It’s March 2005 and Martha Stewart is getting out of jail. As celebrities’ personal lives have become media worthy, Newsweek publishes her coming out from behind a red curtain on the cover. From this curtain, which represents her time in a minimum?security prison for insider trading, emerges the new trimmer, healthier looking Martha. This new trimmer body represents the overall reformation that Stewart experienced behind bars. There is a catch. Yes, that is Martha Stewart’s head, but the body belongs to a model. This is in fact a photo?illustration. A new term created for the age of digital technology, a photo illustration is one that is altered to the point that the editors deem it is no longer ethical to consider it a photograph. Yet, in order to find out that this image is in fact a photo?illustration, and not a photograph, one has to flip to the third page and read the fine print. This photo is a compilation of things that do exist, to form a person who never existed in this form, and it looks entirely believable. In the age of digital media this image is not the exception to the norm—it is the norm. We often assume that photographs do not need interpretation, especially in a journalistic context where it is assumed that they record the reality the journalist is attempting to convey. The inference of reality, however, is not always justified.
Photography is a language. 1 A part of our visual culture, photographs are used across society for diverse purposes ranging from personal remembrances to an international means of communication. Photos are used in scrapbooks and greeting cards, as backgrounds on computer desktops and decorations in our homes. Photographs 1 This thesis follows the style and format of History of Photography. surround us. From the moment one wakes up, to the moment one goes to sleep, the twenty?first century is defined by photographic images.
These photographic images are used as proof in court cases and newspapers to substantiate the written word. They are used for identification on driver’s licenses and passports. Using photographs as proof depends on photos being an accurate recording of reality, while in actuality, as the Martha Stewart example shows, this relationship can be tenuous. The potential for alteration forces the media?consuming citizen to question if an image has been manipulated and if so, to what degree. Members of the public must become conscious critics of the media they rely on, questioning the integrity of images while resisting the temptation to become paranoid by becoming too distrustful of the media in general, or jumping to the conclusion that every image’s content and meaning are altered. Though it is necessary to be mindful of who is presenting the news, there is a limit to the productivity of questioning an image’s validity. This paper seeks to examine the alteration capabilities of photography in general, with an emphasis on digital photography, and discusses how these capabilities have affected the media’s credibility.
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
INTRODUCTION: PHOTOGRAPHY AND REALITY
- The Realism of Photographs
The Objectivity of the Unaltered Photograph
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND ALTERATION
- The Early History of Alteration
The Creation of Digital Photography
Alteration Since Digital Photography
Digital vs. Analog
REACTIONS TO DIGITAL ALTERATION
- Public’s Responses
Government Reactions to Digital Alterability
News Outlets’ Reponses
CONCLUSIONS: WHERE DO WE STAND?
- Tag the Analog
But isn’t that the point?
How much should we trust photographs?
APPENDIX A: RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS
WORKS REFERENCED
CURRICULUM VITA
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Digital Photography and the Ethics of Photo Alteration
