Trindade Island UFO a hoax "admits photographer"

Well, at least a friend of Almiro Baraúna who took the famous photos, claims he admitted to her it was a hoax.

"He got two spoons, joined them and improvised a spaceship, using as background his home fridge. He photographed on the fridge door and object with a perfect lighting, because he calculated everything, he wasn’t dumb. He laughed a lot’, said Emilia Bittencourt.”

I'm a bit confused about the fridge door but maybe something has been lost in translation.

Full story here



[edit on 23-8-2010 by torsion]

reply to post by torsion
I think a hoax was widely suspected, but this is the first time I've seen anything about an admission from the photographer! Nice find!

Here's a photo I happen to have of it:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ae2411cac3ab.jpg[/atsimg]

I guess I sort of see two spoon-like shapes, though the part in the middle where the two "spoons" meet doesn't look like a spoon.

He was no dummy, he was a professional photographer so he knew how to fake something if he wanted to.

[edit on 23-8-2010 by Arbitrageur]

reply to post by torsion


Torsion.....

I have read the previous analyses that purport to prove the photos are hoaxed.

As per Arbitrageur, I have not seen this material indicating there has been an admission of hoaxing by the photographer.

Also as per Arbitrageur, I am having trouble visualising the "spoon on fridge" concept in the photos, as viewed many times over the years.

I will be very interested to see how this discussion transpires.

Many thanks for the info.

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

reply to post by torsion
There's a lot of debate going on about this article by Mori of Forgetomori. It's essentially hearsay. As I understand it, the woman in the interview has denied she ever said hoax. That leaves Barauna's niece who, whilst in possession of his papers, believes they were hoaxed and won't allow access to the papers. Basically expressing an opinion.

A lot of the argument is because the more skeptical researchers have been pleased with the news and take it as confirmation of their beliefs. Sort of, "I told you so!" It's also seen as a victory against researchers who support the images as real.

Naturally the skeptical researchers get pulled up for accepting hearsay as proof. If a military officer (for example) says he saw wreckage of a saucer at Roswell...they'd be quick to dismiss it as 'hearsay.' In fact they have done...

The more reasonable researchers haven't got an investment in the images being real or fake. They're a red herring. The core of the story is hearsay being cited as 'proof' and the quickness with which some hypocrites will accept hearsay in this case and laugh at it in others.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
Here's a photo I happen to have of it:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ae2411cac3ab.jpg[/atsimg]

I guess I sort of see two spoon-like shapes, though the part in the middle where the two "spoons" meet doesn't look like a spoon.

Yes, I immediately thought of that photograph as looking somewhat two-spoonish. However, the first one in the series looks nothing like spoons.

Though I've never been convinced by the Trindade photos (except when I was a kid), I'm not entirely convinced with this alleged hoax admission either. More about this "friend" needs to be revealed.

[edit on 23-8-2010 by torsion]

Originally posted by Kandinsky
reply to post by torsion

 

There's a lot of debate going on about this article by Mori of Forgetomori. It's essentially hearsay.

True. What's not hearsay are the other fakes the same photographer did:

How to fake UFO photos, by Almiro Barauna

Reproduced here is the article “Um Disco Voador esteve em minha casa…” (“A Flying Saucer has been in my house…”), published first in the “Mundo Ilustrado” magazine in 1954. The article was written by Vinicius Lima, showing “how to make a Martian spaceship“, and this is the catch, the photo trickery was done by Almiro Baraúna. Less than four years later, the very same Baraúna allegedly took photos of a real flying saucer while aboard a ship near the Trindade Island, on what would become a classic and to some, one of the best UFO cases ever.

So that's why I said we know he's capable of making fakes since he made them 3 years earlier. But I'm not convinced by the two spoons explanation, we need better details (or a better translation) to explain exactly how it was faked as claimed to make it credible.

The case would be a little bit cleaner if he didn't have a background of making professionally produced fakes for “Mundo Ilustrado” magazine a few years earlier.

Originally posted by torsion
Well, at least a friend of Almiro Baraúna who took the famous photos, claims he admitted to her it was a hoax.

"He got two spoons, joined them and improvised a spaceship, using as background his home fridge. He photographed on the fridge door and object with a perfect lighting, because he calculated everything, he wasn’t dumb. He laughed a lot’, said Emilia Bittencourt.”

In the investigation below there is an attempt to proof that the object in the photos could have been a P1 plane.
In fact quite interesting to see.

But regarding the claim in this discussion that the object in the photos is nothing more than two joined spoons to improvise a spaceship for creating a hoax and looking closely to the enlarged photos of the object here below and in the detailed print scans , I am convinced that this so called friend of Almiro Baraúna has only used his spoons for stirring the UFO-pot so to say.

And as said in this quote;

Only the spoon knows what is stirring in the pot.

3terra

www.quotiki.com...

The Trindade Island UFO: A detailed study of Photos 1 and 2 by Martin J Powell

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/194dbc5ec96f.jpg[/atsimg]

Barauna's Photo 1. Taken from aboard the Brazilian Navy ship NE Almirante Saldanha on 16 January 1958. The object is seen a short distance out to sea, approaching the island from the West (Reproduced from UFOs and the Limits of Science by Ronald Story, New English Library, London, 1981, Plate 6).

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/91eea34d1cf2.jpg[/atsimg]

Barauna's Photo 2. The object passes over Galo Crest Peak on Trindade Island. The Preparing Officer of the Project Blue Book report claimed that the UFO image in this photograph was an inverted version of the one seen in Barauna's Photos 1 and 3 (Reproduced from UFOs and the Limits of Science by Ronald Story, New English Library, London, 1981, Plate 6).

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5c100d810ff0.jpg[/atsimg]

Figure 3. An untreated P1 image shown against a reconstruction drawing of the Twin Bonanza viewed at 13°.6 to port. The selected horizontal points are indicated in their equivalent position on the P1 image by a vertical line.

homepage.ntlworld.com...

Here are some large marvelous detailed print scans of the photos.

www.ceticismoaberto.com...






[edit on 23/8/10 by spacevisitor]

Entirely misleading title to this thread.

This is yet another of the recent attempts to debunk decades-old UFO reports like the attempt within the last year or so to debunk the Lonnie Zamora/Socorro, NM event from 1964 from somebody unrelated to the actual event or investigation.

[edit on 23-8-2010 by Frith]

Originally posted by Frith
Entirely misleading title to this thread.

Misleading in what way? It's exactly what the thread's about!

Perhaps it would help if you read the posts before commenting!

reply to post by Arbitrageur

So that's why I said we know he's capable of making fakes since he made them 3 years earlier. But I'm not convinced by the two spoons explanation, we need better details (or a better translation) to explain exactly how it was faked as claimed to make it credible.

The case would be a little bit cleaner if he didn't have a background of making professionally produced fakes for “Mundo Ilustrado” magazine a few years earlier.

I appreciate that and perhaps he muddied his own claims by almost debunking them. The spoons are conceivable if we don't think of table spoons, but measuring spoons? Perhaps he used a fridge as background (white) to make a double exposure more difficult to identify? It isn't a case that's ever really interested me due to the other hoaxes. I'm neutral. As far as I'm aware (I could be wrong), the images have been analysed, but not the negatives.

The most interesting element of the recent controversy, for me, has been the reaction by researchers. As I mentioned, some who would normally be reluctant to accept witness accounts have been able to accept hearsay when it suits them.

Maybe one day his niece will release something definitive...if it exists.

Originally posted by Kandinsky
As I understand it, the woman in the interview has denied she ever said hoax.

The woman in the interview never mentions a hoax, this is what she says:

He took two spoons, kitchen spoons, made of metal, he joined them, and he improvised a space ship, and he used as a background his home freezer, he photographed on a door of the freezer, the object, with a perfect lighting, he thought about everything, he wasn't a foll, and laughed a lot, he laughed a lot about the subject.

That leaves Barauna's niece who, whilst in possession of his papers, believes they were hoaxed and won't allow access to the papers. Basically expressing an opinion.

According to the video, his niece confirms the hoax but didn't want to talk to the reporters. Not exactly guaranteed (we don't see her telling that), but apparently she confirms it.

Edit: something I forgot to say, it's "Trindade", not "Trinidade". I know, I'm just nitpicking again.

[edit on 23/8/2010 by ArMaP]

Originally posted by ArMaP
something I forgot to say, it's "Trindade", not "Trinidade". I know, I'm just nitpicking again.

Nits picked out of my posts! Thanks, ArMap

reply to post by ArMaP

Edit: something I forgot to say, it's "Trindade", not "Trinidade". I know, I'm just nitpicking again.

Armap, you are the most agreeable nitpicker on ATS. I'm not sure how you manage to be so 'disagreeable' in such a likeable manner.

I guess my point still stands that we're debating hearsay and aren't any closer to knowing if the Trindade images were indeed hoaxed/faked or genuinely captured a 'flying saucer.'

Originally posted by torsion

Originally posted by Frith
Entirely misleading title to this thread.

Misleading in what way? It's exactly what the thread's about!

Perhaps it would help if you read the posts before commenting!

No, the person is exactly right the title of the thread is wholly misleading which is par for the course with many of your posts. You have absolutely no proof the photographer said *he admitted hoaxed it* other than hearsay. It is a classic piece of intellectual dishonesty in an attempt to score some sort of cheap point.

The thread should have been titled. Relative claims photographer told her he hoaxed iconic UFO photograph.



[edit on 23-8-2010 by FireMoon]

nevermind

[edit on 8/23/2010 by Soylent Green Is People]