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)
Every photograph is a still life. You cannot peer outside the frame or adjust the angle of view. Unless, of course, a cloud of photographs envelope the event. Then you can cross-check varied views, compare and contrast, compile a compound image. (In essence, the density of cameras now produces a multi-part meta-photograph.) On a psychological side note, this specimen is also an example of what sociologists call “affinity fraud.” These are frauds that convince people by exploiting a sense of shared identity: others like me believe this claim, therefore I will too. Belonging is stronger than facts. (Affinity fraud has an inverse: if people I hate are against something, I will be for it.)
The Claim
During her January 20, 2021 inauguration, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris did not place her hand on the Bible. “A Satanist Cannot Touch It!” Harris instead deviously rested her left hand on a clutch bag (or purse, or wallet, or gloves in various other versions) on top of the Bible. Proof of the claim is photographic—a low angle composition in profile.
The Lie
An inauguration is one of the most documented events on the planet, so counterproof was produced by countless other cameras. Every other angle reveals fact—Harris placed her hand on two Bibles. The worn Bible at bottom belonged to close family friend Regina Shelton. (Shelton took care of the two Harris sisters as children in California and taught them “they could be anything they wanted to be.”) The smaller black Bible was used by late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
