Especially in fictional fandoms, like comic books and popular novels? (For those who don’t know, photomanipulation involves taking an existing photograph and using Photoshop or other tools to change stuff to your liking, so the resulting image is of the person in the photograph as, say, a superhero, or a furry-type figure.)
Personally, I hate it. I can never see what the manipulator (I’m entirely unsure if I can even use the word ‘artist’) wants me to see; only the original, especially if (as is usually the case) the photo used is one of a celebrity or model. And, as my parenthetical implies, I’m entirely uncertain if it’s really “art.”
On the other hand, I can fully see that this point of view is hypocritical compared to my opinion on fanfiction (though it does synch up remarkably in some factors). And if it’s this popular, there MUST be people who like them. But who? And why?
There’s some pretty funny stuff on Something Awful’s Photoshop Phridays.
Depends what you’re talking about. You mean the kind where they cut out a picture of a celebrity in MS Paint and draw a moustache on them, or the kind where they actually put some sort of effort into it?
More effort. I’m talking about something like this on the high end of skill and effort. But most of the examples I think of have the photo origins of the pic shine through much more obviously.
I humbly submit that you may not be looking at the best examples. I won’t say that they’re all amazing, but many of the ones I’ve come across have been quite simply stunning.
For fan fiction, it’s sometimes to illustrate your characters, and put them in the situations.
And sometimes, like someone mentioned Something Awful’s Photoshop Phridays (my favorite part of their site!), it’s just for shits and giggles.
From what I’ve seen, there are various photo contests and what not where they do it in order to win substantial cash prizes.
Also, I have seem some very impressive bits of photoshopping, ranging from rather elaborate affairs, to more subtle things, like a picture of an old man popping a wheeling on his electric wheel chair (the photographer had the wheel chair’s front propped up on some boxes, and used photoshop to remove the boxes and give his chair some motion blur effect). (This picture was featured in the latest issue of Rangefinder Magazine).
I really wish I could find that magazine around here so I could show it to you.
Posted too soon, just found a link to the picture and an article discussing it:
Burning Rubber , by Christian Lalonde.
Well, do you mean all photomanips “It looks like a real photo, but I know cows don’t actually fly like that”, or just the fannish “Oh look it’s Wonder Woman at the beach, lol!” stuff?
You can find some very artistic and clever photomanips that create surreal or ironic “photos” that are appealing for the same reason a surreal painting or a funny cartoon are appealing, plus the edge of “Hey, that looks like a real picture of something impossible!” worth1000.com has some very good examples of this sort of thing.
When it comes to the fannish stuff (pasting hobbit heads on supermodel bodies, and worse) I don’t entirely get it either, since it’s usually too unbelievable to me, but I gather mostly it’s just done so that people can have cheesecakey pinups or “realistic” illustrations of their favorite fantasy characters.
If you can look at it, Theban Band’s (some NWS) photomanips are amazing! Most people who first see them would believe they are actual photos, if not for the somewhat sexual content. They use a lot of smoothing effects and such, but they are just astounding.
Leaper, that picture you linked to is pretty terrible. It looks like they just airbrushed over a photo and stuck a bunch of cheesy effects in the background. And I’d wager the reason people make them is the same reason people make any kind of bad art - because that’s the best they can do. It is possible to make photomanips that don’t look like total ass - here are some examples.
Psst! Don’t forget post #9! 
This is just a guess, but howsabout people want to see what they want to see, and they do the best to fulfill that desire?
That’s what I’ve always figured. But then, I don’t do this stuff.
But then, I would say that, now wouldn’t I?..so, never mind.
