Essay -- First Draft

Photo-editing software, such as Photoshop or GIMP, has achieved popularity and notoriety in recent years. But photo manipulation is not a new phenomenon--pictures have been altered since the 1800s, when photographs were invented. Depending on the way in which it is used, photo editing can be a positive tool that merely creates enhanced photos, or a negative tool that attempts to alter reality either intentionally or unintentionally, leading to the public's distrust of photography as a source of truth.

Since photography began in the 1800s, photos have been altered. An early example of this editing is a photograph of General Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War which was revealed to be a composite of three separate images. Grant’s head was taken from one photo, the body and horse from another, and the background image from a third. Manipulation of historical photos is one type of photo editing that is generally dishonest and damaging to the historical record, especially when original copies of the photos in question are not readily available and preserved.

CNN was recently criticized for damaging the historical record when it edited a photo that other news organizations released unaltered. CNN blurred the faces of a group of men behind a news correspondent that was assaulted soon after the photo was taken. Many people criticized CNN for altering the photo, saying that they had "unethically tampered with a historic photographic record." CNN defended its decision, explaining that they blurred the crowd's faces because they had no way of knowing whether the people in the photograph were the same people who assaulted the correspondent.

This type of photo manipulation, done to protect the individuals in the picture, does not harm the historical record since many other news organizations released the unaltered photograph and there is no reason to believe that the original will become unavailable. Also, the blurring of faces was done with good reason, did not change the photo’s meaning, and did not misrepresent the situation within the photograph.