Photo Manipulation

The picture I chose to evaluate from the “Pictures that Lie” website was the image entitled “Leon Trotsky.” I found this picture absolutely fascinating because although I had heard in various history classes that editing to this extent had been done, especially when looking back on the Soviet government, I had never been able to witness the alterations first hand. Looking at the first image, it is clearly a picture of Trotsky standing in a crowd a long a number of other Russians. In the released altered photograph, Trotsky has been completely eliminated by essentially blending his image, along with a few of his friends, into the background. At one point in time Trotsky was a very powerful man in Russia, but after his fall when he raised opposition to Stalin’s rise to power, he was an outcast. From this point on, the Russian government slowly tried to erase him from Soviet history. This is a perfect example of the censorship and the tight control that the Soviet government had, as they took the time and resources to remove Trotsky to make it appear as if he were never in the crowd of people celebrating the anniversary of the October Revolution that day.

The below video is definitely anti-photoshop in regards to using the photoshop tools to alter models in various magazines, newspapers, etc., due to the negative effect that it has on the self esteem on young girls around the world, as well as giving males an unrealistic idea of what women should actually look like. Similarly, the point is made in the video that excessive photoshop usage has become a huge problem in the media, causing an increase in eating disorders and depressions.