A Grain of Salt

I LOVE photography. I especially love photography that is emotional. I won't deny that there are some photographs that have made me even cry before, like this Alfred Eisenstaedt image...

Or this one from Dorthea Lange...

Both of these photos became part of our culture...everyone recognizes these images instantly and knows at least a little bit about them. Maybe that's the kind of recognition some wanna be pro-Photoshoppers are hoping for when they create composite images of the top and bottom of an iceberg (taken by a diver in Nova Scotia...yeah, mmm hmmm) or of some random photographer risking life and limb by jumping from one rock formation to another while loaded down with cameras and gear...in flip-flops. Are we, as a culture supposed to believe these pictures and take them at face value? Or do they deserve a little more investigation? Maybe I'm just a little more cynical since I use Photoshop and know of it's powers (for good and for evil). It was with these questions in mind that I went searching. Not up, walking around, "vision quest" kind of searching (I'm much too tired for that), but internet searching for the truth, or at least a reasonable facsimile.

Here's what I found... http://www.snopes.com/ What a resource that turned out to be! It lists both of the aforementioned images and many more. It also attempts to label the images as "true", "false" or "real picture, inaccurate description". The creators of the site even go so far as to determine the origin of the photo and even talk to the photographer. Here's what the photog of the iceberg had to say... http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/iceberg.asp

Eisenstaedt and Lange weren't immune from the myths either. It wasn't long before hundreds of couples came forward claiming to be the couple from the picture in Times Square. It wasn't until Eisenstsaedt himself told the story that the false claims came to an end. Read this story from this past August to see just what the real story was (and a very cute update)... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11909482/

My point is that what you see, can't always be what you get. In this age of information overload we must all be extremely careful about swallowing what we are spoon fed. It used to be "Don't believe it till you see it", but even that adage is being put to test. Don't believe me? Then check this out...

This is a rare family in south Westergoveland Province (on the continent of Anaphalictica), where each and every member has the exact same DNA. It's like they're clones of each other. According to the village doctor, this kind of thing occurs in 1 out of ever 20 gagillion families (so you know it's very rare). Usually, they can't all go out together because the villagers will get them confused with one another, but for this photo they all made an exception...