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)
Photographs have built such reach and density since photography’s invention was announced on August 19, 1839, that we now accept the camera’s deceptive Cyclopean view as reality. We’re unaccustomed to scenes not enclosed in a frame. We don’t let a moment of the present go unrecorded. We forfeit our own eyes and place our faith in the lens.
The Claim
“Giant rats” are being caught in south London. In this instance, the mega-rodents roam the dodgy salt-of-the-earth district of Tooting.
The Lie
This photographic lie is accomplished by purely photographic means. It’s a timeworn classic—a wide angle lens and what’s called “forced perspective.” Place an object close to the camera—with, say, a five-foot capture noose pole thrust at the lens—and it will appear larger. Add the stretching of space created by a wide angle and you produce an image of a rat as big as a man’s torso.
