Unidentifieds continues my research into the aesthetics of UFO photography that began with Unknown Substances. Having previously focused on pictures from US government archives, I expanded my source material to include unresolved photographs from books and magazines dedicated to the subject of UFOs as well as recently released files from the UK Ministry of Defence.
The UFO image has many associations and manifestations, appearing throughout the popular culture of the post-war era into the 21st century. It can represent technological anxiety, paranoia, or salvation. It can be the subject of mythology, conspiracy theories, or entertainment. As a photograph, the UFO image is ridiculed by skeptics and treated as evidence by believers. Analyses of alleged UFO photographs have traditionally been done with the intent of evaluating authenticity and attempting to discern qualities of the object in question such as size and distance from the camera. Even in cases where this information can be reasonably estimated and the photograph as well as witness accounts are found to be credible, questions remain: what is this object? Where did it come from? These photographs of purported anomalous phenomena resist intelligibility and fixed interpretations.