The Hoax Photo Archive: Politics

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: Politics

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)
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)	Bloody Sunday, 1905. Soviet textbooks claimed this was a photo of 1905's Bloody Sunday massacre in St. Petersburg. It was actually a reenactment of that event. (1925)	Wisconsin’s Capitol Collapses. An April Fool's Day image of the Wisconsin state capitol collapsing due to an excess of gas generated by verbose debate. (April 1, 1933)
Baby Adolf. This fake baby photo of Adolf Hitler circulated widely during the mid-1930s. (Late 1933)	The Perambulating Skull. Arthur Rothstein was accused of using a steer's skull as a movable prop in order to exaggerate drought conditions in the Great Plains. (May 1936)	The Commissar Vanishes. Soviet censors deleted the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs from this photo after he fell out of favor. (ca. 1940)
The Tydings Affair. This fake picture of Senator Tydings chatting with the head of the American Communist Party may have caused Tydings to lose his campaign for reelection. (1950)	White Hot Mama. Texas Governor Ann Richards' head was pasted onto the body of a model to create this magazine cover. (July 1992)	Bush Reads Book Upside-Down. In the original version of this photo, President Bush's book was not upside-down. (Found online, September 2002.)
Leftist Patriot. Senator Daschle's hand was digitally flipped to make it appear he was repeating the Pledge of Allegiance incorrectly. (Circulating online since 2002.)	Trophy Turkey. Newspaper captions failed to mention that the turkey Bush was holding was a decorative centerpiece not intended for consumption by the troops. (Thanksgiving 2003)	Hanoi John. Not only had Fonda not shared the stage with Kerry, she hadn’t even attended the rally shown here. (Circulating online since Feb 2004)
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