Airbrushed History
This iconic portrait of U.S President Abraham Lincoln is actually a composite of Lincoln’s head and the Southern politician John Calhoun’s body. [Source: fourandsix.com] fourandsix.com
Researchers at the Library of Congress uncovered this gem after extensive detective work. The image appears to show General Ulysses S. Grant in front of his troops at City Point, Virginia during the American Civil War. Investigation now shows the image to be made of three separate prints: (1) the head is taken from a portrait of Grant; (2) the horse and body are those of Major General Alexander M. Cook; and (3) the background is of Confederate prisoners captured at the battle of Fisher’s Hill, Virginia. [Source: fourandsix.com]fourandsix.com
In this famous photograph taken by Matthew Brady, General Sherman is seen posing with his generals. General Francis P. Blair (standing far right) was added to the photograph as he was not in attendance for that specific shot. His image was taken from the second photograph shown, which was taken during the same sitting. [Source: fourandsix.com]fourandsix.com
Stalin was notorious for routinely airbrushing his enemies out of photographs. As people fell out of favor with Stalin, so too did their photographic identity. In this image we see a commissar removed after falling out of Stalin’s good graces. [Source: fourandsix.com]fourandsix.com
Just like Stalin, Mao Tse-tung was known for removing people after they fell out of favor. In this image we see Po Ku removed for just that. [Source: fourandix.com fourandix.com
Not to be outdone by Stalin and Mao, Hitler also liked to tamper. In this doctored photograph we see Joseph Goebbels removed, though it is unclear why Goebbels fell out of favor with Hitler. [Source: fourandsix.com]fourandsix.com
Prime Minster of Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King, removed King George VI from the original photograph with the PM alongside Queen Elizabeth. The photograph was used on an election poster for the Prime Minister, so the theory is that an image of just Mackenzie with the Queen put him in a more powerful light. [Source: fourandsix.com]fourandsix.com
Benito Mussolini had the horse handler removed from the original photograph to make himself look more epic and heroic in this iconic capture. [Source: fourandsix.com]fourandsix.com
The editor-in-chief of Russian Magazine Ogoniok, removed a soldier’s watch as they raised the soviet flag atop the German Reichstag building during WWII. The reason? If you look closely, the soldier has a watch on his other hand as well. This suggests that ‘looting’ may have occurred before this photo was taken. [Source: fourandsix.com] fourandsix.com
In this Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by John Filo, we see Mary Ann Vecchio screaming as she kneels over the body of student Jeffrey Miller at Kent State University. The Kent State Shootings occurred when National Guardsmen had fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine. The photo originally featured a visually distracting fencepost behind Mary Ann Vecchio’s head, but this was removed by an unknown photo editor in the early 1970’s. The modified photo then was published in Life magazine and other publications. [Source: fourandsix.com]fourandsix.com
Colorized History
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