SEEING THINGS

_ A picture tells a thousand words, so they say. But it doesn’t always follow that those words speak the truth, as the stories _ behind these remarkable hoax photographs demonstrate

- CHARLOTTE HODGMAN

FAIRY HUNTERS, 1917

When cousins Frances Griffiths (above) and Elsie Wright (opposite page and right) produced photos of themselves seemingly interacting with sprites, gnomes and fairies, they achieved overnight notoriety and sparked widespread debate. The validity of the photographs divided opinion for more than 60 years, until Elsie finally confessed to the hoax, in 1983: the fairies were, in fact, drawings secured in the ground and to branches with hatpins.

GROW YOUR OWN, 1911

In what is surely every gardener's dream, two men struggle to squeeze a giant root vegetable through a cellar door. Despite their jaw-dropping size, these giant veggies were actually the work of photographer Alfred Stanley Johnson, who was known for adding oversized produce to staged photographs to create 'tall-tale' postcards that promoted Wisconsin's agricultural abundance.

ALIEN ENCOUNTERS, 1976

When Swiss national Billy Meier claimed he had proof that he had been in contact with aliens from the Pleiades star cluster since the age of five, few believed him. Determined to prove his story, Meier produced photographs purporting to show UFOs hovering over the Swiss countryside. Meier went on to found a UFO religion, but his photos have been widely dismissed as fakes.

'DROWNED MAN, 1840