Composograph

Composograph refers to a forerunner method of photo manipulation and is a retouched photographic collage popularized by publisher and physical culture advocate Bernarr Macfadden in his New York Evening Graphic in 1924.

The Graphic was dubbed "The Porno-Graphic" by critics of the time[1] and has been called "one of the low points in the history of American journalism".

[2] Exploitative and mendacious, in its short life (it closed operations in 1932) the Graphic defined "tabloid journalism" and launched the careers of Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell, who developed the modern gossip column there.

[4] Apart from their sensational subject matter, composographs have relevance as a historical reference point in the current debate over staged and doctored news photos.

In a 1997 academic paper called "Staged, faked and mostly naked: Photographic innovations at the Evening Graphic, 1924–1932"[5] and a shorter online essay,[6] Radford University professor Bob Stepno points out that the Graphic was published before improvements in photojournalism technology and standards that made possible the photorealism of Magnum Photos, Black Star and others during World War II.