The Hoax Photo Archive: Before 1900

About the
Hoax Photo Archive

Images are categorized by theme, technique of fakery, and time period. Click on a thumbnail for more details about each photo. Included in the database are photos that are "real," but which have been suspected of being fake, as well as images whose veracity remains undetermined.

Techniques of
Photo Fakery

There are six basic techniques of faking a photo:

1: Inserting details. This includes placing an element from one photo into another to create a composite image, reproducing a detail of the photo by cloning it, superimposing an image onto another, or drawing-in details.

2: Deleting details. This is usually done by extending background elements over the unwanted detail. Or one can crop out the unwanted detail.

3: Manipulating elements within the photo. For instance, adjusting the color, resizing details, or rotating or moving details.

4: falsifying the caption.

5: Staging the scene. This is considered fakery particularly in photojournalism. Varieties of staging a scene include using models and cutouts and inserting a prop into the scene.

6: Taking a photo at a trick angle. The most common example of this is the use of forced perspective.

The Hoax Photo Archive
A catalog of photo fakery throughout history

Years Archived:
1840-1900 | 1900-1919 | 1920-1939 | 1940-1959 | 1960-1979 | 1980-1999 | 2000-2004 | 2005-Present

Time Period: 1840-1899

Portrait of the Photographer as a Drowned Man. The first fake photo ever created: Hippolyte Bayard pretending to be a suicide victim. (1840)	The Valley of the Shadow of Death. Cannonballs were strewn across a road to enhance the drama of this melancholy war scene. (April 23, 1855)	Street Urchins Tossing Chestnuts. The chestnut, which is barely visible in the thumbnail, is suspended from a fine piece of thread. (1857)
Interior of the Secundra Bagh. Human bones were disinterred and scattered around to recreate the aftermath of a battle. (March or April 1858)	Mumler’s Spirit Photos. William Mumler created the genre of the spirit photo: ghostly images supposedly caught on film. (1861-1879)	A Sharpshooter’s Last Sleep. Civil War photographers used a corpse as a movable prop. (Taken in 1863. Exposed as a fake in 1961.)
Petticoat Politics. A Northern photographer created this image of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in a dress. (May 1865)	Lincoln’s Portrait. The head of Lincoln was pasted onto the body of Southern leader John Calhoun in order to create a heroic-style presidential portrait. (Late 1860s)	The Martyr Lincoln. One of many fake death photos of President Lincoln. (late 1860s)
Dickens in America. An early example of how a celebrity's appearance could be tidied up in the darkroom. (December 1867)	The Rope Trick. This model is not really sitting on a swing. (ca. 1888)	The Silent City. An Alaskan prospector claimed this was a photo of a "silent city" mirage visible from Muir Glacier. It was actually a blurry photo of Bristol, England. (ca. 1889)
The Sympsychograph. Supposedly a psychic projection of "a cat in its real essence." Intended as a joke, but taken seriously by many. (September 1896)
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