Pictures That Lie

I chose the above picture of Senator John Kerry and Jane Fonda at an anti-war rally in 2004. I chose this picture because I thought it was interesting how the picture was changed to decieve us. This picture is actually a combination of two pictures. The website says, "The picture of Kerry was captured by photographer Ken Light as Kerry was preparing to give a speech at the Register for Peace Rally held in Mineola, N.Y., in June 1971. The picture of Jane Fonda was captured by Owen Franken as Fonda spoke at a political rally in Miami Beach, Fla., in August 1972." The picture we are looking is fake. Both people were cropped together to look like they were at the same place doing the same thing, when in reality, it didn't happen. The caption on the picture says that Jane Fonda speaks to an anti-war crowd while John Kerry listens and prepares to speak next. This is not true. The picture was simply manipulated and appeared in 2004 during the presidential primaries when Kerry was campaigning for the democratic nomination. It was created to help improve John Kerry's image. This manipulation did not directly hurt anyone, but it was still harmful in a way. It gave John Kerry a false image in an effort to improve his campaign and persuade people to vote for him. Therefore, it was harmful to our nation and to the people who believed it, because they received a false sense of who John Kerry really is.
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It is amazing to me how today, it is so easy to manipulate photographs and create false images. Photoshop is a great tool for certain things. However, it can be used to create images like this one and fool the viewer. We should just be aware of this factor and not believe everything we see. Just because it looks like a photograph does not necessarily mean it is a true event.