The Museum of Hoaxes
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Techniques of
Photo Fakery
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: Trick angles. The most common example of this is the use of forced perspective.
Site Map
Photo Archive Categories
The Hoax Photo Archive
A gallery of photo fakery throughout history.

Years Archived:
1840-1900 | 1900-1919 | 1920-1939 | 1940-1959 | 1960-1979 | 1980-1999 | 2000-2004 | 2005-Present
Deleted Details
Trotsky Vanishes (Taken in 1919; altered ca. 1967)
Once Leon Trotsky fell out of political favor, Soviet censors attempted to purge all evidence of his existence. This included removing him from photos such as this one. ...»
Soviet censors deleted the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs from this photo after he fell out of favor. ...»
This photo was both staged and doctored in an attempt to create a Soviet version of the Americans' Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima image. ...»
When the LA Times published this picture, it airbrushed out the model's belly button in order to "conform to regulations." ...»
Oswald’s Backyard Photo (Published in February 1964)
Magazines that published this photo of Lee Harvey Oswald retouched portions of it, leading to suspicions that the original image itself was fake. It was not. ...»
The Missing Pole (May 4, 1970)
An unknown photo editor decided to airbrush out the pole that was awkwardly situated behind Mary Ann Vecchio's head in the original version of this photo. ...»
The Disappearing Coke Can (March 31, 1989)
An editor digitally removed a Coke can from this front-page image because he felt it ruined the composition of the photo. ...»
Madonna’s Gapless Glamour (December 1990)
Madonna got mad when she discovered a photo editor had digitally closed the gap between her front teeth. ...»
The Disappearing Nipples (Jan/Feb 1994)
The editors of American Photo decided they had to digitally remove Kate Moss's nipples from this cover photo "as a matter of taste." ...»
The Great Blackout of 2003 (Found online in late August 2003)
This fake photo circulated widely in the days following the Great Blackout of 2003. ...»
Whatever It Takes (October 2004)
An ad released by Bush's 2004 presidential campaign showed a crowd scene from which the President had been digitally removed. ...»
Migrant Mother Makeover (April 2005 issue of Popular Photography)
Popular Photography's readers were outraged when the magazine ran a feature on how Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother photo could be improved. ...»
Paris Match was accused of pandering to French President Nicolas Sarkozy when it reduced the size of his love handles in this photo of him canoeing with his son. ...»
The Fake General Dunwoody (November 2008)
When Ann Dunwoody became the first four-star general in the American military, the Army released a doctored photo of her to the media. ...»
Photo editors at Le Figaro deleted a ring from the French justice minister's hand in order to make her appear less glamorous. ...»
All text Copyright © 2011 by Alex Boese, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.