Faked photos, really?

Sadly, it's not even bizzar or far fetched that there are so many manipulated images used to tell stories. In this age where social media is dominating, its easier now than it was 20 years ago to manipulate and fake photos. Adobe photoshop and even Instagram filters allow us to distort, dismember and even virtually enhance pieces and parts of images to gain a certain reaction from the viewer.

Masterminds, or Sicko?


"tourist guy"

A lot of the fake photos that are used are to pull at our heartstrings. I say some are even really creative. It takes a lot of hard work and dedicated to fake images. Unless you know the details in and out of the location where an image is being taken, most likely, you'll fall for the faux set up as well.

 The image of the Tourist Guy post 911 terror attacks in New York was (for me) an all-time low. At a time where the world is mourning, together, who would even think to manipulate such an image. So many questions about this photo, but the most important to me is why? Though there were many flaws with this fake image, I still want to know why anyone would want to send such a sad, sick message? Well, this happens quite often. Images are faked, staged, and altered to send various messages via the media.


Bleached-out & Photoshopped

When it comes to Black people on magazine covers, often the media will manipulate or photoshop images to gain a "better" response from their audiences. But most times, this causes controversy and backlash. The term "whitewashing" is when photos of black people are lightened A LOT to make them appear to have brighter skin. This has been done multiple times, on various covers of magazines such as Bazaar Magazine with Halle Berry, and with Kerry Washington for Instyle Magazine. This is outrageous, but in the world of fashion, it's not abnormal to have images altered and photoshopped.


Kerry Washington for InStyle Magazine 


Another popular thing to do with fake photos is using celebrities to pretend they're for or against a cause. Kendall Jenner was accused of posting this image of herself holding a Black Lives Matter sign, but fans quickly recognized the image and began to bash her for photoshopping an image of herself. Come to find out, Jenner had no idea the media had even done that, but, in the end, the celebrity faced a lot of backlash and scrutiny because it circulated. Jenner cleared the air via her social media "I did not post that image..." Fake images can be a horror.


Kendall Jenner - BLM photoshopped image.