I just commented this somewhere else:
I think this photograph was taken in an era when the only technology available to make an image that looked like this was photography. At that time “not a real photograph” was the equivalent to the statement “a photograph of something which is not what it appears to be”.
Wolf314159@startrek.website 6 months ago
Fake and real photograph used to have a very different meaning indeed.
This is a “real” photo of Denise Richards and Paul Walker:Denise Richards and Paul Walker
This is a “fake” photo of Denise Richards and Paul Walker (in the body of a cybernetic T-Rex): Fake Photo of Denise Richards and the soul Paul Walker in the body of a cybernetic T-Rex
blackbrook@mander.xyz 6 months ago
In case I wasn’t clear about this in my other reply, my main point is that a photo of something fake is not the same thing add as a fake photo. If the dinosaur is animatronic, it’s not a fake photo. If the dinosaur is CGI, yeah fake photo.
Wolf314159@startrek.website 6 months ago
Yeah, that’s why my comment was basically words and phrases have shifting connotations as time passes and contexts change.
blackbrook@mander.xyz 6 months ago
No, this is sloppy use of language, which worked the same 50 years ago. The only thing different today is the range of things that exist that we can infer that they really mean by their sloppy language. There were still ways to manipulate photos, before CGI. One might have called such a manipulated photo a ‘fake photograph’ in that day (though even that is arguably a little sloppy). But a non manipulated photo of a real physical model is not in any way a ‘fake photograph’. You could say a photograph of a fake Gigantopithecus, or of a fake scene but that’s not the same thing. Yes, we can infer what’s meant when people carelessly slap adjectives on the wrong nouns, but it is sloppy writing.
Notice how much more accurate and well written OP’s description is: “Paleo-anthro sculptor Bill Munns with his Giganto reconstruction”
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
Yeah nah.
I agree that its sloppy language but it would’ve been more descriptive in the 80s.
Wolf314159@startrek.website 6 months ago
Dude I’m not arguing that it’s correct or not, I’m saying that this is the way many people used to (and how some still do) use the language.
blackbrook@mander.xyz 6 months ago
Oh, sure, no disagreement from me on that. But this looks to me like something from a magazine, so one expects some level of professionalism. Now if this is some 12 year old’s fanzine or something, ok, I feel bad for giving them shit, but a professional journalist should be embarrassed.