모든 사진은 진실한가? 이러한 질문의 답은 언제나 모호하다. 왜냐하면 특히 기록의 형태로 나타나는 사진은 역사의 조작과 왜곡을 보여줄 수 있고 이와 동시에 사라지는 기억의 진실을 내포할 수 있기 때문이다. 게다가 사진을 만드는 과정에서 합성, 삭제, 수정, 이중인화 등의 기술적 조작은 역사를 왜곡하는 물리적 도구로 이해될 수 있다. 사진으로 역사를 이해하는데 있어 가장 어려운 것은 진실로 위장된 사진에 대한 맹목적인 믿음(ça a été)이다. 한국사진의 역사에 나타난 조작사진들 예컨대 이태리인 카를로스 로제티(Carlo Rossetti)에 의해 조작된 명성황후 사진, 누군가의 의해 합성 조작된 고종황제의 가족사진, 윤봉길 의사 가짜 사진의 의혹, 일본 사진엽서에 나타난 모호한 안중근 의사의 사진, 아직도 친일파 논쟁을 야기하는 손기정의 일장기 말소사진 등은 한국 근대사의 중요한 인물이나 사건에 관계되지만 촬영자는 대부분 익명으로 아직도 밝혀지지 않고 있다. 왜냐하면 조작사진들은 오랫동안 비공개 사진이었기 때문이다. 이러한 조작은 여러 장의 사진을 겹쳐 하나의 장면을 만들거나 내용을 삭제하고 수정하는 초보적인 방식으로 실행되었고 일부 정치적 비평을 암시하지만 대부분의 경우 사적 영역에서 그리고 개인적인 이유에서 다양한 유형으로 이루어졌다.
A photograph that is displayed in the form of a record not only shows the fabrication and perversion of history but also implies the truth of disappearing memory. The technical fabrication such as synthesis, deletion, revision, dual development, etc., is understood as a physical tool that perverts history. In this case, the greatest difficulty in understanding history through a photograph is blind belief (ça a été) in a photograph that disguises the truth. Although fabricated photographs appearing in the history of Korean photographs are related to significant persons or incidents in modern Korean history, most photographers are still unknown as they used pseudonyms because fabricated photographs were undisclosed for a long time. Their fabrication was rudimentary, overlapping several photographs to make a scene or deleting and revising contents. In most cases, it was done in private for personal reasons instead of political criticism. The photograph of Myungsunghwanghu, fabricated by an Italian Carlo Rossetti, has been known to be a photograph of Myungsunghwanghu for a long t ime, while i t was actually a synthesized photograph of court ladies and palatial garment. However, triggered only by his affection and curiosity over Chosun, which was seen by him, his intention was far from political. To the contrary, it was utilized as visual information to inform the empress of Chosun about European journals and publications. Further, although the family photograph of Emperor Gojong, synthetically fabricated by someone, still leaves many questions unanswered, it may be a pity for the family of Emperor Gojong to guess the intention of the fabrication. To the contrary, it may cause rage toward the Japanophile royal family, which took an opportunistic attitude in the trend of crisis of the last extremity. Finally, many persons conjecture that the photograph of patriot Ahn Jung Keun on his card was a fake photograph fabricated by Japanese imperialists. Needless to say, this may be a plausible conjecture, considering the dignity and firm integrity of patriot Ahn Jung Keun, which has been engraved in our minds for a long time. However, no evidence explaining such fact has been found yet. Although this photograph shows the shabby appearance of a homeless person, which is far from the image of a learned hero those days, it is apparent that a Japanese imperialist intentionally made and distributed the postcard to people to emphasize the image of a criminal who killed Ito Hirobumi through mass media. Notwithstanding, we cannot still confirm whether the person in the photograph is the patriot Ahn Jung Keun.