610. Why do photographers so often want viewers to believe that doctored or aigmented photographs are actually undoctored photos?

The two main reasons are probably that:

1) It makes the photographer look good when viewers believe the photographer has conquered “the greatest challenge of photography in the 21st century.”

2) The photographer knows that viewers are often disappointed when they learn that what they had thought was an undoctored photo turns out to be doctored or aigmented.

That disappointment rarely goes in “the opposite direction”:

Viewers are rarely disappointed to learn that what they had thought was a doctored or aigmented photo turns out to be undoctored.

That is why photographers routinely hope that viewers will think a doctored or aigmented photograph is undoctored.

Here too the hope rarely goes in “the opposite direction”:

Photographers rarely hope that viewers will think an undoctored photograph is actually doctored or aigmented. (See also #2005.)