The Hoax Photo Archive: Deleted Details

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

Deleted Details

Trotsky Vanishes. 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. (Taken in 1919; altered ca. 1967)	The Commissar Vanishes. Soviet censors deleted the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs from this photo after he fell out of favor. (ca. 1940)	Red Army Flag Over Reichstag. 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. (May 2, 1945)
The Vanishing Belly Button. When the LA Times published this picture, it airbrushed out the model's belly button in order to "conform to regulations." (February 1964)	Oswald’s Backyard Photo. 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. (Published in February 1964)	The Missing Pole. 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. (May 4, 1970)
The Disappearing Coke Can. An editor digitally removed a Coke can from this front-page image because he felt it ruined the composition of the photo. (March 31, 1989)	Madonna’s Gapless Glamour. Madonna got mad when she discovered a photo editor had digitally closed the gap between her front teeth. (December 1990)	The Disappearing Nipples. The editors of American Photo decided they had to digitally remove Kate Moss's nipples from this cover photo "as a matter of taste." (Jan/Feb 1994)
The Great Blackout of 2003. This fake photo circulated widely in the days following the Great Blackout of 2003. (Found online in late August 2003)	Whatever It Takes. An ad released by Bush's 2004 presidential campaign showed a crowd scene from which the President had been digitally removed. (October 2004)	Migrant Mother Makeover. Popular Photography's readers were outraged when the magazine ran a feature on how Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother photo could be improved. (April 2005 issue of Popular Photography)
Sarkozy’s Disappearing Love Handles. 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. (August 2007)	The Fake General Dunwoody. When Ann Dunwoody became the first four-star general in the American military, the Army released a doctored photo of her to the media. (November 2008)	Dati’s Disappearing Ring. Photo editors at Le Figaro deleted a ring from the French justice minister's hand in order to make her appear less glamorous. (Nov 19, 2008)
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