The Hoax Photo Archive: Head Transplants

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

Category: Head Transplants

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)	Oprah’s Head Transplant. It's Oprah Winfrey's head, but it's Ann-Margret's body. (August 26, 1989)
White Hot Mama. Texas Governor Ann Richards' head was pasted onto the body of a model to create this magazine cover. (July 1992)	Tootsie Redressed. Dustin Hoffman sued Los Angeles magazine for $5 million on account of this photo of his head pasted onto the body of a model wearing a silk gown. (Mar 1997 issue of Los Angeles magazine)	Cut-and-Paste Diversity. In order to highlight their school's racial diversity, University of Wisconsin-Madison officials pasted a black student's face into this crowd scene that appeared on the cover of the undergraduate application. (September 2000)
The Real Julia. Julia Roberts' head was pasted onto a younger version of her body. (July 2003)	Martha’s Last Laugh. Newsweek indicated nowhere on the cover that this shot was actually a composite image of Martha Stewart's head pasted onto a model's body. (March 2005)	Vote for Dean Hrbacek. In this flyer distributed by Hrbacek's campaign, the candidate's head was pasted onto the body of a significantly slimmer man. (January 2008)
Palin in Bikini and Miniskirt. After John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, provocative fake pictures of the Alaska Governor began to circulate online. (September 2008)	U.S. Army Releases Doctored Photographs. Lacking an official photo of a deceased soldier, the U.S. Army instead released a doctored image to the media. (September 2008)
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