15 Astonishing Edited Photos That Tricked the World

Photographs have become central to how we remember historical moments, and sometimes individuals alter these visuals to push their agendas or distort reality. With the rise of the Internet, we’ve also witnessed a surge in digitally altered images made for entertainment or viral fame. Here’s a collection of 15 of the most notorious manipulated photos, presented in no specific order. Click on the images for a closer look.

15. Harding and Kerrigan Share the Ice

A digitally altered image of Olympic skaters Tanya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan graced the cover of New York Newsday. The composite depicted the two rivals practicing together, following the infamous attack on Kerrigan orchestrated by an associate of Harding’s husband. The caption stated: “Tonya Harding, left, and Nancy Kerrigan, appear to skate together in this New York Newsday composite illustration. Tomorrow, they’ll really take to the ice together.”

During the summer of 1994, O.J. Simpson was taken into custody for the alleged murders of his ex-wife Nicole Smith and her friend. Media outlets widely circulated his mugshot, as the case became known as the trial of the Century. TIME Magazine notably released an issue with a modified mugshot, desaturating the image (a move criticized for darkening Simpson’s skin tone), adding shadowed edges, and shrinking the prisoner ID number. This version stood in stark contrast to the unedited photo featured by Newsweek on nearby newsstands.

The Helicopter Shark image is a clever blend of two photos, creating the illusion of a Great White Shark lunging from the water to attack military personnel ascending a ladder from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. This image gained widespread attention in 2001 through email chains, with claims that it had won the 'National Geographic Photo of the Year' award. The final composite was made using a photo of an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter captured by Lance Cheung for the USAF, combined with a shark photo taken by South African photographer Charles Maxwell. While the helicopter image was shot near the Golden Gate Bridge, the shark photo originated from False Bay, South Africa. Notably, Great White sharks are not found in San Francisco Bay.

Shortly after September 11, 2001, this image flooded email inboxes. It was purported to be the final photo on a roll of film from a camera that miraculously survived the destruction of the Twin Towers. However, it was quickly debunked as a fake. The weather in the photo didn’t align with the actual conditions on 9/11. Additionally, the man is shown on the south tower, but the north tower was struck first. The observation deck was also closed at the time of the attacks. Furthermore, the planes that hit the towers were Boeing 767s, while the aircraft in the photo is a Boeing 757. The level of detail in the plane’s image would have required an impossibly fast shutter speed given the velocity of the actual impact.

The manipulated photo (left) was used during George Bush’s 2004 political campaign. Bush was digitally erased by overlaying soldiers onto the podium. Campaign officials later acknowledged the alteration and issued a corrected version to television stations.

In 2004, an Anti-Kerry campaign aimed to damage his reputation. This image portrays Kerry alongside Jane Fonda, a controversial anti-war activist. The photo was doctored to resemble a 1970s news clipping. It combined two separate images: one of Kerry from June 13, 1971, and another of Fonda from August 1972.

This image originated from a Photoshop contest on Fark.com, where the theme was a submarine control panel mockup. The creator’s work was so convincing that it circulated widely online before the contest concluded, appearing on forums and in emails. Snopes.com even published an article debunking the image. Despite this, the photo won the contest and continued to mislead people from September 2004 to March 2006, including publications like the San Luis Obispo Tribune and personalities like 'Bob and Tom.'

In 2006, a Reuters journalist reported on the Israel-Lebanon conflict and used this image to accompany the story. Hajj claimed he was merely correcting dust marks and blamed poor lighting for his errors. However, critics argued that the alterations were deliberate, as the edited photo included an additional smoke plume, duplicated buildings, and repetitive patterns indicating cloned smoke.

In 2006, when Katie Couric was announced as Dan Rather’s permanent replacement on CBS Evening News, marketing efforts intensified. The image on the right became her official portrait, digitally altered by a CBS photo specialist from the original on the left. Couric humorously remarked, 'I preferred the first picture because there’s more of me to love.'

This photograph, taken by L.Y. Leonidov on November 7, 1919, commemorated the second anniversary of the October Revolution. It features Lenin at the center, sporting his iconic goatee and a Soviet cap. To Lenin’s left stands Trotsky, wearing glasses and saluting. At the time, Trotsky was a prominent figure in Russia, serving as chairman of the Supreme Military Council. By 1967, for the publication 'V.I. Lenin in the Art of Photography,' Trotsky and three others (Kamenev, Khalatov, and an unknown individual) were erased from the image.

5. Abraham Lincoln

This iconic portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is actually a combination of Lincoln’s head and the body of Southern politician John Calhoun. To put this image into historical context, the first permanent photograph was produced in 1826, and the Eastman Dry Plate Company, which later became Eastman Kodak, was established in 1881.

4. Josef Stalin

Stalin frequently erased his political rivals from photographs. In this image, a commissar named Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov was removed after losing Stalin’s favor.

3. Kent State

This Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by John Filo captures Mary Ann Vecchio screaming as she kneels beside the body of Jeffrey Miller at Kent State University, where National Guardsmen opened fire on demonstrators, killing four and injuring nine. The original image included a fence post behind Vecchio, which was removed in the published version.

2. National Geographic

In a National Geographic cover story about Egypt, the Great Pyramids of Giza, captured horizontally by Gordon Gahen, were digitally compressed to fit the magazine’s vertical layout. Tom Kennedy, who later became the director of photography at National Geographic, commented on the manipulation, stating, 'We no longer alter photos to create a more dramatic visual impact. We recognized that as an error and would not make the same choice today.'

1. Political Correctness

To highlight its diverse student body, the University of Wisconsin at Madison altered a brochure cover by digitally adding a black student, Diallo Shabazz, into a crowd of white football fans. The original photo of the fans was taken in 1993, while Shabazz’s image was from 1994. University officials explained they had searched all summer for images reflecting diversity but found none suitable.

Contributor: Ravyn

Sources: Famous pictures mag, Journalism Scandals, Digital tampering [CS.edu]

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