Beyond Deepfakes: 10 Early Photographic 'Fakes' Proving 'Image Manipulation Has Always Been Around'

Unmasking the Past: Image Manipulation Is Nothing New

In an era grappling with the veracity of visual media—from controversial AI chatbots like Grok to the pervasive threat of deepfakes—it's easy to believe that image manipulation is a modern plague. The recent uproar over AI altering images and subsequent investigations by bodies like the European Commission highlight a widespread unease about what we see online.

Yet, a groundbreaking exhibition at the Rijksmuseum challenges this contemporary perspective, posing a provocative question:Have photographsevertruly told the truth?Focusing on a captivating period between 1860 and 1940, the "Fake! Early Photo Collages and Photomontages from the Rijksmuseum Collection" exhibition brilliantly demonstrates thatimage manipulation has always been around. Long before Photoshop or AI, cunning photographers were already masters of deception, crafting remarkable "fakes" that delighted and sometimes fooled their audiences. As exhibition curator Hans Rooseboom notes, "Image manipulation has been around as long as photography itself. It's part of the whole history of photography."

Join us on a journey through 10 extraordinary images from this exhibition, revealing the ingenious tricks of early photographic artistry.

1. Dreamweaver: The 'Carte de Visite' of an Imagined Future

Imagine a 19th-century collector holding this fascinatingcarte de visite—a small, mass-produced photograph popular in the Victorian era. It masterfully merges two realities: a present-day couple, identifiable by their tools of trade, with an imagined future—the woman's daydream of motherhood. This "darkroom trick," as Rooseboom describes it, involved shielding parts of the photographic paper and later adding a second negative. Such innovative techniques pushed photography into a new dimension, hinting at subjects' inner thoughts and laying the groundwork for future visual storytelling forms like comic strips.

2. Ghostly Encounters: The Imperceptible Blend

In a whimsicalmemento mori, painter and photographer Leonard de Koningh confronts a man with his own spectral double. De Koningh achieved this seamless illusion by exposing just half of the photographic plate, then re-posing his subject before exposing the other half. The transition is so flawless, it belies photography's relatively nascent status as an art form. "It's like a magician," Rooseboom marvels. "You know you are being tricked, but you don't know how the photographer does it." Robert Sobieszek, quoting composite printing pioneer Oscar Gustave Rejlander, famously stated that this method "led not to falsehood but to truth," acknowledging the inherent limitations of a single negative in capturing complex realities. This image is a prime example of howimage manipulation has always been aroundto serve artistic vision.

3. Heads Up! The Art of the Displaced Head

"We still expect photography to bring the truth, but this idea only really emerged from the illustrated magazines of the 1930s," explains Rooseboom. Before then, creative license knew no bounds. "Anything possible would be tried out and produced. There was no ethical restraint." Take this macabre yet humorous cabinet card (a larger print popular by the 1880s) featuring a displaced head. The photographer's mission was successful, with only subtle clues—a carefully positioned curtain or microscopic retouching—hinting at the elaborate deception.

4. Playing with Scale: A Surrealist Precursor

Unearthed from a French photo album and featured inLa Naturemagazine, this photomontage takes the "displaced head" illusion a step further, playing boldly with scale. Here, the photographer foreshadows the Surrealist movement, which would later disrupt conventional proportions to create dreamlike scenes. An open doorway ingeniously provides a dark, plain backdrop to conceal the cut-and-pasted elements before re-photographing the entire composition. These astonishing images, often purchased to surprise viewers, make it "hard to see where the trick starts and ends," according to Rooseboom, showcasing a playful mastery of illusion whereimage manipulation has always been aroundfor artistic experimentation.

5. Tall Tales and Bountiful Harvests: The 'Exaggeration' Postcard

The fascination with impossible proportions gave rise to a popular genre known as "Exaggerations" or "Tall Tales." This US photograph, from the "Golden Age" of picture postcards, exemplifies the pioneering role of photo manipulation in both art and marketing. Beyond anticipating Surrealism, the exaggerated scale here cleverly promoted regional myths—like the famously oversized stuffed geese of Watertown, Wisconsin. Elsewhere, Nebraska boasted an ear of corn as long as a horse-drawn carriage. As folklorist Roger Welsch observed, "Photography brought into being visual effects that tall-tale tellers through the centuries had seen only in their fertile imaginations."

6. Visions of Tomorrow: Flying Cars and Futuristic Cities

Early photographic manipulation wasn't just about humor; it sparked the imagination, presenting "toekomstbeeld" (visions of the future). This image vividly imagines a world of flying cars. Other exhibition pieces showcase futuristic cityscapes transformed by sky rails and zeppelins, thanks to clever copy-pasting. Eismann's New York photomontage, for instance, even incorporates early color—added during printing—proving that vibrancy didn't equate to truthfulness. It's another testament to howimage manipulation has always been aroundto shape our perceptions of what's possible.

7. The Dawn of Advertising: Playful Deception for Promotion

As the 20th century unfolded, photography's role in advertising grew, captivating audiences with playful designs. This early advertisement for the vaudeville act, the Transfield Sisters, is a prime example. Photomontages, combining different-sized photos shot from various angles, forged a "dynamic visual language, reflecting an era of rapid change." Rooseboom highlights the "interplay between fiction and facts" that characterized this fusion of advertising and photography. "This play between what you can believe and what you can't believe, what's possible and impossible, that's the little game they are playing in all these images."

8. 'Made for Fun': Humorous Snapshots in Time

While we often associate photo trickery with sinister motives today, Rooseboom's research uncovered a surprising truth: "three-quarters of all the images were made for fun." Alfred Stanley Johnson Jr.'s photomontage, for instance, uses clever placement of individual—sometimes overlapping—images to create a hilariously dynamic scene. Flying coattails and frilly bloomers depict car passengers catapulted through the air, inviting viewers to imagine a "before-and-after" narrative. The exhibition text confirms, "The intention was not to mislead, but rather to entertain the viewer," reinforcing thatimage manipulation has always been aroundfor pure amusement.

9. Art Beyond Reality: Dadaism, Cubism, and Collage

Cutting and rearranging images with glue was once a popular pastime, leading to celebrity quizzes and comic superimpositions of faces onto drawings. But it was also embraced by established artists. French artist Albert Huyot, influenced by Dadaism and Cubism, transformed photographic fragments into striking new artistic forms. László Moholy-Nagy's seminal book,Painting, Photography, Film(1925), showcased intricate photographic artworks and argued that photography's purpose extended beyond merely recording reality; it should explore its unique visual language.

10. Speaking Truth to Power: Political Photomontage

In a surprising twist, photographic trickery also served to convey perceived truths. Anti-Nazi campaigner Helmut Herzfeld (who anglicized his name to John Heartfield) created over 200 political photomontages for the leftist AIZ publication. These sought to expose the Nazi dictatorship's hidden dangers and lies. His piece "Mimicry" famously depicts Joseph Goebbels disguising Hitler as Karl Marx, a stark warning to the working classes not to be fooled by Hitler's false promises. Much like political memes today, these works used image manipulation to speak truth to power, demonstrating its dual capacity to both mislead and illuminate. This powerful example underscores howimage manipulation has always been aroundnot just for fun or art, but for profound social commentary.

A Timeless Art Form: The Legacy of Early Image Manipulation

The Rijksmuseum's "Fake! Early Photo Collages and Photomontages from the Rijksmuseum Collection" offers a fascinating journey into the historical roots of photographic deception. From lighthearted visual gags to potent political statements, these early "fakes" remind us that the conversation about image authenticity is far from new. It's a timeless dialogue, continuously evolving, proving that the human impulse to manipulate images—for art, humor, or persuasion—is as old as photography itself. The exhibition runs at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam until 25 May 2026.