2. The term photoshopping has been
appropriated from Adobe’s image
editing software Photoshop, and has
come to mean any digital altering of a
photograph or image
3. When most people think of photoshopping they think of
images being retouched to make people in magazines
look better – like these pictures of Minnie Driver.
4. Circa 1860
It all started way
before digital
cameras around 1860
with a portrait of US
President Abraham
Lincoln. In a
lithograph his head
was combined with
the body of John
Calhoun, a Southern
politician.
5. Stalin often air-brushed his enemies out of
photographs. In this photo a commissar had fallen out
of favour and been removed.
6. Mussolini thought he looked more heroic without the
horse handler in the photograph
7. 21st Century
Hoaxes
Then the internet
came along and things
started to get
interesting. This
photo was sent out as
an email hoax
purporting to be
National Geographic’s
Photo of the Year. It
was a combination of a
photo of a helicopter
taken in front of the
Golden Gate bridge
and a photo of a shark
taken in South Africa.
8. Photoshopping has morphed into a culture of the absurd,
with the goal of entertainment. “Photoshopping is an
extremely effective way of making an astute observation, or
just making people laugh for the sheer hell of it.”(Manic,
2009)
In this culture, photo manipulation is widely seen as an art
form. People who can’t paint or draw can create by
remixing.
A ‘meme’ is an infectious and contagious idea that tickles
the funny bone and takes off.
Most, but not all, photoshopping images employ humour.
9.
10. Bert is Evil is a photoshopping meme that involves
superimposing the Sesame Street character Bert into
photos in an attempt to ‘prove’ him evil.
Bert is Evil originally began as a website founded by
Dino Ignacio in 1998
As it gained in popularity he could no longer maintain
it and offered it to anyone who could.
Lots of sites jumped on the bandwagon, further
boosting the meme’s popularity.
Following are some examples of the Bert is Evil meme.
14. The Bert is Evil phenomenon reached it’s height in 2001 when a news
photograph of a Bangladeshi protester holding a poster of Bert and
Osama bin Laden began appearing on the Internet
15. 2001
This photo
started off as a
hoax. The hoax
was seen to be in
such poor taste
that it started a
subversive form
of humour.
16. And the fun
began
The Tourist of Death
began to be seen at
the scene of many
and varied disasters
22. Disaster Girl
Disaster girl
started in October
2004 when Dave
Roth took a photo
of a fire training
session with his
daughter smiling
devilishly in the
foreground. It took
off in 2007 when it
was published in a
magazine
competition.
26. • The following slides show some memes from 2011.
The original photo is shown and then an example
of a popular take on the original.
27. This little flower
girl was so
obviously NOT
impressed with
being on the
balcony at
William and
Kate's wedding
28.
29. After getting briefed on the raid that killed Bin Laden in May, the
upper crust of the American government then got the royal treatment
from Internet photoshoppers.
33. Photoshopping competitions are regularly held on
sites such as Worth1000.com and Fark.com like this
Celebrity Caricatures
34. Saddam Hussein is was a politician: He is was
our friend.
Rupert Murdoch isn't a politician. He just
owns most of them.
35.
36. To conclude, photoshopping allows people to create
art forms, enter competitions, become part of an
online meme, and comment on social and political
phenomena.
Whenever the world is getting too grim or serious, or
an organisation tries to get away with something, a
photoshopper will take the micky out of the situation.
