- 2 days ago ... The upcoming photo book "Phenomena" is an investigative look into American beliefs about UFOs. The authors visited key sites in Nevada, ...
Looking for answers on UFOs, aliens
20 photos:
Norio
Hayakawa calls himself an "unorthodox ufologist and activist." He's had
a lifelong fascination with UFOs, and he's the director of a group
called the Civilian Intelligence Network.
Hide Caption
11 of 20
20 photos:
A mural on the wall at the UFO Museum in Roswell.
Hide Caption
12 of 20
20 photos:
John
Lear, a retired airline captain and CIA pilot, takes a nap in his home
on the outskirts of Las Vegas. He is a world-famous UFO researcher known
within the community as "The Godfather of Conspiracy." He spends all
his time going through material people send him from all over the world.
"People send me different stuff like tips and stories and all kinds of
information," he said. "I've probably been at my desk for eight to 12
hours every day the last 15 years."
Hide Caption
13 of 20
20 photos:
A
cat sits near the window of George Knapp's home in Las Vegas. Knapp is a
TV reporter whose 1989 interview with Bob Lazar changed UFO mythology.
Lazar told Knapp he worked at a secret underground lab near Area 51.
Hide Caption
14 of 20
20 photos:
Jim
Dilettoso is known in the UFO community as one of the leading analysts
of potential UFO pictures and videos. Jim analyzed the video footage of
the famous Phoenix Lights incident of 1997, and he determined that it
couldn't have been anything manmade.
Hide Caption
15 of 20
20 photos:
Footsteps are seen at North Main Street in Roswell. There are souvenir shops there selling UFO and alien merchandise.
Hide Caption
16 of 20
end quote
20 photos:
Travis Walton said he was abducted by a UFO in 1975. He reappeared five days later.
Hide Caption
17 of 20
20 photos:
Inside
this suitcase are small fragments of metal found at the Roswell crash
site from 1947. The suitcase belongs to Frank Kimbler, an assistant
professor of Earth science at the New Mexico Military Institute.
Hide Caption
18 of 20
20 photos:
Kimbler searches the crash site in his spare time.
Hide Caption
19 of 20
20 photos:
This photo was taken at the crash site in the New Mexico desert.
Hide Caption
20 of 20
20 photos:
Kenneth
Langley looks at what he believes to be a cattle mutilation near the
gate of Area 51, the remote U.S. Air Force facility near Rachel, Nevada.
Area 51 has long been a topic of fascination
for conspiracy theorists and paranormal enthusiasts. Langley works
nearby as a hotel service manager, but when he's off he becomes a
"desert rat" -- someone who goes to the desert looking for answers about
UFOs and aliens.
Hide Caption
1 of 20
20 photos:
"I
was abducted by aliens twice 25 years ago," said this man, who withheld
his name when he was photographed for "Phenomena," an upcoming book by
Danish photographers Peter Helles Eriksen, Sara Galbiati and Tomas
Salnaes Markussen. "The first time, (the aliens) put an implant behind
my ear, and the second time they came back to remove the implant. I
always hoped that if I would have an encounter with aliens, that they
would be friendly. But these were not. They treated me like an animal."
Hide Caption
2 of 20
20 photos:
A
painting shows an alien at the International UFO Museum and Research
Center, which is in Roswell, New Mexico. In 1947, an officer at the
Roswell Army Air Field released a statement saying, "We have in our
possession a flying saucer." The next day, the military said it was just
a weather balloon -- but conspiracy theories have persisted for
decades.
Hide Caption
3 of 20
20 photos:
A
giant lamp, shaped like a UFO, lights up in front of a bar in Rachel.
For their book, Eriksen, Galbiati and Markussen visited various cities
in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.
Hide Caption
4 of 20
20 photos:
Lyle
Michel holds a crystal pendulum during a group meeting in Las Vegas
about UFO and alien experiences. "We thought maybe there would be like
two people at this event, maximum. We thought this would be very small,"
Galbiati said. "But there were like 15 people there, so actually it was
a big event. And people just told all kinds of stories. ... (It was)
like we stepped into another world. A world we never knew of."
Hide Caption
5 of 20
20 photos:
There are 27 radio telescopes that make up the Very Large Array, an observatory in the New Mexico desert.
Hide Caption
6 of 20
20 photos:
Melinda
Leslie is the director of "UFO Sighting Tours" in Sedona, Arizona.
Several times a week, she arranges field trips in the red mountains
outside of Sedona.
Hide Caption
7 of 20
20 photos:
A
churchgoer sits at Roswell's Washington Baptist Church. The pastor of
the church is also the owner of Roswell's biggest UFO souvenir shop.
Hide Caption
8 of 20
20 photos:
A man holds rocks in the middle of the Nevada desert near Area 51. He collects the rocks and sells them as souvenirs.
Hide Caption
9 of 20
20 photos:
A UFO sculpture in Rachel.
Hide Caption
10 of 20
20 photos:
Norio
Hayakawa calls himself an "unorthodox ufologist and activist." He's had
a lifelong fascination with UFOs, and he's the director of a group
called the Civilian Intelligence Network.
Hide Caption
11 of 20
20 photos:
A mural on the wall at the UFO Museum in Roswell.
Hide Caption
12 of 20
20 photos:
John
Lear, a retired airline captain and CIA pilot, takes a nap in his home
on the outskirts of Las Vegas. He is a world-famous UFO researcher known
within the community as "The Godfather of Conspiracy." He spends all
his time going through material people send him from all over the world.
"People send me different stuff like tips and stories and all kinds of
information," he said. "I've probably been at my desk for eight to 12
hours every day the last 15 years."
Hide Caption
13 of 20
20 photos:
A
cat sits near the window of George Knapp's home in Las Vegas. Knapp is a
TV reporter whose 1989 interview with Bob Lazar changed UFO mythology.
Lazar told Knapp he worked at a secret underground lab near Area 51.
Hide Caption
14 of 20
20 photos:
Jim
Dilettoso is known in the UFO community as one of the leading analysts
of potential UFO pictures and videos. Jim analyzed the video footage of
the famous Phoenix Lights incident of 1997, and he determined that it
couldn't have been anything manmade.
Hide Caption
15 of 20
20 photos:
Footsteps are seen at North Main Street in Roswell. There are souvenir shops there selling UFO and alien merchandise.
Hide Caption
16 of 20
20 photos:
Travis Walton said he was abducted by a UFO in 1975. He reappeared five days later.
Hide Caption
17 of 20
20 photos:
Inside
this suitcase are small fragments of metal found at the Roswell crash
site from 1947. The suitcase belongs to Frank Kimbler, an assistant
professor of Earth science at the New Mexico Military Institute.
Hide Caption
18 of 20
20 photos:
Kimbler searches the crash site in his spare time.
Hide Caption
19 of 20
20 photos:
This photo was taken at the crash site in the New Mexico desert.
Hide Caption
20 of 20
20 photos:
Kenneth
Langley looks at what he believes to be a cattle mutilation near the
gate of Area 51, the remote U.S. Air Force facility near Rachel, Nevada.
Area 51 has long been a topic of fascination
for conspiracy theorists and paranormal enthusiasts. Langley works
nearby as a hotel service manager, but when he's off he becomes a
"desert rat" -- someone who goes to the desert looking for answers about
UFOs and aliens.
Hide Caption
1 of 20
20 photos:
"I
was abducted by aliens twice 25 years ago," said this man, who withheld
his name when he was photographed for "Phenomena," an upcoming book by
Danish photographers Peter Helles Eriksen, Sara Galbiati and Tomas
Salnaes Markussen. "The first time, (the aliens) put an implant behind
my ear, and the second time they came back to remove the implant. I
always hoped that if I would have an encounter with aliens, that they
would be friendly. But these were not. They treated me like an animal."
Hide Caption
2 of 20
20 photos:
A
painting shows an alien at the International UFO Museum and Research
Center, which is in Roswell, New Mexico. In 1947, an officer at the
Roswell Army Air Field released a statement saying, "We have in our
possession a flying saucer." The next day, the military said it was just
a weather balloon -- but conspiracy theories have persisted for
decades.
Hide Caption
3 of 20
20 photos:
A
giant lamp, shaped like a UFO, lights up in front of a bar in Rachel.
For their book, Eriksen, Galbiati and Markussen visited various cities
in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.
Hide Caption
4 of 20
20 photos:
Lyle
Michel holds a crystal pendulum during a group meeting in Las Vegas
about UFO and alien experiences. "We thought maybe there would be like
two people at this event, maximum. We thought this would be very small,"
Galbiati said. "But there were like 15 people there, so actually it was
a big event. And people just told all kinds of stories. ... (It was)
like we stepped into another world. A world we never knew of."
Hide Caption
5 of 20
20 photos:
There are 27 radio telescopes that make up the Very Large Array, an observatory in the New Mexico desert.
Hide Caption
6 of 20
20 photos:
Melinda
Leslie is the director of "UFO Sighting Tours" in Sedona, Arizona.
Several times a week, she arranges field trips in the red mountains
outside of Sedona.
Hide Caption
7 of 20
20 photos:
A
churchgoer sits at Roswell's Washington Baptist Church. The pastor of
the church is also the owner of Roswell's biggest UFO souvenir shop.
Hide Caption
8 of 20
20 photos:
A man holds rocks in the middle of the Nevada desert near Area 51. He collects the rocks and sells them as souvenirs.
Hide Caption
9 of 20
20 photos:
A UFO sculpture in Rachel.
Hide Caption
10 of 20
Story highlights
- The photo book "Phenomena" focuses on the UFO culture in the western United States
- The authors visited famous sites and met with people who said they were abducted
(CNN)About 41 years ago, a man said he was abducted by a UFO while returning home from work in Arizona.
His name is Travis Walton, and he reappeared five days after his alleged abduction on November 5, 1975.
He's
just one of the people featured in the upcoming photo book,
"Phenomena," which is an investigative look into American beliefs about
UFOs and aliens. The book is a project by Danish photographers Peter Helles Eriksen, Sara Galbiati and Tobias Selnaes Markussen.
"We
just had a mutual interest in it," Galbiati said. "Not as us being
believers and talking about how we believe in UFOs, but more in that we
thought that it was interesting that there was this group of people that
believes so much in this that they see the world completely different
than the majority."
All of the images were shot last year in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, including Area 51, the remote U.S. Air Force facility near the small Nevada town of Rachel.
Photographers Peter Helles Eriksen, Sara Galbiati and Tobias Selnaes Markussen
Galbiati
said each area they went to has some sort of significance or meaning.
Phoenix, for instance, is where an alleged UFO sighting known as the
Phoenix Lights was reported on March 13, 1997.
"In
Denmark or in Europe, it's kind of taboo: If you believe in UFOs, you
keep it to yourself. It's not something you go around talking about,
because the majority will think that you're kind of mad," Galbiati said.
"But in America, especially, of course, the places we went, it was more
like an understanding -- 'If you believe in this, I'm not going to
question you.' It's almost like a religion -- 'I won't judge you,
everybody has their right to believe in what they want.' "
Galbiati,
Eriksen and Markussen were pleasantly surprised at how many people let
them into their homes and were open to sharing their stories. She said
the three of them approached this project with openness. They were not
out to ridicule or make fun of anyone for their beliefs. They were
simply out to investigate a subject they had a "genuine curiosity" in.
"I
can't tell somebody who's telling me a personal story about how they
were abducted that it's a lie, because I wasn't there," Galbiati said.
"And if that's what they believe and that's what they say they believe,
I'm not going to tell them they're wrong."
Social media
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The
first night is documented in photo No. 5 of the gallery above. In it, a
man holds a crystal pendulum during a group meeting about UFO and alien
experiences.
"We thought maybe
there would be like two people at this event, maximum. We thought this
would be very small," Galbiati said. "But there were like 15 people
there, so actually it was a big event. And people just told all kinds of
stories. ... (It was) like we stepped into another world. A world we
never knew of."
Galbiati said this project made them realize just how many conspiracies and theories exist within this community.
Some
people they met, for example, believe that there are "35 different
races" of aliens. Some said they think aliens are here on Earth,
collaborating with our governments. And whether the aliens are friendly
creatures or not is also up for debate.
"Some
think that their agenda is not friendly, and some think that they're
just here to protect Earth and the reason why they're here is actually
to protect us from ourselves because we're a destructive race -- we made
the atomic bomb, we made things that we can't quite control," Galbiati
said. "So they're actually kind of afraid of what we would do with our
Earth and the universe."
The name
of the photo book stems from the idea that there is a phenomena of some
kind that does exist. It might not be a physical one, but it is a
commercial and social one, Galbiati said, noting the tourism,
conspiracies and groups that make up this particular community.
"When
you work as a photographer, when you do your own projects, after a
while you get bored looking at your own material and you move on to
another project," Galbiati said. "This project, it still fascinates me,
and when I look at the pictures, I can feel the curiosity. I really
think it comes through. I can still feel the intensity in it."
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