Fake It- Adrienne Ray

My idea for this assignment was to create a fake city. I was interested in the concept of Solarpunk architecture, so I decided to composite this landscape photo of Charlotte. I turned my image of plants into skyscrapers using images from Wikimedia Commons, Unsplash, and Adobe Stock. I also utilized Photoshop brushes and textures to make the image seem a little weathered. There's not any historical context or particular reason why I chose this concept.

I had trouble with the gif but here are some of the images I used:

Fake it - Sanura Ezeagu

 

for my concept I wanted to touch on the time before humans and when dinosaurs existed. The Mesozoic was a time when creatures we can never know existed for sure. I recreated a scene before the comets hit earth which is a theory of the extinction of dinosaurs. The background is a photo I took which resembles volcanos and mountains. I used ground coffee and beans witch chocolate syrup and some warm lighting to give this ominous mood that something is about to happen. I used generative AI for the dinos and used the blur to my advantage to push scale. The original photo was to recreate a a made up world so I was inspired by sharkboy and lavagirl to create this scene but instead of adding them I thought dinosaurs would match the scene better

Fake it-Nikole McCahill

For the concept of this composition I decided to create a fake event of the occurrence of a major solar system shift. I got this idea because out solar system has always been changing from the Big Bang and the creation of our universe, planets such as Pluto being pushed out of our solar system, and recent talk of a solar flare and sun storm. In this particular composition I made Saturn as well as some other planets closer to Earth to the point where it can clearly be seen from the ground. The fore ground image is me on a hike, the foreground, starry sky, and the three separate planets are images found from pixabay and Adobe Stock. I used numerous masks and many, many, adjustment layers to create this image. To emphasize the supernatural event I placed myself looking up to emphasize the scale and the overwhelming intensity, of this supernatural event. I also wanted to entertain the idea of how we as humans have no control over many natural events such as large storms and natural disasters and how we are small and almost insignificant in the universe.

Fake It: Modern Transportation? - Julien Pozo

 

Fake It: Modern Transportation?

My idea definitely stemmed from my job as an automotive photographer but also photographer in general. As for the photo shot by me that was required, I chose a picture of a car I had taken and simply masked it to be used in the setting of what seemed to be an older form of transportation, specifically men moving herds of buffalo and transporting cargo.

Image Source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017669643

The main aim of the piece that I wanted to tackle was the juxtaposition of a side by side comparison of an older form of transportation and a more modern form, creating this weird yet funny feeling of seeing a more modern form of transportation, a car in this scenario, in such an old timey photo. Additionally, this was also inspired by posts I had seen recently on social media where photographers were taking very very old film cameras and taking photos, and while striking, I thought it was quite funny and definitely weird when I'd see at times they'd often capture something very modern such as a car, or streetlights, ATMs, etc. When they'd accidentally capture those more modern elements in frame it would create this weird juxtaposed feeling of "that shouldn't be there lol." And I really liked that and therefore wanted to approach that in this piece. And I personally think it looks somewhat convincing at first glance haha.

Frankraine — Fran Gatti

 

I could not post this on my own account for whatever reason so I had savannah post it for me! I went into this project knowing I wanted to do something relating to my nationality and connection to Ukraine. They're pretty deep into a conflict with russia at the moment and I cant begin to describe the weight it's had on my family but I wanted to do my own light spin on the subject since I had the chance. I photoshopped myself right into the city rubble, in front of a well known area for the floating hole a mortar created in this building. I brought in other elements like a russian tank and tank traps (called hedgehogs how cute) And photographed myself holding a nerf gun and wearing a little nerf bullet garter bandolier. I wanted to show myself present but unable to help in any meaningful way. Sort of that childlike feeling of being too young and helpless to contribute. I really liked the way this rectangular hole framed the composition so I added russian fighter jets and the wild Ukrainian landscape to further contrast the situation.

Woodstock 1969 — Savannah DeMao

 

2019 was the 50th anniversary of Woodstock 1969 and to commemorate this anniversary a trend arose, causing many people to recreate iconic original photographs from the festival. Instead of recreating a pre-existing moment, I chose to set the scene from my point of view as if I were actually there observing my boyfriend and enjoying the distant, but present, roars of the festival. My main goal in this project was to make the composite as time accurate and visually believable as possible to create a sense of traveling through time. There are an inconceivable amount of photos from Woodstock, but a vast majority of those available are crowd photos that don't quite catch the more intimate and personal moments throughout the festival. I wanted to portray a moment with this likeness instead of simply replicating what already exists, a point of view people may not have seen of Woodstock. 

The elements in the composition are finds from adobe stock, original photographs, and generative AI. 

"The Things We Care About" - Zoe Turner

 

I love making every assignment about the environment when possible, and this assignment felt like the perfect opportunity to do that but flip what I usually talk about. 

The concept for this image is similar in kind to the "photo" of the loch ness monster... I wanted to play into the constantly recurring story of the returned megalodon. Usually this pseudoscience idea is kept in its realm, but sometimes it gets treated as actual science (despite definitive proof that megalodons are long extinct) like in a Shark Week special several years ago where scientists were searching for a living megalodon. With that absurdity in mind, I feel a sort of frustration towards people who would rather dedicate time, energy, and resources to find a supposed living megalodon when an innumerous amount of definitively living -but struggling and/or dying!- species need the general publics attention so much more. I hope that the juxtaposition of the work title and final image are able to spark thought on why this is, or even just bring the viewer to realize that this disconnect exists. 

The photo of the beach and figure are both my own, the boat is a CC image licensed for modifications from flicker, as is the shark fin.

"The Endless Fight"- Jazmine Chance

 Fake It: The Endless Fight

This project was meant to challenge the idea of Media and how it visually communicates a completely false idea. Regarding my idea, I wanted to emphasize and compare how society was faced with a subjugated topic that's been carried from the past to where we are now. 

By looking back into the period of the Civil Rights Movement, I challenged the idea of racism with one of the movement's figureheads, Rosa Parks, in a scene where she was by the bus driver, James E. Blake, from the first incident of her sitting in the front of the bus. Her story involves running into the driver where he make African Americans get off the bus to make them go through the rear of the bus after paying. The driver yelled racial slurs and pushed her off the bus entirely. By bringing this kind of narrative, I challenge the modern viewer to a past-day injustice to make them question the factuality of racism. 

When it comes to my execution of that idea, I wanted to make a believable of Rosa Parks being harassed by police offers that forced her to not get on the bus. I decided to make it look a little more like a Wet Plate Collodion for multiple reasons: photos at that time were in black and white wet plates, black and white photos are more likely to seem believable, and to emphasize the fact that it's an old photo and the rest of the images are from Unsplash, Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons, and Library of Congress. The reason many sources involved some images of certain poses, the right clothing, and the right facial expressions were difficult to find. 

Fake It: Brachiosaurus Exhibit - Brianne Schriever

 

My concept revolves around the idea that the asteroid never hit earth and that the dinosaurs are still around to this day. Certain areas of the world are known for their fossil remains such as Utah, which is the location of this scene, showing what their future home could have been like in that area. I wanted to play with the idea of what the interaction between humans and dinosaurs might look like in modern days; knowing human nature and history, it's likely that someone would have figured out a way to put them in captivity. It would be my assumption that the dinosaurs would be very disinterested in humans, especially ones watching them through a fence; while the humans on the other hand would be very fascinated and want to disturb them. I thought it would be funny to place tourists wearing stereotypical clothing and ignoring warning signs to get a good view of the dinosaur at the exhibit. To create this scene, I used my own photo from a garden in Utah, photos I took of my parents, Adobe Illustrator to make the signs, generative AI for the fence and the rocks behind it, and stock photos for the dinosaur images.

Fake It "Beyoncé is in the Illuminati?" - Emily Furr

 

Is this real? Beyoncé is in the Illuminati? 

  

    My idea started with conspiracy theories about celebrities being in cults or secret societies. After we reviewed my project on Wednesday I still kept that route but switched some things up. It was brought to my attention that in 2013, Beyoncé flashed a triangle symbol with her hands and everyone on the internet went crazy.  I found that her husband, Jay-Z, is the founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, which was founded in 2008 and uses the triangle symbol. I then scoured the internet for public-domain images of Beyoncé and found this one from a Berlin concert in 2009. I then crafted the image to make it seem as if there was a deliberate sign years earlier than the Super Bowl XLVII that Beyoncé was in the Illuminati.

    I used a public domain picture, taken by GillyBerlin on Fliker  https://www.flickr.com/photos/92748110@N00/3513516659/, of Beyoncé performing at one of her concerts in Berlin in 2009. I used a picture of myself where it appears that I am taking a picture of Beyoncé while on stage. I used Generative AI to make the Illuminati triangle and eye, while I used the ellipses and triangle tools to make the symbol behind it.

Fake It - Hang Le

 

For my concept, I went with the theme of Otherly World. What I take as the Otherly World to be is a realm beyond the confines of our familiar reality, where the laws of physics bend to the whims of creativity. In the Otherly World, every corner is a new discovery, every encounters a chance for adventure, and every moment an opportunity to embrace the extraordinary. In a universe where reality intertwines with the extraordinary, children are transported to realms beyond imagination.

I had multiple pictures of landscapes and chose the one seen in the GIF as the best use of composition and space. The help of generative AI created the Otherly World intertwined with our current home, Earth. I originally had a person with their back facing the viewers but I soon realized that the composition of the person did not fit and it did not give the feeling of what I wanted to create. Although I had a few other options on what to do next, I got feedback and decided to land on kids playing. The help of the old railroad tracks in the photo helped to create the sense of a play area for kids. I used Adobe Stock for the kids. Children are at a stage in life where they are actively learning about themselves and the world around them, making their journeys through Otherly Worlds rich with opportunities for character development and life lessons.

Madyson Young- Fake It

 

For this project, I reimagined the Titanic sinking as people seeing it from afar while reporting on it. I chose a picture I took when I went to the beach and removed my family that was in the way, added the ship in the far distance as well as reporters and observers on the beach. I changed photos of people with actual video cameras as well as people from an actual photo who watched the Titanic set sail. 

I was thinking how some people tend to watch and report rather than actually take action, or if we refer to the movie, when all the people in the boats were watching as the ship was going down and didn't go back except for that one boat out of the 20.

Fake It: Dominique Rodriguez

The concept that Suzanne, Zoey, and I are doing for the Media Literacy Project focuses on natural phenomena fauxtography. The idea that I chose to do was aurora lights being seen clearly in Charlotte as realistic as can be because nowadays, in the 21st century, we constantly consume images through social media, and with AI rising, it is getting tough to know what photos are real and what photos have been generated or altered with AI. The chances of the aurora lights happening in Charlotte are almost none. Although there were a couple of aurora light sightings in Charlotte last year in 2023, with the light pollution and clouds, it wasn't visible at all. Even if we didn't have to worry about light pollution or clouds, the aurora lights would have been vaguely visible in Charlotte. 

The image of the Charlotte skyline is the photo that I've taken. The two different aurora lights and the people taking pictures of the sky are all AI-generated in Photoshop using the generative fill using prompts I typed out.

Fake It: The Earth is flatt??? - Christi Montes

 

My photo composition revolves around the growing belief and idea that the earth is flat. This conspiracy theory is believed to have begun around the 1950s. Even though there is evidence of pictures taken from space, these people think that this has been all a hoax. I wanted to create an environment where I could caption what this would look like. Relating to the blue marble, I decided to start my project over and change the way the earth looked.  

I found the image of the earth on Adobe Images, and from there, I used a shape in order to paste to create the illusion of a flat earth. I originally had found images of clouds on adobe images, however, after the critique from my fellow classmates I ended up taking my own pictures of the clouds to create a better illusion that these are real clouds the viewer was seeing. I used the smudge tool to develop a more fluffy look. I made a dome on top of the earth, I first started with a shape and then worked in layer stye to generate the glass clear effect. The images of airplanes were also found on Adobe images, as well as the image of the moon. Last but not least, I ended up taking a picture of a wall in the university area. I used this image to create more texture towards the rocks underneath the earth. Lastly, I ended up working with shadows, curves, and brightness to bring out depth and little details to images/ objects that are not that noticeable; these can be seen within the airplanes, the rocks, the moon, the dome, and lastly, the sky. The sun and stars were created with layer style and gradients. This ties the composition together. 

Fake It: Devil Ram of Red Rocks

 

For this work, I was inspired by famous photo hoaxes of Bigfoot and Nessie. I decided to use my own image of Red Rocks Park in Colorado to bring the "Devil Ram" to the photograph. The urban legend of the Devil Ram tells of a creature that hunts livestock, stalks farmland, and terrorizes humans for pleasure. The origin of this myth can be traced to the 19th century, the reason for the black and white adjustment layer with the grain texture. The element of the human figure and ram skull are from Unsplash (stock imagery), while the signage, hiking gear, and campsite are Generative AI.

Fake-It: Times Square Kiss Reimagined - Kimberly Ballinger

Mine is a reimagining of the Times Square Kiss photo taken by Life Magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt which was captured during the massive public celebration over the ending of WWII in 1945.

I decided to stay away from social commentary and chose to take a more light-hearted approach by substituting the woman with my cat Miller. He has since passed away but always loved being held and coddled so I wanted to put something in her place that would have enjoyed the interaction.


I also felt there is the irony that a great deal of cats often are often rejecting or annoyed with physical contact, so there is the link to this particular initial image due to the fact that she was initially in a defensive position when first kissed. This lightly touches on the importance of consent yet in a more subtle approach and connotation.


The primary photo was obtained from the website, The Photography of Alfred Eisenstaedt https://www.life.com/photographer/alfred-eisenstaedt/ and the other two photographs are mine. One is of my friend's cat (who does not enjoy affection near as much) as well as one of my son since he had on some American pride clothing and I thought it would be a nice little touch due to the happiness and pride many felt that day. They are just fun additions to try and help create an overall feel of the randomness depicted.


The overall image is just a simple idea of happenstance and celebration. The cats are caught up in human ridiculousness and are unwitting and unknowing participants in a historical moment. It's nice to imagine that he scooped up a street cat or his own family's cat and gave it a big smooch while a photographer snapped the moment. The cat has no idea what is going on, likely doesn't care (ha), and they are both forever captured in the photo.

Fake It: Apollo 11 Moon Landing (Fake!) - Troy Vong Nguyen

 

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing in 1969 that first landed humans on the moon was a historical event that had many known conspiracy theories - many claiming that the mission itself was faked. With these conspiracies, I decided to composite an image conveying their ideas while adding in a slight bit of humor.

With the original photo found through public domain, I expanded it with the use of generative AI to add in lighting and studio equipment while also using it to extend a stock image of a green screen photo with a person. My own images included photos of myself and my brother posing as crew set members busy with our own tasks; overseeing the set and giving directions while the latter uses a regular boot to stamp footprints onto the surface of the "moon." Additional details such as shadows and lighting were used to bring the images together cohesively to accurately misrepresent the historical event that reflects the conspiracies.

Fake It: Curling in Venice

 

Breaking news in Venice, Italy! Even when the canals saw some ice coverage in 2012 and 1929, nothing could have prepared Venice for the recent cold front that came through last week, causing temperatures ranging from 5 - 19 degrees. With these low temperatures, the water in the canals fully iced over, stranding some gondoliers and tourists as well as providing an excellent rink for a local curling team to practice their skills in preparation for their upcoming tournament in Rome. The captain of the team commented, “I am a native Venetian and have never seen anything like this. I started learning the game of curling when I was 5 and always have had to travel outside of Venice, to local rinks to practice. This recent freeze has provided a spectacular opportunity to play my favorite sport right here in my hometown, which is magical.” Local meteorologists claim that climate change is the main cause of this drastic drop in temperatures in and around Venice as well as other parts of Italy and Spain. Only time will tell how long these freezing temperatures will last!

I created this image using a photo that I took in Venice, Italy in 2022 as well as a recent picture of me pretending to "curl" in my front yard. Most of the other elements like the tourists, gondolas, curling team, and flag were royalty free images and AI added to make this fake it image come to life.