Pictures That Lie

The mugshot of OJ Simpson that made the cover of Time Magazine in 1994, was altered to make it seem more dark and evil. This was right after OJ Simpson was arrested on murder charges. I chose to look at this picture first of all because it is of a very recognizable sports figure in OJ Simpson. The Simpson case was one of the biggest in the sports world. What I found most interesting was the ability of the modification to completely change the meaning of the photo. In the Newsweek edition with OJ's picture on the cover unaltered, it still apears to be a mugshot, but not for something as serious as murder. One can look at the Time cover and know that this man did something terribly wrong. This brings me to my next point of whether or not this picture was harmful or not. I think that it could be very harmful to OJ Simpson, and can be seen as an attack from Time magazine. It is one thing to portray these messages on someone who has proven to do terrible acts, but OJ was just arrested, not yet convicted of anything. OJ Simpson would go on to be proven innocent as well. So although I do not condon the alleged things that OJ Simpson did, and despite there being much controversy in the verdict, I think it was wrong to alter the photograph to portray his character being a certain way, before he is even proven to be that dark and evil.