The enclosed is an image that will be the subject of the Bronx Documentary Center’s upcoming exhibition Altered Images: 150 Years of Posed and Manipulated Documentary Photography, as well as other related programming. The BDC makes no representations nor extends any rights as to use of this image by another party.
Beirut, Lebanon
August 5, 2006
Photo by Adnan Hajj
Original caption as furnished by Reuters:
„Smoke billows from burning buildings destroyed during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut’s suburbs August 5, 2006. Many buildings were flattened during the attack.“
Background information on this photo:
Adnan Hajj, the photographer, was found to have used Photoshop to clone and darken the smoke in this photo to exaggerate the bombing damage.
This photo was distributed throughout the media before the manipulation was caught by a blogger. Reuters news agency, who worked with the freelance photographer, immediately fired him. Reuters then withdrew all 920 photographs by Hajj from its database after it was discovered that he had manipulated a second photo.
Links to articles about this controversy:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21956_Reuters_Doctoring_Photos_from_Beirut&only
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/01/18/idUSL18678707
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09photo.html?