“The largest ear of corn grown”, photographed by W.H. Martin and published by The North American Post Card Co. in 1908 Rijksmuseum
Rijksmuseum
Remember that image of the late Pope Francis from 2023, looking hip in a huge, white puffer jacket? The photo went viral before it emerged that it had been generated by AI tool Midjourney. Fake images and videos flood the internet these days, but a new exhibition explores how people have been manipulating photographs almost since the medium was invented.
Take this startling image of a huge ear of corn (above). It was taken – or perhaps created is a better word – by W. H. Martin in 1908 as part of a series of postcards depicting outlandishly sized produce or livestock. Martin his scene, cutting and pasting the shots together before re-photographing the new image.
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His piece is part of the exhibition , on until 25 May at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Below is a photomontage postcard dating to before 1908, a vision of a future New York where cars can fly. The colours were later in the printing process and the outlines slightly retouched, giving it the air of a drawing, although it is a photo.
“Car flying over Mulberry Bend Park, New York”, published by Theodor Eismann before 1908 Rijksmuseum
According to the Rijksmuseum, photographers started cutting up and pasting images together as early as 1860. The exhibition traces the development of image manipulation from then up until the second world war.
Below is a disturbing image of a wheelbarrow containing a huge head, dated to between 1900 and 1910.
Photomontage by an unknown creator, made between 1900 and 1910 Rijksmuseum
And finally, the era’s delight in gargantuan farm produce rears its head again in a 1908 postcard in which geese dwarfing their human owners are herded to market.
Taking our Geese to market”, published by Martin Post Card Company in 1908 Rijksmuseum
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