Faking it
Subtitle: manipulated photography before Photoshop
By: Mia Fineman
Contributors: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.); National Gallery of Art (U.S.); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Distributed by Yale University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York; New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 280
ISBN-13: 9781588394736; 9780300185010
Subjects: Trick photography; Photography; Special effects; Exhibitions; Handworked Photography
Description: "It is a long-held truism that 'the camera does not lie'. Yet, as Mia Fineman argues in this illuminating volume, that statement contains its own share of untruth. While modern technological innovations, such as Adobe's Photoshop software, have accustomed viewers to more obvious levels of image manipulation, the practice of "doctoring" photographs has in fact existed since the medium was invented. In "Faking It", Fineman demonstrates that today's digitally manipulated images are part of a continuum that begins with the earliest years of photography, encompassing methods as diverse as overpainting, multiple exposure, negative retouching, combination printing, and photomontage. Among the book's revelations are previously unknown and never before published images that document the acts of manipulation behind two canonical works of modern photography: one blatantly fantastical (Yves Klein's "Leap into the Void" of 1960); the other a purportedly unadulterated record of a real place in time (Paul Strand's "City Hall Park" of 1915). Featuring 160 captivating pictures created between the 1840s and 1990s in the service of art, politics, news, entertainment, and commerce, "Faking It" provides an essential counterhistory of photography as an inspired blend of fabricated truths and artful falsehoods."--Publisher's website.
Notes: This catalogue is published in conjunction with Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from October 11, 2012, through January 27, 2013; at The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., from February 17 through May 5, 2013; and at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from June 2 through August 25, 2013.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Picture perfect; title: Artifice in the name of art; title: Politics and persuasion; title: Novelties and amusements; title: Pictures in print; title: Mind's eye; title: Protoshop.