Since its inception, photography has strived to be recognized as an art form. Originally, it was used to reproduce things, which hurt paintings and the entire art of it. But paintings then evolved to become something more and different. These days, it’s unmistakable that painting is an art form. Few of us reading this article could probably use a watercolor paint palette or mix our paints using eggs and powders. To many people, photography isn’t an art form because they don’t understand how it can be so. And who can blame them? Smartphone photography and manufacturers put the idea of making images simple and the idea of a sale over anything else. So then, why is photography forgery so rare?
The answer to this comes down to one big thing: money.
Why are Rolex watches forged so often? They can then be sold very cheaply, and profits can be easily made.
Why are paintings forged? Because they can be sold to the right person for the right amount with ease.
Why, then, are Gucci bags forged? Well, because of fashion and how much women will buy these things to impress other women instead of men.
Some of the biggest bits of photography forgery have to do with Man Ray. Literal magazine and ArtNet have both reported on them. Judy Hochberg and Michael Mattis both specialize in finding forgeries in the photography world. However, they’re not as commonly reported by major media. Why is this? Well, it concerns the value of photography as an art form. It’s still very young if all things are considered. Many of the biggest photographers have their works protected by estates. And if sales happen, they’re much more rare. It’s a lot easier to sell someone a forged painting of Van Gogh than it is to sell them a silver gelatin print made by Bresson. The reason for this is that Van Gogh is the far more imitated artist with a more illustrious name.
When people look at a painting, they understand that someone had to painstakingly create a scene from their mind’s eye. But when they look at a photograph, they don’t necessarily see the same thing. This wouldn’t have been the case if we had still developed images in the darkroom and bastardized photography into something meant to simply capture a moment.
To be frank, very few photographers create work from their mind’s eye without using Photoshop or other techniques. Excessive photoshopping and Generative AI replacements make you a Photoshop artist—not necessarily a photographer.
The closest thing to photography forgeries these days are screenshots. But those are often either totally shut down or done with the associated tangible free-use terms.
Lots of folks still often wonder about people stealing their images. And with social media being what it is, you often make your own work very easy to steal. With that said, you still have to make photographs that people will want to steal. Considering that many photographers don’t print as much as we used to around a decade or so ago, there’s less of a reason to steal photographs and therefore they don’t hold as much value.
Photography forgeries, on the other hand, are often printed pieces of rare art that can command a lot of money. As long as there’s a high price tag attached, people will try to duplicate it.