This page is part of the Hoax Photo Database, which catalogs examples of photo fakery throughout the history of photography. Included in the database are photos that are "real," but which have been suspected of being fake, as well as images whose veracity remains undetermined. The images are categorized by theme, technique of fakery, and time period.

HOLIDAY GAG GIFTS
Everything from the popular Farting Santa to fake Lottery Ticket stocking stuffers.

FM
The Bluff Creek Bigfoot
Status: Probably staged
Date: October 20, 1967
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.

Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin had set out on horseback into the Six Rivers National Forest, intending to make a documentary about Bigfoot. By a stroke of good fortune (or orchestrated fortune) they encountered a creature at Bluff Creek

The footage they took has been the focus of intense debate. Skeptics insist the creature is simply a person in an ape suit. Supporters counter that special-effects techniques were not good enough in 1967 to have created such a convincing costume. The quality of the footage is too poor to allow a definitive decision to be reached based on the film itself, but given that Bigfoot continues to elude detection, odds are that the skeptics are right.
References:
Patterson-Gimlin Film, Wikipedia.
Technique: Staged Scene. Time Period: 1960-1979.
Themes: Paranormal, Cryptozoology, Striking a Pose.

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