The Hoax Photo Archive: Military

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: Military

Camel Spiders in Iraq. It's true that camel spiders are very large, but much of the information about these creatures that accompanied this picture as it went around the internet was false. (Found online, Spring 2004)	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)	Islamic Hostage Action-Figure Hoax. Hostage "John Adam," whose photo appeared on internet bulletin boards used by Iraqi rebels, turned out to be a Cody action-figure doll. (February 1, 2005)
Fake Smoke Over Beirut. A freelance photographer heightened the drama of this image distributed by Reuters by adding additional smoke. (August 5, 2006)	Suicidal Teens Welcome. The armed forces does not really actively recruit suicidal teenagers. (Found on the internet, early 2007)	Charlton Heston’s Home Gun Collection. This series of pictures documents a remarkable gun collection, but not that of Charlton Heston. (Circulating online since Apr 2008)
Cruise vs. von Stauffenberg. United Artists was mistakenly accused of altering an image of German officer Claus von Stauffenberg to make him appear to resemble Tom Cruise. (Controversy from June 2008)	The Missile Launcher Vanishes. The Iranian government pasted a missile into this photo, apparently in an attempt to conceal the failure of one of the missiles to launch. (July 9, 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)
Kim Jong-Il’s Shadow. Western media questioned whether this image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il had been doctored, but it appears not to have been. (November 2008)	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)
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