John Simkin Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Interesting article in the Guardian today about how photographs have been altered for political reasons. It gives the usually examples but it has a couple of interesting stories (for example Mussolini and his horse and Al Smith and the Vatican). http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1151148,00.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nico Zijlstra Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 (edited) The commissar vanishes shows that photographs can lie. They certainly do in the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953, the years of Joseph Stalin's dictatorial rule. Stalin's agents routinely arrest and kill as "enemies of the people" anyone who disagrees with his politics. Communist Party workers then try to remove any trace of these people from the photographic archives, and so from the media. The Commissar Vanishes exhibition explores this censored history. By the 1930s Communist "truth" circulates worldwide in party approved books. With airbrush or ink spot, the photo censors work quietly. But despite their power, they ultimately fail. The images expose decades of photographic lies. It's a stark visual tour through a society where freedom is not an option. Edited February 20, 2004 by N. Zijlstra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Simkin Posted February 20, 2004 Author Share Posted February 20, 2004 Thanks for that Nico. A great website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike.coyne Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Out of interest, as soon as I saw that photograph I instantly thought it didn't look natural. If you look at it, JK has been taken from a photo where the lighting conditions were different - the light is brighter and comes from a different angle, which you can see from where the shadows are cast on his face and body. Also, he looks a bit big in comparison to the other speaker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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