What Fauxtography Is:
You don't need to be fluent in french to interpret the word "fauxtography", but for those of you who are not fluent in any language, here's a hint: Faux = Fake. At the time of writing this piece, the word "Fauxtography" is on the fringe of becoming known to the general public. Consequently, few canny people have snapped-up web site domains such as "fauxtography.com" etc.. (though, nobody has developed any of these sites yet).

Few people would dispute the claim that all published and broadcast images are all fake to some degree and they may question why anyone should need to create new words for already accepted standards. The answer is that, although most images are manipulated or staged, they are not done so in order to deceive the viewer for any malicious intent. Fauxtography, by its current definition, covers images that have been altered or fabricated in order to promote or denigrate political figures, political parties, states, political activities and any disputed international events - Political propaganda, in other words.
The definition of word "Fauxtography" may extend to cover a broader field of manipulated images, but for now it is largely confined to politically motivated propaganda that commonly emanates from, or refers to, the most troubled areas of the world.
This sample image depicts a man being helped from a destroyed building in Beirut following an Israeli air strike. The air strike was very real but this particular event was staged by participants in the rescue operation in order to create a poignant and well composed piece of emotive imagery. In the short term their deception was effective as a number of international media agencies published and circulated the image. However, the long term effect has been to create an air of distrust concerning any images emanating from that particular conflict. The proof against the validity of this image is substantial. The 'victim' has no injuries consistent with being within the building when the rocket struck, but the definitive evidence came to light upon examination of other photographs taken in the aftermath of the air strike which clearly show the 'victim' himself helping with the rescue operation. There have been a number of similar fauxtographs emanating from the disputed territories in the arab/israeli conflict. Both sides are equally guilty of fauxtographic abuse. The overall effect has been to damage the credibility of photo journalism in this region.

The most famous of the digitally faked images from this conflict is this blatant clone tool job on the left. The before and after pictures show how the fauxtographer has altered this shot in order to accentuate the intensity of the smoke. This image was distributed by Reuters until somebody spotted the obvious edits.
The plumes of smoke exhibit the tell-tale signs of inept cloning as they contain repeated patterns of pixels that have not been blended or varied in order to hide the fact that they have been cloned from the same area. Either the person who made these edits was not competent in the field of image editing or he was in such a hurry that he only had one minute in which to complete the job. Anybody with a modicum of experience with any image editing application could have achieved better results within five minutes.
The degree to which this job has been rushed can be measured by the naive mistakes that you can clearly see when you look at the area beneath the smoke on the left of the image where he has inadvertently cloned one of the buildings.
The consequences of this attempted deception was that the photographer was blacklisted and Reuters' reputation was badly damaged.
What the fauxtographer was trying to create was an image with greater impact. The method he chose to employ was to increase the intensity of the smoke. The extent to which the edited version achieves greater impact though, is minimal and even if the editing had been accomplished in a more professional manner, the efficacy of his endeavors are still questionable.
The photographs and edits were the work of Beirut-based freelancer Adnan Hajj. Reuters stated that tighter editing procedures for images of the middle east conflict would be enforced, but the danger of relying upon local photojournalists is that they are often biased in one direction or the other, and even if they do not alter their images or stage fictitious events, they will only capture and release images that are beneficial to their own points of view. The only means of maintaining a balance would be to distribute equal amounts of material from both sides. No image is neutral when the subject is so emotive.

What Fauxtography Isn't:

Images are routinely augmented in order to flatter the subjects or make them appear more appealing to the public. Such alterations are not classified as fauxtography as the intent is not deceive for malicious purposes. The following examples involve political and public figures, but the alterations to their images are attributable to public relations and vanity.