Matthew Brady Doctored His Photographs

I have always been fascinated by Matthew Brady's photographs from the U.S. Civil War. He and his associates took thousands of photographs and many of them have been preserved. They are available on Footnote.com and elsewhere on the Web. However, all were not as they seemed.

Time Magazine points out that "Generally regarded as the world's first commercially successful photojournalist, Matthew Brady was also one of the medium's most accomplished manipulators."

As an example, Time shows a photograph that Brady took of eight Civil War generals. The problem is that one of them wasn't there. Time then shows the original photograph that shows seven generals. The "doctored" version had General Francis P. Blair added, even though he wasn't present when the original photograph was taken. A rather plush looking drapery was also added. All this was done without Photoshop!

The Time Magazine article then goes on to show more historical "doctored photographs" of Lenin, Hitler, the Beatles, Oprah Winfrey, North Korea's Kim Jong Il, and others.

You can see the before-and-after photographs at http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1924226_1949526,00.html.