The Hoax Photo Archive: Striking a Pose

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: Striking a Pose

Portrait of the Photographer as a Drowned Man. The first fake photo ever created: Hippolyte Bayard pretending to be a suicide victim. (1840)	Mumler’s Spirit Photos. William Mumler created the genre of the spirit photo: ghostly images supposedly caught on film. (1861-1879)	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)
Dickens in America. An early example of how a celebrity's appearance could be tidied up in the darkroom. (December 1867)	The Rope Trick. This model is not really sitting on a swing. (ca. 1888)	A Bear and its Hunters. A humorous example of a staged scene. (ca. 1900)
The Melon Party. In order to create this postcard of children eating a giant watermelon, photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson used wooden props. (1911)	The Cottingley Fairies. Two young girls used paper cutouts to create a series of images of "fairies." These images are among the most famous fake photos of all time. (1917-1920)	High-Pressure Hijinks. It is unlikely that water pressure alone is keeping this soldier suspended in air. (ca. 1923)
The Master Race. The British Army created this picture of an unkempt German soldier as part of its propaganda efforts. (May 8, 1943)	Miss Perfect Profile. The head of a modeling agency added creative captions, such as "Miss Perfect Profile," to the photos of his models in order to get newspapers to print them. (ca. 1950)	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 Bluff Creek Bigfoot. Bigfoot believers claim this is a photo of that elusive North American primate. Skeptics argue it shows a person in an ape suit. (October 20, 1967)	Oprah’s Head Transplant. It's Oprah Winfrey's head, but it's Ann-Margret's body. (August 26, 1989)
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