UCR ARTS: California Museum of Photography
Curated by Douglas McCulloh
Lies are ever-present in human affairs, a tidal flow that rises and falls. Recently, lies have been at flood stage and photographs are central to the surge.
Statements, strings of words, are readily seen as assertions, claims. Photographs, on the other hand, are presumed to be a form of evidence. In Susan Sontag’s phrase, we assume photographs are “directly stenciled off the real.” Consequently, photographs, even dubious ones, carry credence in a way that words do not. Moreover, writes theorist Lev Manovich, “the reason we think that computer graphics technology has succeeded in faking reality is that we, over the course of the last hundred and fifty years, have come to accept the image of photography and film as reality.” For these main reasons and scores of lesser ones, photographs are ideal vehicles for lies. (Read More)
The Claim
Angela Merkel is part of a complex secret scheme to spray toxic chemicals from planes. The proof is photographic: the German Chancellor and group pictured aboard an aircraft loaded with red-topped barrels. “Chemtrails, still think it’s B.S.?” “They are spraying us.”
The Lie
The photographs were made May 20, 2014 at the Internationale Luft- und Raumfahrtausstellung Berlin Air Show. Merkel and others tour an Airbus A350-900 aircraft. Alleged chemical containers are, in fact, ballast barrels filled with water to simulate the weight of passengers. With Chancellor Merkel are Fabrice Bregier, CEO of Airbus; Lutfi Elvan, Turkish Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister; and retinue.
In this instance as in so many, the photographic lie is a building block in a larger structure of intrigue, falsehood, and subterfuge. The “chemtrails” conspiracy theory emerged in the mid-1990s. Adherents claim the condensation contrails from high altitude jets are actually plumes of chemical or biological agents being secretly dispersed with evil intent. Alleged reasons: population control, psychological manipulation, the testing of nefarious chemical or biological agents, solar radiation management, weather modification, cloud seeding, climate engineering, and many more.
