It’s All A Hoax!Staged Photos, Composites, and

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

Portrait of the Photographer as a Drowned Man

Hippolyte Bayard created the first fake photograph

Status: StagedTechnique of Fakery: False Caption, Staged Scene. Date and Time Period: 1840; (Before 1900)

Status: Staged SceneTechnique of Fakery: Staged Scene, Movable Prop. Date and Time Period: Taken in 1863. Exposed as a fake in 1961.;

A Sharpshooter’s Last Sleep

Alexander Gardner used the young dead soldier as a movable prop to set up dramatic war photos.

Bluff Creek Bigfoot

Shown here is frame 352 of the Patterson-Gimlin film. It is the most famous frame of the short film, appearing to show a clear view of a female bigfoot striding along a riverbank in northern California.

Status: Probably stagedTechnique of Fakery: Staged Scene. Date and Time Period: October 20, 1967; (1960-1979)

Tourist Guy

"We've seen thousands of pictures concerning the attack. However, this one will make you cringe. A simple tourist getting himself photographed on the top of the WTC just seconds before the tragedy ... the camera was found in the rubble!!"

Status: Fake (composite)Technique of Fakery: Composite Images. Date and Time Period: Circulating online since September 2001.

Tourist Guy Becomes Urban Legend

Chicken McNoggin: Truth or Fiction?

American Hostage

“Our mujahideen heroes of Iraq's Jihadi Battalion were able to capture American military man JohnAdam after killing a number of his comrades and capturing the rest. God willing, we will behead him if our female and male prisoners are not released from U.S. prisons within the maximum period of 72 hours from the time this statement has been released.”

Status: Fake (staged with a doll)Technique of Fakery: Staged Scene, Models and Cutouts. Date and Time Period: February 1, 2005; (2005-Present)

Snowball the Monster CatStatus: Fake (digitally altered)Technique of Fakery: Resizing Details. Date and Time Period: Circulating online since early 2000

Fake Smoke Over BeirutStatus: Fake (cloned-in details)Technique of Fakery: Cloning. Date and Time Period: August 5, 2006; (2005-Present)

References:

Museum of Hoaxes at http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/

Youtube clips from Bigfoot Patterson Gimlin film