True or False? Snopes the Source of 'Fauxtography'

I'm sure no one reading this blog ever forwards crazy urban legends and hoax stories along to their friends...and I'm sure you know to check such rumors at Snopes.com if someone else sends one of them to you.

So, have you ever wondered what the story is behind Snopes? I was (really) sitting in the barber shop the other day, and I happened to pick up a Reader's Digest (really!) and came across this article about David and Barbara Mikkelson, the indefatigable researchers behind Snopes.com.

I learned from the article that Snopes and the Mikkelsons are responsible for a few coinages themselves, one of which is the now oft-encountered fauxtography, meaning a fake picture intended as a hoax. (Snopes even has a category for "Fauxtos" on the site directory.)

The one I really like is slacktivism, the act of passing on a cautionary email supposedly to raise awareness or warn or educate others without bothering to first find out whether it's true. Entirely too much of that going on.

A famous fauxtograph: actually from the 1994 book Why Cats Paint, which, according to the Mikkelsons, "managed to pull off the double feat of creating a sly and hilarious send-up of both art books and cat books."

Mike

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Featured Comment by eric s: "I suspect that the image is from Why Paint Cats, not the other way around.

"I think one is a sendup of the other, but one can never be too sure."

Featured Comment by Chris Crawford: "I actually took an Art History class in college back in the late '90s when I was working on my BFA that used Why Cats Paint as one of the textbooks! We had to write a paper comparing the way that book described the cats' painting and the way that our other textbook (Johnathan Fineberg's Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being) presented modernist paintings."

Comments

[Robin Dreyer]

Mike, I think that picture is actually from "Why Paint Cats." This is the even-more-brilliant sequel to "Why Cats Paint." It is not only a marvelous lampoon of art-critic-speak, it's some damned fine Photoshop work.

[bobdales]

Best cat picture I ever saw.
bd

[Archer Sully]

"Why Cats Paint" is my favorite art book of all time.

[Bryce Lee]

My condolences to the cat!

[Sam]

Snopes also has a message board that discusses pictures before the stories become part of the main site.

http://message.snopes.com/forumdisplay.php?s=cbf26c3a948d1ab32c27ddf18ba45249&f=10

There is a brief approval process before you can post so the quality is higher than most other message boards.

[James McDermott]

Fauxtography's been around for a while. I think we all remember the occasion when vicious pinko-liberal Photoshoppers erased the cover page of a certain copy of 'Advanced Quantum Mechanics' and substituted a rather poorly executed 'My Little Goat'.

[charlie d]

That's Ctein's cat.

;-)

[KeithB]

I don't think you are quite right about slacktivism. It is more about doing some extremely minimal thing - like responding to an internet poll or petition - and thinking that you are making a difference with minimal cost to yourself.

My favorite snopism is "glurge" - those sickeningly sweet cloying emails about how puppies are like Jesus.

[Tim Medley]

After picking up "Why Paint Cats" at the gift shop at the Renwick Gallery where it was prominently displayed and completely entranced me I didn't realize it was a "send up" until I got home...

- Tim

[Vince]

I wasn't familiar with the term "slacktivism" and must say it is a revelation! I intend to use it profusely. Thank you!