Editing Ufology Handbook 080713/The quest for proof (section)

==IFF's : Infamous Flying Fakes:==

Not surprisingly, Ufological history is littered with examples of probable or suspected hoaxed photographs. What follows is a brief worldwide run-down of the more notorious faked UFO pictures.

The image of a domed saucer-shaped "UFO" appearing in five daylight photographs taken at Barra de Tijuca, Brazil on the May 7th, 1952 are strongly suspected to have been fabricated via superimposition. Six photographs taken in New Jersey, USA on the 29th July 1952 are thought to show a hat tossed into the air. Deliberate superimposition techniques were probably also responsible for a "UFO" picture from Taormina, Sicilly (taken in the summer of 1954), that purports to show several people "watching" two inverted aerial domed-discs.

Many of the 1950's "contactees" used photographic "evidence" to substantiate their entity encounter claims. These range from (often unimpressive-looking) images of flying saucers to equally unimpressive images - such as that taken by Howard Menger in 1953 - of a shadowy figure standing before a supposed "spacecraft". The most prominent of the contactee photographs were those taken by the first of their ilk, George Adamski. Some of them are claimed to predate his alleged 1952 encounter with an entity from Venus. This includes a photograph of a dark cigar-shaped "mother-ship" surrounded by several luminous blobs. But his most renowned pictures were a series of close-up shots purporting to show a "Venusian scout-ship", taken just after his 1952 "contact". This image of a bell-shaped "UFO" with an under section comprising of three small inverted "domes" located around a larger central "bulge" has since become famous throughout the world. Whatever the truth behind Adamski's numerous (and highly dubious) claims, UFOs closely resembling his "scout ship" have been allegedly observed (and photographed) by other independent, non-contactee witnesses.

Four photographs of a hat-shaped "UFO" taken at Santa Anna, California, USA on the 3rd August 1965 were once highly regarded within ufology.

However, investigators from the University of Colorado UFO Project were able to duplicate them fairly closely, using a small model hung from a wire. About 10 years later these pictures also failed a computer enhancement test conducted by Ground Saucer Watch. On the 9th January 1966, at Lake St. Clare, Michigan, USA two teenage boys claimed to have photographed a dark lenticular "UFO" with an antenna protruding from its rear. Again, they were widely believed to be authentic. In the 1970's the "witnesses" later confessed to fabricating them, using a model hung from a thread. Much less convincing were three photographs depicting a hat-shaped UFO taken by an Ohio barber on the 13th November, 1966. Almost from the onset, UFO investigators noted major inconsistencies in the pictures frame-numbers (when compared with the order they were reportedly taken), and shadow-features which were inconsistent with the incident's claimed time of occurrence. Several pictures of a white tub-shaped object taken on the June 1st 1967 at San Jose de Valderas, Spain were, some years later, proved to be a model suspended from a wire (via the use of computer enhancement technology).

In comparison with hoaxed pictures, fewer IFO-based photographs have assumed the status of "classics" (mainly due to their less impressive appearance). The "Fortune Photograph", taken on October 16th 1957 near Alamogordo, New Mexico, is now commonly accepted to show a lenticular cloud. A picture of a group of four luminous ovals taken at Salem, Massachusetts on the 16th July 1952 are probably ceiling lights reflected onto a window pane.