Picture that Lies

I decided to superimpose President Barack Obama onto and original Soviet propaganda poster depicting Vladimir Lenin. I also manipulated Obama's campaign symbol, the "O", with the classic symbol of communism, the hammer and sickle. To carry out the creation of this photo, I first found a photograph of Obama and began editing. I first cloned out a microphone in the original picture then used the notepad effect along with the fill bucket to give it its red drawing appearance. I then used the magnetic lasso tool to take Obama's headshot to the Soviet poster.

After Obama was superimposed onto the poster, I had to do some cloning and cropping to move Lenin over to the right in order to make room for Obama and the original Russian text to the left. I proceeded to take the campaign symbol and used the fill bucket to make the background red and the "O" white. I used the magnetic lasso tool and moved it over to the Soviet poster. I then found a drawing of the hammer and sickle and used the fill bucket to make it white (the background was already transparent). After some more cloning and "touch-up's," the original poster was now my own creation.

I decided to create this poster because I am politically conservative and do not agree with many of Obama's ideals. Though I do not think our President is a communist, I believe much of the legislation passed in the last year closely resembles government intervention that can be paralleled to many fundamental aspects of socialism. But, my poster is intended to exaggerate and not necessarily meant to be a personal ad hominem attack on the President. I believe it is a form of creative art that can exaggerate the extreme just like many pieces of literature attempt to do (e.g. George Orwell and 1984).

According to my research however, a particular cited list would deem my photograph unethical (i.e. The Webster University Journal "Policy for the Ethical Use of Photographs"). I cropped frames that would otherwise alter the meaning, reversed the photograph of Obama and added objects within the frame. Though my idea was my own idea of political free speech, the manipulation of my photograph would have still been unethical according to certain standards. But, according to free speech, I believe my poster is an act of political participation that can not be condemned by a simple list of unethical standards. Essentially, the particular poster embodies free speech elements that take priority over a simple list of photographic standards.

Literal translation of Soviet poster: Party - Of the mind and conscience of honor Enoch.

Salvo, Suzanne. "True Lies." Communication World 25.5 (2008): 26-30. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 12 April 2010.