We think of undoctored photographs as unassailably truthful documents. What you see is what was actually there in front of the lens. But in this fascinating experiment conducted by Canon-backed The Lab, a program started to spread photography knowledge through educational exercises, the photographer's power to "draw" the image they envision is revealed.
The experiment is far from scientific or "fair," and on some level is as manipulative as a reality show, but it's still interesting to see the results. What they did is have six photographers each separately take a portrait of the same man (whom we assume is a professional actor). But each photographer is told that the subject is something different: A millionaire, a fisherman, an ex-convict, a psychic, et cetera. Here are the results:
The hoodwinked photographers of course cannot be faulted for creating images that fit the narrative they're given, and if anything I'd say the resultant images are a testament to their talents. But it is striking to see how preconceived beliefs influence photographic choices. Imagine you were in a war-torn region with a camera, and asked to photograph a man with a rifle; by one account you hear he's butchered an entire village, another account indicates he saved twenty children. What would each image look like?
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