A Photograph That Tells A Story
We all know that the camera never lies; except we all know that it does, and quite often. The level of deception varies hugely. Maybe a filter to smooth your skin tone out and make your eyes a bit bigger, maybe a touch of photoshop magic to give you that physique that you so desire; sometimes to hilarious effect. Photomanipulation is not a new phenomenon. The idea to trick the viewer is almost as old as photography itself; the first photograph was created in 1814 and by 1860 photomanipulation was being used politically, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's portrait was forged by sticking Lincoln's head to the Southern politician John Calhoun's much less scrawny body . This story begins in 1917 and concerns two cousins: Frances Griffiths aged 9, and 16-year-old Elsie Wright who duped thousands across the world including Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes, into believing in fairies. This hadn’t been their original intention, they just wanted to get o...