Five Film Photographs That Weren't Digitally Altered

One of my favorite pet-peeves, especially as a surrealist photographer who avoids heavy post-processing, is the assumption that anything that looks unbelievable is Photoshopped. In the early days of creating illusions without manipulating my work, I would spend extra effort to explain the process to my viewers. Nowadays I've grown used to the assumption's prevalence, and when someone tells me, "Cool Photoshop," I chuckle to myself because I've tricked them.

But what this generation doesn't remember was that photographic manipulation has been happening since nearly the invention of photography. Even Ansel Adams, the landscape purist who shot straight and sharp photographs of the American landscape, spent hours upon hours editing his work in the darkroom. Some of his landscapes are actually a composite of sky and land.

So in without further adieu, in the celebration of manipulated photography, here are five film photographs that were never touched on a computer.

1. Man on Rooftop with Eleven Men in Formation on His Shoulders, c1930 

2. Untitled, 1969 by Jerry Uelsmann

3. Room With Eye, c1930, by Roger Parry

4. Oh, Sheet!, by Thomas Barbèy

5. Man Juggling His Own Head, c1880, by De Torbéchet, Allain & C.

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Yours truly,
John Dykstra