Many Shades of Grey
Revised 8/29/23
The greyscaling is the second type of fakery that I enumerated in a previous posting. By transferring an image to grayscale and a little bit of tampering, a modern image becomes a document of the institutionalized nude male swimming of the past. I present and analyze some examples of this photo fraud in this posting. Note that none of the originals in this posting have explicit attribution.
Image 1
The well-built young men in this photo are toweling off after emerging from the pool. One could surmise that they have just completed their event in a tournament and will be preparing for their next heat. This could be an image of some swimmers back in the good old days that we are examining. Needless to say, this is an attractive image that gets a lot of play on topical blogs.
There is however another version of this photo seen below.
In full color and uncropped, the scene is of a backyard above ground pool where the two boys are enjoying a nude swim in privacy. It also becomes obvious that the photo is of a much more recent vintage than the 1950’s or 60’s. The stud earring in the ear of the boy at the left would suggest this picture is no earlier than the 1990’s. Another bit of treachery is the background. Note that the greenery becomes a textured wall in the black and white version, suggesting an indoor venue such as a YMCA or school pool.
Using forensic tools discussed in the Unknowns posting, it was established that the fake version (first image) was produced using Photoshop on a Mac computer on October 15, 2013.
Image 2
This is another example of de-colorizing to falsify. The date on this one is likely to be no earlier that the 1980’s because bathing caps weren’t widely adopted by male competitive swimmers before that period. Caps with logos are even more recent. Although I don’t have the original of this photo, I’m fairly certain I know its origin. Naturists/nudist in Europe (International Naturist Federation) periodically hold compeitive swimming tournaments (galas) for all ages and genders on both a national and pan-European scale. This picture is typical of the candid shots from those events. The uncircumsized penis tends to confirm this origin, since natural penises are far less common than in the US. I conclude that this picture is less than 20 years old.
The full color original probably had the resolution expected from a digital camera. This picture probably lacks the resolution of the previous black and white example above because it might have been cropped from a picture with more tattle tale background and then blown up. Nevertheless, the graininess is typical of the pictures deceptively aged by this process.
Confirming this analysis, this photo was altered in Photoshop on a Mac on October 1, 2014 – probably by the same faker.
Image 3
Another attempt at this type of fakery is this trio of images.
I first saw only the black and white version and was immediately suspicious that it had been altered. This was due to its resemblance to some of the fakes of the Russian and Ukrainian pictures where only some of the males had been de-suited. However, after I found the color version with the two suitless guys, I was mollified. The third image in which all the guys were suited was a lesson. This was not a straight up greyscale fake. Someone did a very creditable ‘shopping of the color image. The greyscaling was probably an attempt to make it look vintage. Note the progressive loss of resolution and brightness as the image descends deeper into falsehood. Someone skilled in the art might be able to explain if that is a natural result of altering an image.
Turns out, this is a modern image taken at the Rainbow Wahine pool at the University of Hawaii.
So when are we?
Further consideration of the young men themselves indicates that several of them are sporting spiked hairdos. These are the hard spikes that are no longer in style, but were certainly in vogue in the second decade of this century. Try 2012-2015 as a tentative date.
The forensic data on this set are confusing. It shows that the two color images passed through photo editing software (“Google”) but the greyscale version did not. It may be that the latter was de-colorized in an app that did not leave a trace.
Image 4
We’re back to the circumstances of Image 1 with this one. Look at the original below.
This becomes a question of “how many things can you find wrong with this picture?”
Note that the woman in the office window above standing in front of what apparently is a CRT computer monitor (which were used up until the early 2000’s, but not during the era of interest here). That little detail has been conveniently cropped out of the grayscale version. The lighting and the architecture are also of recent vintage. Finally, with their swim caps sporting large logos, they look like this may have been plucked from images of one of the recent European nudist events described previously – except that the females are in suits.
The most striking thing about the content is that all of figures appear to be female except for the two naked guys on the blocks. This could be a coincidence that the other nude males present did not make it into this frame.
The forensic data indicates that the greyscale version was generated in Photoshop using a McIntosh device on July 31, 2014. The color version contains no such data, suggesting that it could be an unaltered original – go figure.
Image 5
Sometimes a greyscale faker can be busted by successive images from the same event.
It’s clear right off the bat that this is not an image from the period of interest. The dressed figures are obviously wearing more contemporary outfits. We really don’t need much else to reject this image. However …
These two colored shots are from the same event, probably taken minutes apart from the first. In full color it shows that this is taking place at a nudist resort. There are naked people in the background, including at least one woman. The signage is in German, so these guys ain’t from around here.
The data contained in the first image indicates that it was altered on October 19, 2014 once again using Photoshop riding on a Mac. The colored image contains no such data, suggesting that the nudity depicted was real. That might suggest that the only alteration made to the first image was to de-colorize it.
Image 6
This is a pretty much straight up grey scaling fake except that somehow the images got reversed between the colored original and the decolorized version. The lack of resolution (which is consistent between the two versions) may be due to the water mark indication that this is an outtake from a “porn” video.
Looking further into it, what little can be seen of the facility itself suggests that it is of a more modern design with exposed structure and what could be colored skylites. The design of the girls’ suits is also of recent vintage. In other words, a recent picture being passed off as much older.
Also note that the guy with his back to the camera seems to have the physical build of an older person, in contrast to the boys and girls in the foreground. This is not necessarily a high school event.
There is no data associated with the colored version, leaving open the possibility that it is unaltered. The greyscale image data shows that it was Photoshoped on March 28, 2013 by our old friend with the Mac.
Image 7
This pair of images shows the application of grayscaling under a different set of circumstances from the previous examples.
The young man apparently approaching the starting block is well accessorized with a swimming cap, goggles and a rampant penis. Recalling the discussion of Image 2, caps were not in general use until the 1980’s. Goggles were first used in international competition in 1970, but were not accepted for Olympic competition until the 1976 games. Admittedly, both of these accessories were in use prior to their formal sanctitioning by governing bodies, making it possible that this image predates the 1980’s.
Anecdotally, I knew a man whose father was a competitive diver in college (probably in the 1940’s). He sustained a permenant injury to his eardrum that made the ingress of water exceptionally painful. Thereafter, whenever he swam, he plugged his injured ear with cotton and Vaseline and secured it with an elastic bathing cap. Therefore, bathing caps were in use by males for special needs at least as far back as the 1940’s. And then there was the water polo set who required caps for team identification and ear protection. That sport dates back to the 1870’s in the UK.
The crux of the matter is that the male swimmer in this photo is nude while his female colleagues are suited. The documented first person recollections of the correspondents of various blogs is that these circumstances did occur in the 1950-75 period, but testimony is sketchy concerning later times. There is some indication that public nude male swimming persisted in some places into the 1980’s. If that is the case, then this set of images may indeed be a genuine record of the practice of public nude male swimming in competition.
If this is indeed a valid image, why did some perpetrator find it necessary to deceptively modify it it? Ignorance, probably.
Throughout the period we are talking about, all photography was on film. For much of this era that meant black and white photography. However, by the 1960’s color film became economical enough for the causual shooter and hobbyist. Large international companies like Kodak, Agfa and Fuji vyed for the consumer market, continuously improving economy and convenience of use. The upshot is that color photography was readily available during the last two decades when the nude male swimming custom existed (and even earlier, see image 22 of the Bad) . You have to conclude that some genuine color images must exist. This may be one of them.
By the way, the color version has no data indicating alteration. The de-colorized image was produced by Photoshoping on February 26, 2013 on a Mac.
Image 8
Then there is the matter of repurposing images that were not necessarily swimming-related.
But it really doesn’t hang together. For one thing the lad has a tattoo. That would have been extremely rare on one so young even in the 1970’s – the limit of our time period – and may be a disqualifier right there. But the killer is the semen deposit on his left thigh. This is a little backyard porn.
Image 9
Besides adding the obviously faked title (contemporary font), the forger added some ageing distress marks to make the image seem very old. His efforts left tracks, however. The metadata says this was modified using Paint.NET on March 28, 2010.
Image 10
This fake actually involved a media jump: from a movie to a photo.
The unconvincing doctored image with its fake caption was derived from a movie outake. The absurdist movie situation was an apt source for an absurd fake.
As it happened, this was Photoshopped on July 14, 2013, once again on a McIntosh.
We’ll now move onto the more ambiguous images that require discerning analysis.
Historical Nude Male Swimming Images 