History Main / RemovedFromThePicture

* ''Franchise/XMen'':

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': A portrait of Niles and Maris (unseen, of course). Following their separation, Niles hits the roof when he discovers he's been painted out with a tree. Well, not ''quite'' -- Frasier, wincing, tells Niles not to look at the face of the skunk in the undergrowth.

* ''Fanfic/WithThisRingGreenLantern'': As investigating the disappearance of [[Franchise/GreenLantern Carol Ferris and her suitor Hal Jordan]], private detective Jonny Double check Carol's house and finds a picture of Hal Jordan slashed by Carol's villainous stalker the Predator.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'', the photo album in the real world with Sunny and his friends has [[spoiler:his deceased sister Mari]] blacked out of every image she is in entirely. Aubrey's aggression toward Basil is because she assumes he did it for some reason. [[spoiler:It was actually Sunny himself who did it to repress his memories of Mari, whom he feels guilt for [[AccidentalMurder accidentally killing]] during a heated argument.]]

* An early episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has the titular writer-sleuth realize that a photo of the family she works for in the home of a nanny is the same as the photo he saw in the family's home, except with the mother cropped out of the picture so it looks like the father, the nanny, and the kids are a standard nuclear family. Of course, this is a clue that the nanny did it.

* Cy in ''Film/OneHourPhoto'' does this to all the pictures he's collected of his favorite family, when he discovers the father is an adulterer.

* A fourth character was originally planned for Creator/LucasArts' ''VideoGame/TheDig'', and the game's box art was originally drawn with four characters in space suits, but when the fourth character was dropped, the box art was altered to show only three characters - though the cover of the novelization in audiobook format still shows the old four-character version.

* In the ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' story ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfJeanDeWolff'' Spidey is looking through Jeanne's belongings after she was murdered (in search of clues and finds that she's saved just about every picture of Spider-Man taken... And cut out pictures of his (then GF) Black Cat (although they had broken up by the time Jean was murdered.)

* The photo in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', where changes in the timeline cause the disappearance first of Marty's older siblings, then of Marty himself in a photo that Marty brought from 1985 to 1955. There is no emotional reason for this change of course, nor is it caused by any human agency, just the timeline.

* ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel'': If any of the young protagonists are [[PoweredByAForesakenChild sacrificed to power the Soul Cannon]], any artwork that would have originally included them is altered, filling the space where they originally would have been with a black scribble.

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[[quoteright:300:[[WesternAnimation/{{Coco}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cocophoto.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:When Photoshop hasn't been invented yet,\\
you have to make do.]]

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* Ignacia of ''ComicBook/{{Wildguard}}'' uses her heat vision to burn her own face from a photo after a particularly crappy day.

* ''Film/TheMuppets2011'' reveals that after Kermit and Miss Piggy parted ways, Miss Piggy kept half of a photograph of their wedding in ''[[Film/TheMuppetsTakeManhattan Manhattan Melodies]]''. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out that Kermit kept the other half. They show the pieces to each other backstage during the telethon.]]
* A strange case is employed in ''Film/LovelyMolly'' where Molly has cut out the horse heads in the photographs in her father's office and pasted them over his head in the family album.

* ''Film/FuneralParadeOfRoses'': We see several repeated shots, in extreme close-up, of a cigarette burning a man's face out of a photo. Eventually it's revealed that Eddie's mother is burning Eddie's father's face out of a family photo, the father having abandoned the family 15 years before when Eddie was a small child. While this is meant to illustrate that the mother still burns with hatred for the father after all these years, it's also a ChekhovsGun that is crucial to TheReveal.
* ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII'': When Daniel is getting to know Jessica Andrews, he finds a photo of her rock-climbing, with another man whose head has been torn from a photo of them together.

* Defied in ''Literature/ShamanBlues'' -- when Konstancja asks Witkacy why he hadn't cut her out of their picture together, he answers that if he'd done so, he couldn't've found a frame that the picture would fit to.

* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': A portrait of Niles and Maris (unseen, of course). Following their separation, Niles hits the roof when he discovers he's been painted out with a tree. Well, not ''quite'' -- Frasier, wincing, tells Niles not to look at the face of the skunk in the undergrowth.

* The Torn Photo passive item in ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'' is, as the title says, a ripped photograph where only Isaac and his mother are visible. From several implications of other items and events in the game, the missing piece had [[DisappearedDad Dad]] on it. When he picks it up, Isaac looks [[BrokenTears downright heartbroken]].

* Skulker in ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' crushes a picture of his girlfriend, Ember after she criticized his [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunting]] skills. He spent the rest of the episode trying to prove otherwise, but whether they got back together is never concluded.

* An early episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' has the titular writer-sleuth realize that a photo of the family she works for in the home of a nanny is the same as the photo he saw in the family's home, except with the mother cropped out of the picture so it looks like the father, the nanny, and the kids are a standard nuclear family. Of course, this is a clue that the nanny did it.

* In a ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse story Mickey finds a picture of his aunt with her three brothers, one of which, that he didn't previously know of, has the head cut off. It's later discovered that the third brother was the gangster John Cyril Rattinger, and his father removed him from all pictures upon discovering he had become a criminal. The now elderly and [[HeelFaceTurn reformed]] Rattinger has the last intact copy of the same picture... And cuts himself out upon accepting he can't just go to Mickey and tell him he's his uncle.

* In the ''{{Film/Apocalypse}}'' film series movie ''Tribulation'', Calvin Canboro has his sister Eileen photoshopped from the family photo he has with her and their brother Tom since she had been CaughtUpInTheRapture.

* The photo in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', where changes in the timeline cause the disappearance first of Marty's older siblings, then of Marty himself in a photo that Marty brought from 1985 to 1955. There is no emotional reason for this change of course, nor is it caused by any human agency, just the timeline.
* At the start of ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Hermione erases ''herself'' from all family photos when she wipes her parents' memories of her.
* ''Film/UncleBuck'': The title character is the BlackSheep of the family, whose brother reluctantly calls him in to watch the children in an emergency. Buck is mostly a congenial ManChild but has a moment of quiet melancholy when he sees that he's been removed from all the family photos, including his brother's wedding picture.
* ''Film/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'', the Bellows' daughter who was accused of witchcraft and was excluded from her family was taken out of the family photos.
* ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'': [[spoiler:The effects of Peter being forced to [[{{Unperson}} collectively erase everyone's memories of him as Peter Parker]] are shown in the Extended Cut's [[TheStinger post-credit scene]], which shows photos and video footage from the [[Film/SpiderManHomecoming first]] [[Film/SpiderManFarFromHome two]] films edited to crop him out of frame or insert an object in the foreground to cover his face.]]

* In ''Literature/AmongOthers'', Mori goes to live with her father after she and her sister have a fight with their mother that ends with the sister dead and Mori seriously injured. After Mori's mother finds out where she's gone, she starts sending Mori old family photos with Mori burned out of them. Since Mori's mother is a witch, there's more to this than just an expression of her feelings.

* Near the beginning of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', Dr. Kleiner accesses his experimental teleporter by [[BookcasePassage straightening a picture on a wall]]. If you take a close look at the picture, it's a group shot of [[PlayerCharacter Gordon Freeman]] and the rest of the Black Mesa Anomalous Materials team, with Dr. Wallace Breen's face whited out and then crossed out. Of course, Breen is currently TheQuisling for a [[PoliceState totalitarian]], [[CrapsackWorld poverty-stricken]] [[VichyEarth Earth]], so some animosity is to be expected.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', [[spoiler:completing the Genocide Route and then attempting a True Pacifist Run results in this. If you tell Toriel "I have places to be", the photograph of Frisk and their friends shown in the final scene changes -- The faces of your friends are scribbled out in red marker, and Chara takes the place of Frisk in the photo.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DaysGone'', one of the collectibles you can find is a photo of [[spoiler:Deacon, Boozer, and [[BigBad Jessie Williamson/Carlos]] back when [[WeUsedToBeFriends they were all in the Mongrels together]]]], but with the first two’s faces scratched out.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Snatcher}}'', JUNKER mechanic Harry Benson has a photograph of himself when he was still a child that has the surrounding portion ripped out, omitting the faces of his supposedly dead parents. It later turns out that his parents are none other than [[spoiler:Gillian and Jamie, the main character and his wife, who were kept in cryogenic sleep for decades and are now younger than their own child, who is now in his 50's.]]

* ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia'': On her route [[spoiler:Michiru]] removes herself from all the pictures she has taken with the other girls of Mihama, symbolising how [[spoiler:she given up on life and they are better off without her.]]

** [[Recap/TheOwlHouseS3E1ThanksToThem "Thanks to Them"]]: When all the characters are putting up drawings of their families, [[spoiler:Amity's only features her father and older siblings, [[YoureNotMyFather as she had disowned Odalia]] after learning that she was complicit with Belos' plans for genocide in [[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E20CloudsOnTheHorizon "Clouds on the Horizon"]].]]

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': At the end of the episode “OZZIE’S”, we see that Blitzo has at least two pictures of himself with his coworkers at [[ProfessionalKiller I.M.P]], except they both have Blitzo’s face scribbled over, likely as an indication of [[HeroicSelfDeprecation how much he]] [[HisOwnWorstEnemy hates himself]].

* ''WestrnAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': After failing to land a single prank on Gumball and Darwin, Richard proceeds to [[spoiler: pretend to]] disown the two boys, to the point he cuts them out of a family picture.

* ''WestrnAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOgGumball'': After failing to land a single prank on Gumball and Darwin, Richard proceeds to [[spoiler: pretend to]] disown the two boys, to the point he cuts them out of a family picture.

* ''Film/TheMuppets'' reveals that after Kermit and Miss Piggy parted ways, Miss Piggy kept half of a photograph of their wedding in ''[[Film/TheMuppetsTakeManhattan Manhattan Melodies]]''. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out that Kermit kept the other half. They show the pieces to each other backstage during the telethon.]]

* ''Literature/InTheMidstOfWinter'': After Lucía's father dies, her mother of his SecretOtherFamily and her grief turns to anger. She destroys all his pictures (except a few her son manages to hide from her), gets rid of all his belongings, stops seeing all their common friends, and even cuts contact with his side of the family. She doesn't forbid the kids from talking about him but discourages it.

** Reversed in "Understanding Willow" where Amity attempts to remove ''herself'' from a photo of [[WeUsedToBeFriends herself and Willow as kids]] with a fire spell so her GirlPosse won't see it. Unfortunately, the photo was directly linked to Willow's memories, so damaging it (and the other nearby photos by accident) gives Willow amnesia.
** Played straight in "Hollow Mind" where [[spoiler:all of the memory photos of the emperor's childhood in the background have his older brother's eyes scratched out. It isn't until the episode gets to his adulthood that we see that he looks ''[[CloningBlues just like Hunter]]''.]]
** Played with in "Thanks to Them" where all the characters are putting up drawings of their families. [[spoiler:Amity's only features her father and older siblings, [[YoureNotMyFather as she had disowned Odalia]] after learning that she was complicit with Belos' plans for genocide in "Clouds on the Horizon".]]

* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': One of the game's {{Arc Villain}}s is Ichiryuusai Madarame, a famous artist whose most famous work is a painting called "Sayuri", which depicts a woman looking down and smiling, with the bottom of the painting covered up by purple fog. [[spoiler: It turns out that, like most of his work, Madarame plagiarized "Sayuri" from one of his students, and the original painting was a self-portrait depicting the artist holding her newborn son Yusuke. Following her death, Madarame painted over the baby and claimed the work as his own, both to obscure the true origin of the painting and [[InvokedTrope invoke]] a MonaLisaSmile situation that would bring the painting critical acclaim.]]

* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': One of the games {{Arc Villain}}s is Ichiryuusai Madarame, a famous artist whose most famous work is a painting called "Sayuri", which depicts a woman looking down and smiling, with the bottom of the painting covered up by purple fog. [[spoiler: It turns out that, like most of his work, Madarame plagiarized "Sayuri" from one of his students, and the original painting was a self-portrait depicting the artist holding her newborn son Yusuke. Following her death, Madarame painted over the baby and claimed the work as his own, both to obscure the true origin of the painting and [[InvokedTrope invoke]] a MonaLisaSmile situation that would bring the painting critical acclaim.]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The UsefulNotes/SovietUnion under UsefulNotes/JosephStalin had [[https://www.history.com/news/josef-stalin-great-purge-photo-retouching a habit of airbrushing people out of historical photographs]] if they later fell out of favor with the regime, for example UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky.
[[/folder]]