National Geographic Museum of Exploration

This guide to the National Geographic Museum of Exploration in Washington, D.C. tells the story behind one 1982 magazine cover, a shot of the Pyramids of Giza that looked like an honest click of the shutter but wasn't. Photographer Gordon Gahan restaged the scene, and editors used new digital tools to nudge the pyramids closer together for the frame. It follows the backlash that followed inside these walls, from the photographer's own fury to the headlines that mocked the magazine. See what that dispute still shapes in the galleries around you.