Visual trust: Fake images in the Russia-Ukraine war

Abstract

One of the central topics that the anthropology of images must address is that of the visual fake. This article analyses some of the meanings and functions of false images in the current war between Russia and Ukraine. Its main idea is that the falsity of images is not an intrinsic property of images themselves but the outcome of a plurality of contextual, semiotic and relational issues. The article claims the necessity of studying false and deceiving images from an ethnographic, qualitative and bottom-up perspective, capable of revealing how individuals from different sociocultural domains establish relationships of trust and mistrust with visual signs.