Absolutely right, the still photo in a tabloid is carefully selected to support whatever lie is being pushed. This is why there are paparazzi.
Anyone who takes pictures as a serious amateur or professional knows the camera does lie (that's why we take pictures, to make a statement, not report a fact). Even if a person's appearance were a clue to his mental state (which it certainly isn't), an instantaneous photograph is about as revealing as one line of text lifted out of context from a writer's work.

In Mel's news conference this morning, the beard was shaved off, but to be fair, he might have shaved it off years ago, or he might have grown the beard for a role. We don't know when those Ayatollah pictures were taken.