Taking out the Trotsky
Jun 11th, 2008 by Brad
Photographs have been tampered throughout photographic history. I created the phrase “Taking out the Trotsky” to describe removal of people through manipulation. Stalin had teams of people removing all evidence of Trotsky and others he disagreed with from photographs and writings.
Scientific American has a slide show called “Digital Forensics: Photo Tampering Throughout History“, it is an interesting bit of history.
I took pause at the last photograph from Queen Hatshepsut Temple in Luxor, Egypt. It is a photograph of the 1997 terrorist attack that killed 58 tourists. The Swiss tabloid “Blick” turned water in the original image to look like blood. I paused because I should have been at the temple that day 17-Nov 1997. Jennifer (an artist friend of mine) and I were traveling in Ghana then Egypt. Last minute changes reversed our plans so we visited Egypt first and then Ghana. This meant that Jennifer was back in the US on 17-Nov. On the 18-Nov, I called her from Bolgatanga Ghana and she told me about the tragedy and reminded me of our original schedule for the previous day.
If your are interested in more about Soviet photographic manipulation see, “The Commissar Vanishes” by David King.
