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
Two Israeli women celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim by dressing up as the Twin Towers on fire. Gouts of crepe paper flame emerge from the buildings. The women’s hats fly American flags and show billowing smoke and victims leaping to their deaths.
The Lie
Israelis have nothing to do with it. Amber Langford and Annie Collinge were 19-year-old students at the University of Chester, England. On Halloween of 2013 they entered a costume contest at Rosies nightclub in Chester dressed as the “North Tower” and “South Tower.” The pair won the “best dressed” category and were awarded £150 in shopping vouchers. Langford and Collinge also dominated the front page of the London tabloid The Sun with themonumental headline “TOWERING STUPIDITY.”
