video transcript

How would Elvis have looked with a military hair cut? Or a woman morphed with a cat? Long before digital technology photographers were manipulating photos for different purposes. Its history is now on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some 200 photographs - from the spirit images of the 1860's, to the humorous work of Yves Klein one century later, they all show a continuous strive for the perfect image says curator Nia Fineman. SOUNDBITE: Nia Fineman, Assistant Curator, Department of Photography, Metropolitan Museum of Art, saying (English) "I think that the motivations for manipulating photographs for political reasons, for artistic reasons, to make a picture look better, more marketable, really have remained fairly consistent." Look for the difference. The original 1937 photograph has Soviet-leader Joseph Stalin with his secret police chief Nikolay Yezhov in the frame. But after Stalin had Yezhov killed in one of his purges, he also had him 'airbushed' out of the picture as well. These and other fantastic images are part of the exhibit that will run until the end of January next year.