Hoax Museum Blog: Photos

Bush’s UN Bathroom Break — If these pictures weren't posted on Yahoo! News, I would find it very hard to believe them to be real. But there they are, credited to Reuters photographer Rick Wilking, and accompanied by this caption:

U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York September 14, 2005.

I suppose even Presidents need to go to the bathroom.
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2005.   Comments (45)

Yearbook Photos: Fake Sweat — Newsweek had a short blurb about the enormous money people are paying for high school yearbook photos nowadays. I know something about this because my cousin Kelsey just spent A LOT of money on shots for her yearbook. But one line in the Newsweek article (the part about the fake sweat) caught my attention:

Cindy Glover, 41, remembers her high-school yearbook photos: "All the girls wore wool blazers." But for her son, Austin, 17, a senior from Spencer, Iowa—and many of his peers nationwide—it's another story. Photographer Rick Krebsbach spent four hours shooting Austin indoors, outdoors, in his wrestling gear and shirtless while holding his football helmet. For the athletic shots, Krebsbach even "put water on him to make him look like he was dripping [sweat]," says Glover. She expects to spend about $700 on the photos and "image collection" book.

I also couldn't help but notice how odd it is that Austin's photo shoot looks more like a soft-porn spread for some beefcake magazine than what you would put in a high school yearbook. I think I preferred the days of grainy black-and-white head shots.
Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005.   Comments (15)

New Orleans Alligator — Here's another New Orleans image that's begun to circulate. (Travis of Ohio State sent this one in.) Evidently this alligator has just enjoyed a good meal. However, this photo isn't a fake. It appeared in Der Stern accompanying an article about the many dangers that now exist in New Orleans, and is credited to photographer Marvi Lacar. The photo's caption reads (in English): "An alligator in the church: the 'swamp critters' are an additional danger."
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005.   Comments (24)

Fishing in New Orleans — image Quite a few hoax photos inspired by Hurricane Katrina are now popping up. Here's one that's now doing the rounds, as reported by David Emery on his site, showing the two Bushes (father and son) fishing in the streets of New Orleans. As hoax photos go, it's pretty obviously a joke. The image of the Bushes with the fish was lifted from a picture taken by AP photographer Steven Senne up in Maine on Father's Day, 2003.
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005.   Comments (5)


Fake Photos of Katrina Arriving — LaMa forwarded me some pictures of Hurricane Katrina that he says have been doing the rounds in Holland accompanied by the caption: "These were taken in Alabama of Katrina coming in. These photos are amazing. Sometimes there is beauty in a storm. Thought you might enjoy something different than what we all have been inundated with of late." He notes that "a few of them look familiar to me, I think I have seen them before." And indeed he has! I posted them here back in May when they were doing the rounds as a "storm near bunbury" (in Australia). They're cool photos, so I can see why they would be recycled with every new storm. I believe (as one of the commenters pointed out when I posted them before) that they're storm chasing pictures taken by Mike Hollingshead in Iowa in 2004.

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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005.   Comments (9)

Downloading Communism — image Jelena sent in the image to the right, asking "Americans do have a reputation, but this can't be for real, can it?" By real, I assume she means--is the RIAA really distributing this poster? The answer is no. Looking at the fine print on the side of the image, I can see that it's author was modernhumorist.com.

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005.   Comments (8)

Skinny Women — Here are two images going around that feature skeletally skinny women. The image of the woman on the beach is captioned "I think I've changed my mind about 'fat chicks'" and the image of the woman walking is captioned "Implants last forever." They could be real, but given how easy it is to fake images like this (see Too Skinny), I suspect they're photoshopped.

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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005.   Comments (32)

Amazing Hilltop Homes — A reader sent in these photos of amazing hilltop homes wanting to know if they're real or fake. I'd say it's pretty obvious that they're fake, but they're definitely cool, nevertheless. I would guess that they come from a Worth1000 photoshop contest, though I haven't confirmed this yet. I think they've been circulating around for a while, because I have a vague memory of seeing a few of them before. Note that in the second image from the right you can see a car in the garage, if you look closely.
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Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005.   Comments (18)

The Dangers of Jaywalking — image John Walkenbach gave me a heads up about this image, which has been puzzling visitors to his blog. Is it real or fake? His readers have already figured out that the message on the front of the bus means "cross on the zebra crossing" (or something to that effect) in Portuguese. In other words, it's warning people not to jaywalk, or they'll end up hit by a bus. It's hard to tell with such a low-resolution image whether or not it's real, but my hunch would be that it is real. I don't see any obvious signs of photoshopping. It reminds me of the 'Air Santa' image that was circulating around a few years ago (which seems a bit more fake to me).
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2005.   Comments (20)

Tibetan Dragons — image A photograph of what appears to be dragons flying in the sky above Tibet has been generating some attention. The photograph was taken over a year ago:

On June 22, 2004, the photographer went to Tibet’s Amdo region to attend the Qinghai-to-Xizang Railroad laying ceremony, and then took a plane from Lhasa to fly back inland. When flying over the Himalaya’s, he accidentally caught these two "dragons" in a picture that he took. He called these two objects "the Tibet dragons."

To me the 'dragons' (you can see their 'tails' in the lower left corner of the picture... click the thumbnail to enlarge it) appear to obviously be clouds. Or maybe they're some kind of formation on the ground. But yeah, I can see the resemblance to dragons.
Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2005.   Comments (41)

Groping Cardinals — image Here's a photo that I received in my email (forwarded by Robert Avallone). My first impulse is to say that it looks real, though it's conceivable that someone whited out something that Jim Edmonds (on the right) was holding in his hand, making it look like he's groping Jason Marquis (on the left). I haven't been able to find any references to the photo online. Maybe this is an example of the 'Pope grope' that cardinals are said to use to check the gender of the Pope (following the Pope Joan debacle). Wait, no. Wrong type of Cardinals.
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2005.   Comments (10)

Gibraltar Airport — image This seems kind of odd: a runway with a road going across it. And yet it's real. It's Gibraltar Airport, which is the only airport in the world that has a road crossing the runway. A view of the airport can also be seen via Google Maps (if you don't believe the picture is real). It reminds me of Princess Juliana Airport in St. Maarten, in terms of being a very unusual airport. (via Outhouse Rag)
Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005.   Comments (17)

When To Stop Tanning — imageHere's a picture that I got in my email, which is appropriate for these hot summer days. Not to be negative about sun worshippers, but it's pretty gross. The woman's skin could have been made to look like that with photoshop, but I suspect the image hasn't been manipulated because I know that there are people whose skin really looks like this.
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005.   Comments (33)

Bear On The Green — image Michael Perkins sent in this image (click the image to enlarge), asking whether or not it's real. I've never seen the image before, so I don't know where it comes from, but it looks like a fake to me. The background image of the bear in the woods seems to have been pasted onto the foreground image of the golfers. Note the unnaturally straight line where the green meets the forest directly behind the flag.
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005.   Comments (49)

Photocopier Accident — image Here's a link to some video footage of an accident with a photocopier. I don't have any details about where this footage was taken, or if it's real. Although it looks staged to me.
Posted: Mon Jun 06, 2005.   Comments (36)

Woman With Purse 1, Thief 0 — image Gunner Miller forwarded me a link to the latest viral video going around. It shows a purse grabber who gets taught a lesson. I've never seen the video before, and I can't decrypt the text above it (I tried to translate it using altavista's Russian-to-English tool, but that didn't work). So I can't add much to it. Gunner comments that "The females stance and shoulders seem very guy'ish."
Posted: Fri May 27, 2005.   Comments (24)

Storm Near Bunbury? — Some amazing pictures of a tornado have been doing the rounds. According to the info that accompanies them, these are "Photos of storm near Bunbury" (which is in Australia), although the text also notes that "you'd swear these were taken in america's mid west / tornado belt..." This has started some discussion on alt.folklore.urban, as people try to locate exactly where these photos were taken. The scenery does look a lot like the midwest.

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Posted: Fri May 20, 2005.   Comments (81)

Woman Swallows Balloon — image My guess is that this video clip is real (the banner ads on the site that hosts the movie probably aren't safe for work, but the clip itself is safe). It's the kind of stunt that circus performers, sword swallowers, etc. have done for ages. It's still pretty bizarre to watch, however. I think the clip has been doing the rounds for a couple of years because I vaguely remember seeing it a long time ago.
Posted: Wed May 18, 2005.   Comments (24)

Florida UFO — Here's another Google satellite map oddity. It's a photo of West Palm Beach, Florida. But look closely. The satellite appears to have captured a UFO flying overhead:

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(via Outhouse Rag)
Posted: Sun May 15, 2005.   Comments (30)

Hoosier Gazette On the Air — Josh Whicker, creator of the Hoosier Gazette, is featured in a segment on Across Indiana that you can see on the web (if you have Windows Media Player). If you don't recognize the name, Josh was the creative force behind internet hoaxes such as the Name Change for I-69.
Posted: Thu May 12, 2005.   Comments (1)

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