not photograph much in his native France. It would be years before he photographed there extensively. Cartier-Bresson’s first photojournalist photos to be published came in 1937 when he covered the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. 

“In photography , the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv” 

– Henri Cartier-Bresson

His Work

The ‘Decisive Moment’

‘Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera‘

– Henri Cartier-Bresson

In 1952, Cartier-Bresson published his book Images à la sauvette, whose English-language edition was titled The Decisive Moment, although the French language title actually translates as ‘images on the sly‘ or ‘hastily taken images’. His book The Decisive Moment, unintentionally imposed the motto which would define Cartier-Bresson’s work. The decisive moment refers to capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself.

It is widely considered to be one of the most important photobooks of the twentieth century. The Decisive Moment was described by Robert Capa as ‘a Bible for photographers’. The exhibition details how the decisions made by the collaborators in this major project—including Cartier-Bresson, French art publisher Tériade, American publisher Simon & Schuster, and Henri Matisse, who designed the book’s cover—have shaped our understanding of Cartier-Bresson’s photographs.

With it he described the exact instance when a unique event is captured by the photographer – when something that may never happen again is frozen in the frame. 

‘To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression’

– Henri Cartier-Bresson

(nɒstældʒə) noun

a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past.

About Nostalgia

The word nostalgia is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning “homecoming”, a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning “sorrow” or “despair”, and it was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties shown by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home. Described as a medical condition- a form of melancholy- in the Early Modern period, it became an important trope in Romanticism.

Most people would describe nostalgia as something that is comforting and familiar, however it can also be a deceiving illusion. I think this is because nostalgia and nostalgic feelings are based on memories rather than facts, and humans brains seem to erase past feeling of sadness and other negative emotions, therefore things that appear nostalgic may not be completely positive.

Nostalgia is mainly seen as a positive, nostalgic feelings being simply linked with pleasant memories of the past. There are many things that can trigger nostalgia, like music, movies, places, objects and people. I think nostalgia is typically quite a materialistic feeling, since it is typically triggered by solid things, however it also has spiritual aspects as it brings back positive feelings or a longing for the past. Nostalgia also links in with the idea of seeing the past as more positive than the future, so it could be argued to have negative effects since it can terminate the want to change and can even cause ideas of declinism.

Moodboard

Mindmap

His fascination with Fort Regent

Throughout his childhood, Lakeman had a fascination with the structure that we call Fort Regent. Fort Regent used to be a lot more interesting than it is now, being a sort of theme park, with different shows and concerts constantly being situated there. It was a place that was very special to young Lakeman, a place were he often went with his brother for entertainment. Lakeman took notice of every change that happened to the fort, the entertainment being shut down and many areas (like the swimming pool) being completely abandoned and left to rot, contrasting with the once crowded Fort Regent. Lakeman’s fascination continued into his adulthood, and he decided to create AI generated images that were a portrayal of not only the fort in the past, but also how he saw it as a child, enhancing the colours and making the place look more exciting and almost dream-like.

The work displayed at the exhibition

The exhibition was created in a very interesting way, including other senses like sound and smells to recreate Lakeman’s childhood memories of Fort Regent. I think it presented his work in a very effective way, causing it to more of an experience than a exhibition.

Lakeman talked about the many techniques he used, using a range of platforms to create his art. He mentioned how he wrote lots ‘prompts’, causing the AI to develop images that portrayed his childhood.

Review

Throughout the entire exhibition there was an obvious theme of nostalgia, each scene or memory being illustrated in a colour way. Lakeman talked about how Fort Regent nowadays is not even close to how it was when he was young, and each photo includes a portrayal for his longing of how the fort was before. I think it is interesting how Lakeman based the pictures on purely his memories, adding bright colours and soft shapes which represent how he saw the fort as a child. Moreover, the inclusion of props (like the lifeguard chair), smells (like the scent of buttery popcorn in one of the corners of the room) and sounds (like the sound of crowds) made the nostalgia even more present. It was interesting to see just how many details were included, and how they each contributed to the nostalgic feel of the exhibition. Despite not experiencing the fort in its full glory in person, the exhibition still had a very nostalgic feeling. As someone with autism, Lakeman mentioned that it is part of the reason for his ‘obsession with the fort’ and that he is ‘autistic for Fort Regent’, his fixation being still as strong now as it was when he was a child.

Before attending the exhibition, I didn’t truly believe that AI generated pictures count as a type of photography. The talk from Will Lakeman completely changed my view of this however, as learning about the amount of time and work that went into creating these pieces of art. Lakeman talked about how initially around 800 AI generated images were created by prompts that described a singular scene he remembered, from which he took 40 of the most ideal/ accurate images and stitched them together in photoshop. He also used many of his own images of Fort Regent currently, transforming them into the way he saw them as a child. Lakeman mentioned how he wanted to portray the memories he has of the fort ‘in the strange ways they appear in dreams and hallucinations’ and I think this created a much more effectives collection of images, with a much more unique and personal appearance.

I enjoyed this exhibition as it was almost a generated experience of Fort Regent in the past, utilising AI in ways that I haven’t even considered before. Despite the images being very interesting, the way in which they were displayed enhanced the effectiveness of the exhibition and I believe this is the reason I liked it so much. This is something I would recommend to others since it is a perfect example of the constantly developing technology around us as well as a unique experience of another person’s nostalgia.

This was one of the photos that were displayed at the exhibition, and I think it was one of the ones that were the most interesting. This AI generated image doesn’t have as much detail as the other pictures, it mostly being a mosaic of yellow and blue tiles that create a depiction of a swimming pool. Lakeman explained how this image was based on a specific day at the pool from when he was a child, when the hot weather made his vision blurred and combined the sun blazing through the windows and the iridescent gleam of the water to cast this weird mix of colours everywhere. Despite the wild colouring of the image, there is still a sense of depth and we can clearly tell that the picture is of a swimming pool. I think the concept of this piece is very interesting, the photo portraying a memory in a dream- like way. The aspect of nostalgia is clearly intertwined with the image, the specific colours and shapes showing the artist’s personal experiences. Moreover, the colours cause there to be a theme, sky blue and bright yellow commonly being associated with bright sunny days, like the day it is based on.

I created these galleries using photoshop, using the ‘distort’ option from the ‘free transform’ tool to fit each image into a frame. I also used the brush tool, using white and black (setting the colours to a low opacity) to create shadows and highlights, making them appear more realistic.

Link to Virtual Gallery created in artsteps:

https://www.artsteps.com/view/646dc67d80ca2a08c6d258bb