Altered Images FIVE CASE STUDIES - Jamie Keddie - LessonStream Membership
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Altered Images FIVE CASE STUDIES Jamie Keddie
2 Altered Images FIVE CASE STUDIES In this ebook, you will find five stories about photographs that were considered controversial in some way or another. Before you start, consider the following: • How could a photograph be controversial? • How could a photograph be associated with an act of dishonesty? • Can you think of any specific examples? The stories 1. Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter, 1863 2. Migrant Mother, 1936 3. OJ Simpson on Time Magazine cover, 1994 4. Basra, Iraq, 2003 5. Fox News report, 2020 JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
3 1. Home of a rebel sharpshooter • When: 1863 • Where: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania • What: The Battle of Gettysburg • Photographer: Alexander Gardner For centuries, war had been depicted through art. Paintings and sketches provided images of glorious battles and brave warriors. Alexander Gardner’s Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter represented a turning point. The photograph was taken in 1863 at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, USA – just after the most bloody battle of the American Civil War. JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
4 This was the first war to be documented by photography. For the first time in history, the true horrors of the battlefield could be brought to the public eye. Alexander Gardner took around 70 photographs at Gettysburg. Because of their historical importance, much has been researched and written about them. And almost a century after the war, a discovery was made about Gardner’s most famous image. The dead soldier in Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter had appeared in at least one other shot. Gardner and his assistants had carried the soldier’s corpse from a different location on the battlefield and moved it for a more dramatic composition. Nowadays, this may sound shocking. But photography had just been invented and codes of practice for photojournalists had not been established. Gardner’s photograph would not necessarily have been considered controversial at that time. Glossary • To depict (verb): To show or describe through words or pictures. • A sketch (noun): A drawing. • An image (noun): A picture. • Glorious (adjective): In a way that makes you feel good. • A rebel (noun): A person who fights against the government of their country. • A sharpshooter (noun): A person who can fire a gun with accuracy. • A turning point: An important moment in history, or in your life, when things change, especially for the better. • Bloody (adjective): Involving a lot of blood. • To document (verb): If you document an event, you record it in writing or on film. • A battlefield (noun): The place where battles are fought. • To research (verb): If you research something, you study or investigate it in detail, especially at a university. • A shot (noun): A photograph (note: this word can also mean the firing of a gun). • A corpse (noun): A dead body. • Dramatic (adjective): Exciting and impressive • Composition (noun): The way that the things in a photograph, painting or picture are planned or arranged. • Codes of practice: Rules about how people in a profession should behave in their work. • Photojournalist (noun): A photographer who takes photographs to report news. • To establish (verb): To begin; to set up. • Controversial (adjective): If a subject or topic is controversial, it causes disagreement and arguments between people. JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
5 2. Migrant mother • When: 1936 • Where: Nipomo, Northern California • What: An iconic image of the Great Depression • Photographer: Dorothea Lange One day in March 1936, Dorothea Lange was driving home through Nipomo in Northern California. Dorothea Lange was a photojournalist and a documentary photographer. At that time, she worked for the Resettlement Administration. The Resettlement Administration was a New Deal agency that was set up by the US federal government to fight rural poverty during the Great Depression, the worst economic depression the industrialised world has ever seen. Lange’s job was to document the lives of poor rural workers who were going through terrible hardships. Through her photographs, the Resettlement Administration hoped to gain public sympathy and support for government aid. On that day in March 1936, Lange passed a camp for poor migrant workers and saw a photo opportunity. She got out of her car and took seven photographs of a mother and her three children. The last of these photographs became what is often considered to be the most iconic image of the Great Depression. JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
6 In the picture, a struggling mother is sitting with her baby in arms. She is staring into space with worried eyes. She has a child on each side but both children have turned away from the camera. They are burying their faces into their mother’s shoulders. Are they hiding their tears? Tears of hunger? Tears of shame? The mother was later identified as Florence Owens Thompson. And interestingly, when you look at the six photographs that came before it, you can see how the moment evolved. This has led to a question – was it a moment captured or a moment staged? Contrary to what we might want to believe, this was not a spontaneous shot. One of the most famous “documentary photographs” ever taken was, in fact, carefully staged. This was an image with a specific purpose – to gain sympathy for government aid. It was, by definition, propaganda. JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
7 Glossary • Photojournalist (noun): A photographer who takes photographs to report news. • The New Deal: US president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s social and financial plans to help people in the 1930s during the Great Depression. • Rural (adjective): Of the countryside – not the town or city. • Poverty (noun): If people are living in poverty, they don’t have enough money to buy the basic things that they need. • Industrialised (adjective): The industrialised world is the world since the Industrial Revolution. In the Western world, this would be since approximately 1800. • Hardship (noun): Difficult times, especially involving poverty (see above). • Sympathy (noun): If you have sympathy for someone who is in a bad situation, you feel sorry for them. • Aid (singular noun): Help, especially financial. • A camp (noun): A temporary place where people stay, usually in tents. • A migrant (noun): A person who moves from one place to another, usually in search of work or a better life. • Iconic (adjective): An iconic image is a well-known image that has come to represent an event or an idea. For example, Alexander Gardner’s Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter has become an iconic image of the American Civil War (note: the noun of the word is icon – the Eiffel Tower is a cultural icon of France). • Struggling (adjective): Having a difficult time, especially financial difficulty. • To stare (verb): If you stare at someone or something, you look at that person or thing for a long time. If you are staring into space, you are lost in your thoughts. • To bury (verb): If you bury something, you put it under the ground. But in this case, it means to push (burying their faces into their mother’s shoulders = pushing their faces against their mother’s shoulders). • Shame (uncountable noun): A feeling of embarrassment and guilt. • To identify (verb): If you identify someone, you find out who that person is. • To evolve (verb): To develop. • To lead to (phrasal verb): To begin a series of events that causes something to happen. • To capture (verb): If you capture an event on camera, you take a photograph of it. • To stage (verb): If an event is staged, it is planned or organised. It does not happen on its own. • Spontaneous (adjective): If something is spontaneous, it happens in a natural way without any planning. • Specific (adjective): Not general. If something has a specific purpose (see below) it has one purpose only. • Purpose (noun): The reason that something exists. The purpose of a bottle opener is to open bottles. JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
8 3. OJ Simpson Time magazine cover • When: June, 1994 • Where: Los Angeles • What: OJ Simpson’s mugshot used on the cover of Time magazine • Photographer: Los Angeles Police Department and then designer Matt Mahurin See full-sized image here: https://bit.ly/3e9kxOH In 1994, the legendary American football player, OJ Simpson, was arrested for the brutal murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman. For many, this would become the story of the decade and the trial of the century. Incredibly, despite all the evidence against him, he was found not guilty. After the criminal trial, a civil trial followed. The result of the civil trial was that OJ Simpson was found to be responsible for both deaths. On the week of his arrest, OJ Simpson’s mugshot appeared on the front cover of Time magazine. The same image also appeared on the cover of their competitor, Newsweek. The two magazines appeared side by side on newsstands all over the country. And as a result, people were quick to spot a difference: on the Time magazine cover, the photograph had been darkened. In a case that was already racially tense, the result was a public outcry. The magazine was immediately withdrawn and an apology was issued in which the editor claimed that “no racial implication was intended, by Time or by the artist”. JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
9 Glossary • Legendary (adjective): Very well-known and famous. • Brutal (adjective): Cruel and violent. • A criminal trial: A formal meeting in a court of law to decide if someone is guilty of a crime. • A civil trial: A formal meeting in a court of law to settle a disagreement. • Evidence (uncountable noun): Facts or things used in a criminal trial to help to prove that a person is innocent or guilty. • To be found not guilty: In a criminal trial, if a person is found not guilty, the court decides that they did not commit the crime. • A mugshot (noun): When a person is arrested, this is the photograph that the police takes of them. • Newsstand (noun): A place in the street where magazines and newspapers are sold. • Racially tense: In 1991, Rodney King, a black man, was beaten in the street by four members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The incident was filmed on video camera and there was a trial for the police officers involved. Despite the evidence against them, they were found not guilty. Many people saw this as evidence of a racist system and this led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Two years later, when OJ Simpson was arrested, a lot of people mistakenly thought that he was another victim of the racist system. • An outcry (noun): A very angry reaction or protest from people in response to something. • To withdraw (verb): To take back. • To issue (verb): To give out. • To claim (verb): If you claim something, you say that it is true (e.g. he claimed that he was not guilty). • An implication (noun): Something that you communicate, but not directly. JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
10 4. Basra, Iraq • When: March, 2003 • Where: Basra, Iraq • What: A British soldier warns a group of Iraqi civilians to take cover • Photographer: Brian Walski for the Los Angeles Times See full-sized image here: https://moderskeppet.se/live/dubbelgangarna-i-irak/ In 2003, photographer Brian Walski was on assignment in Iraq for the Los Angeles Times. He sent back a photograph of a British soldier warning a group of Iraqi civilians to take cover from nearby gunfire. The photograph was published on the front page of the Los Angeles Times. It was also published in two other newspapers – the Chicago Tribune and the Hartford Courant. And it was at the Hartford Courant that an employee noticed something strange about the image: some of the civilians in the background appeared more than once. The Los Angeles Times confronted Brian Walski and asked him for an explanation. Walski immediately admitted to having used Photoshop to combine two photographs to produce a better composition. Walski was fired from the Los Angeles Times for violating the newspaper’s code of practice. In an apology, he said, “I have always maintained the highest ethical standards throughout my career and cannot truly explain my complete breakdown in judgment at this time”. The Los Angeles Times published a front-page article with an apology and a clear explanation of how the image had been manipulated. JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
11 Glossary • Assignment (noun): An assignment is a piece of work that you have to do for your job. If you are on assignment, you have been sent somewhere to do that piece of work – especially if you are a reporter, journalist, etc. • Civilian (noun): A member of the public – not a soldier or a police officer. • To take cover: To move to avoid danger – especially to move downwards to avoid gunfire. • Gunfire (uncountable noun): Shots from a gun. • The background (noun): In a picture, the main person or thing is called the subject. The part of the picture behind the subject is called the background. • To confront (verb): If you confront someone, you meet them face to face, especially before an argument or a fight. • To combine (verb): If you combine two things, you bring them together to create one thing. • To fire (verb): If you are fired from your job, you lose your job because you did something wrong. • To violate (verb): If you violate a rule, you break that rule. • Code of practice: Rules about how people in a profession should behave in their work. • To maintain (verb): If you maintain something, you make it stay the same. • Ethical standards: The rules and ways of doing something that are considered to be morally acceptable. • A breakdown (noun): A situation in which something fails. • Judgement (noun): A decision or opinion that you make after thinking about it carefully. • To manipulate (verb): If you manipulate an image, you change or alter the things in it. JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
12 5. Fox News report • When: Original photograph from 2000; Fox News report in 2020 • Where: Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida • What: In a Fox News report, Donald Trump was cropped out of a photograph in which he had posed with a high-profile sex offender and his alleged accomplice. Watch the video and see the photograph here: https://bit.ly/3gjB9WQ On 10th August 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell, reportedly after committing suicide. Epstein was an American financier and high-profile sex offender with connections to many celebrities, politicians and even royalty. For over a decade, Epstein had developed an elite social circle for the purpose of finding women and girls for sexual abuse by himself and his contacts. Epstein’s most important accomplice was, allegedly, a socialite named Ghislaine Maxwell – the daughter of media mogul Robert Maxwell. In July 2020, she was charged in connection with the case. In their reporting of the story, Fox News used a photograph of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell from 2000. The picture included a third person – a fashion model called Melanija Knavs who would later become Melania Trump. It was quickly pointed out that the photograph had been cropped in order to remove a fourth person – Donald Trump, the 45th president of the USA. JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
13 Glossary • Reportedly (adverb): A lot of people don’t actually believe that Jeffrey Epstein died by committing suicide. In this case, the word “reportedly” shows that there is some doubt. • To commit suicide: To kill yourself. • A financier (noun): A person who manages or lends large amounts of money. • High-profile (adjective): Very well known; often appearing in the news, on TV, etc. • Offender (noun): Someone who has committed a crime. • Royalty (uncountable noun): Kings, queens, princes, princesses, etc. • Elite (adjective): Rich and powerful. • Circle (noun): A group of people, often with a common interest. • Abuse (noun): Cruel or violent actions against someone. • Accomplice (noun): Someone who helps another person to commit a crime. • Allegedly (adverb): In news reporting, this word is used to say that something has not yet been proven. At the time of writing, Ghislaine Maxwell is innocent until proven guilty. • A socialite (noun): Someone who goes to lots of fashionable events and parties. Socialites usually know a lot of people and are good at making introductions. In other words, they are well connected. • A mogul (noun): A powerful and important business person, especially someone who works in news or television (i.e. the media). • To charge (verb): If you are charged with a crime, you are formally accused of committing that crime. • A case (noun): A crime that the police are investigating. • To point out (phrasal verb): If you point out something, you show it to people and make them look or think about it. • To crop (verb): To cut, especially photographs. Over to you As these stories demonstrate, there are many different ways in which a photograph can be controversial. It can relate to any of the following: • How the photograph was taken. • How it was altered or manipulated. • How it was used. There are many more stories about controversial photographs and you will find many of these online. Your task: Find another story about a controversial photograph. Research the story and prepare it in your own words. Good luck JAMIE KEDDIE, LessonStream 2021 ALTERED IMAGES
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