“…Can photograph’s be trusted? I guess it boils down to what is digital art compared to a photograph and how much ‘editing’ is done, creating a true representation or turning it into what the photographer (or artist) wants it to be. Personally I do both. Sometimes there is something annoying or distracting in a photo, a piece of rubbish or a blurred bird in the sky……it is not there as a permanent thing, so why not remove it, same with pimple on portraits, the pimple is not WHO that person is, so why leave it? Removing a car from a photo by changing your vantage point, is that the same as digitally removing it? You can make a construct however you see fit by physically moving yourself or camera, you can change focus, focal length, aperture in camera, are they not distorting the image before you?”

Source: The Concept of Truth in Photography | Julie Powell – Photographer & Graphic Artist