Portrait photography gave rise to an industry of photo ‘retouching’ - analog ‘beauty filters’ - to flatter subjects in a way portrait painters once did. This trend lead to questions about technology distorting our perceptions of beauty, reality and truth:
An 1897 issue of the New-York Tribune would declare the assumption “Photographs Do Not Lie” an “exploded notion”, saying:
“…at the present time photographs may be and are made to lie with great frequency and facility.”
Other commercial applications of photo retouching emerged: in 1911 tourists visiting Washington D.C. could acquire fake photographs of themselves posing with then President of the United States William Taft. This troubled Government officials. Upon discovering the practice in 1911, a United States Attorney ordered it stopped:
One (literal) photo-shop offering the novel souvenirs appealed to the White House for its blessing to continue the trade, but was denied. (the practice was not against the law, but pressure from the White House appeared effective if only temporarily - in the capital)
Photographic Crimes
The following year a fugitive - wanted for people trafficking - was found in possession of a fake photo posing with President Taft, it was reported he’d used it to buy the trust of his victims:
That this seemingly benign practice had been weaponized prompted some to demand it be regulated against abuse. The justice department prepared a law, that was introduced by then Senator Henry Cabot Lodge - who’d similarly been troubled after reportedly finding a photograph of himself with someone he’d never met.
On July 29, 1912 the bill was introduced to the Senate: “to prohibit the making, showing or distributing of fraudulent photographs”:
The law would make it illegal “to make, sell, publish, or show” any “fraudulent or untrue photograph, or picture purporting to be a photograph” of anyone who had not first given permission. Violation would see punishment of up to 6-months in jail or up to a $1000 fine ($31,797 adjusted for inflation.)
The proposed rules made headlines across the US, bringing the topic of fake photographs to wider attention:
The Intelligencer Journal of Pennsylvania applauded Senator Lodge's efforts to combat the "miserable business of creating fake photographs”, saying while the technology of photography was a “wonderful art”, it was “manifestly in need of control against abuse.”