Just imagine — a man sitting at home while it’s the very beginning of 20th century. Photography has already been invented and long been used, but there are hundred years before Photoshop appearance. What can you do if you have a desire to play with photo effects: to decorate a picture, remove unnecessary details or trick everyone as if you captured something fantastical?
Don’t worry about your great-grandparents — even without Photoshop’s help they would manage to make up ways to turn simple photos into something amazing. Look at the examples of old photo manipulation and feel proud of masters from the past and of their imagination!
1. Unknown American artist, Man on Rooftop with Eleven Men in Formation on His Shoulders, c. 1930
2. McBean, Angus. Christmas Card, 1950
3. A powerful collision, 1914
A German postcard photomontage showing a large German soldier pounding the heads of a British soldier, French soldier, and Russian soldier together.
4. Unknown artist, Man Juggling His Own Head, c. 1880
5. Maurice Tabard – Room With Eye, 1930
6. Unknown American artist, Dirigible Docked on Empire State Building, New York, 1930
This shot is a photomontage, since, despite the spire of the famous New-York skyscraper was planned to be used as a terminal for airships, it hasn’t happened. The idea was considered too risky.
7. Grete Stern, Dream No. 1: Electrical Appliances for the Home, 1949
8. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1891
9. Barbara Morgan, Hearst over the People, 1939
In this photo the face of an American media businessman, William Randolph Hearst, turns into octopus body, that is, according to Barbara Morgan, the symbol of corporate greed and corruption.
10. Unknown artist, Two-Headed Man, c. 1855
11. Unknown artist, Group of Thirteen Decapitated Soldiers, 1910
12. My Great Great Grandpa using Photoshop before Photoshop. Late 1950’s
13. Unknown artist, Scene of Murder and Decapitation, 1870
14. Yves Klein, Leap into the Void, 1960
15. John C. Higgins, Man in Bottle, c. 1888
16. Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 1865
In one of the most famous portrait of Abraham Lincoln there is actually just his face. The body and the room in it belong to an American politician, John C. Calhoun. And that is also an example of photo manipulation of 19th century.
