Coalition snapshot: Closer look reveals strange alterations
SATIRE: The internet is abuzz after an informal snapshot released to celebrate the coalition government’s first hundred days in office is suspected of having been digitally manipulated.
The photograph shows a smiling and relaxed Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters and David Seymour, joined by other key coalition ministers. But eagle-eyed viewers were keen to point out several unnatural discrepancies.
In the foreground of the snapshot, Mr Peters and Mr Seymour, who are standing side by side, appear to have their arms round each other with hands resting on the other’s shoulder. But closer analysis of those hands’ unnatural position suggests they may have been photoshopped in.
Meanwhile, a blurring in the region of Mr Peters and Mr Seymour’s shirt collars, a tell-tale sign of post-production editing, suggests the two may in fact originally have had their fingers round each other’s throats. At the same time Mr Seymour’s raised and bent knee appears to have been shifted away from Mr Peters’ groin area.
Speculation also surrounds the appearance of Minister of Police Mark Mitchell. Mr Mitchell, who campaigned on a promise of giving police more power to fight crime yet whose pay offer was described as “insulting” and “disgusting” by officers, appears in the photograph as being all mouth and no trousers.
In the second row, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello, who is responsible for gutting the previous government’s anti-smoking legislation against the advice of a range of health advocates, does not seem to have a leg to stand on.
And in the back row, Broadcasting Minister Melissa “you can watch the news on SKY” Lee appears to have had her foot digitally removed from her mouth.
In addition, mystery surrounds the whereabouts of the Excel spreadsheets normally worn by Finance Minister Nicola Willis as a symbol of her commitment to getting the numbers right, but which are unusually absent in this snapshot. At the same time an unnatural and unexplained $800 million gap between the promised and actual cost of tax breaks for landlords is clearly visible.
Concerns have also been raised about the apparent manipulation of images in the background of the photograph. An apparently drifting and engineless Cook Strait ferry has seemingly had wheels crudely added on to represent a luxury twin-cab ute driven by a grinning Transport Minister Simeon Brown. A school sausage sizzle to raise funds for vital new equipment has been altered to now portray a celebratory crayfish lunch for National MPs. And a crying, hungry schoolkid has been transformed into an image of a property investor laughing all the way to the bank.
Luxon has downplayed any suggestion that the photograph was significantly altered, saying only that it was “laser-focused, to be clear”. Meanwhile, the consensus among photo-editing experts is that a particular detail – Mr Luxon’s crossed fingers by his side – has not been retouched. As one noted: “That’s completely authentic – right now the man needs all the luck he can get.”
Andrew Gunn is a Christchurch-based film and television scriptwriter, and columnis.
A blurring in the region of Mr Peters and Mr Seymour’s shirt collars, a tell-tale sign of postproduction editing, suggests the two may in fact originally have had their fingers round each other’s throats.