Sunday, February 19, 2012

In Presence of the King

Doctoring official photographs to erase disgraced leaders was a common practice during the years of the Soviet Union. Well before, some resourceful Livornese of the early 1900 managed to be even more creative than that.Vintage postcard, Le acque della salute, LivornoIn this old postcard the Count of Turin is visiting the renowned spa of Livorno “Acque della Salute” (Waters of Health). I don't know if the King himself was in town then, but he surely wasn't in this photo.Vintage fake postcard, Le acque della salute, LivornoSomebody fixed this in the second photo, crudely pasting another image of His Majesty in the middle of the existing group. Both versions of the postcard were circulated.
(Digitized from the collection of Antonio Cantelli)

Search labels: spa - postcard
External links: Count of Turin - Vittorio Emanuele III (Wikipedia)
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17 comments:

  1. Luis GomezFebruary 19, 2012 at 12:16 AM

    This is wonderful VP. No need of Photoshop.

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2012 at 12:40 AM

    That is interesting indeed.

    Please have a safe step ahead and a good Sunday too.

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  3. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2012 at 12:53 AM

    And just think what they could have done with today's editing software! Interesting why is was important that some think the King was there!

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  4. AnonymousFebruary 19, 2012 at 3:19 AM

    Sometimes photoshoppers don't do much better... lol!

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  5. JulieFebruary 19, 2012 at 3:24 AM

    He is short that King, isn't he? Or was that doctored, too?

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  6. RandyFebruary 19, 2012 at 6:26 AM

    These are amazing!

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  7. VPFebruary 19, 2012 at 9:17 AM

    Julie - He was 1,60 m (5 ft. 3 in.), quite short even for Italy at the time.

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  8. DinaFebruary 19, 2012 at 9:57 AM

    Hard to believe that they would doctor the photo like this, and sell it.

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  9. cieldequimperFebruary 19, 2012 at 11:12 AM

    Nothing new under the sun.

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  10. Stefan JanssonFebruary 19, 2012 at 12:03 PM

    Ha ha. And that was long before photoshop.

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  11. jooFebruary 19, 2012 at 12:38 PM

    One upon a time, long, long before the photoshop:)

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  12. Cezar and LéiaFebruary 19, 2012 at 1:49 PM

    Very interesting post!
    LOL for all comments about photoshop, I just agree! :)
    Hugs and a nice week
    Léia

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  13. UnknownFebruary 19, 2012 at 2:22 PM

    This is just great! Who said photoshop is a creation of the digital era? :-)

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  14. Traveling HawkFebruary 19, 2012 at 6:21 PM

    Interesting post, showing that manipulation is not an invention of our times:)

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  15. Lois EvensenFebruary 19, 2012 at 9:58 PM

    Wonderful! I love the comparisons. :)) It is similar to the high school girl who cuts her old boyfriend out of pictures and pastes in the picture of someone she would prefer - such as a movie star. ;)

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  16. KaoriFebruary 20, 2012 at 1:51 PM

    That's an interesting tradition :D

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  17. PerthDailyPhotoFebruary 20, 2012 at 5:37 PM

    Oh that's too funny VP!! Could do a much better job now haha!

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