[imagesource: Travel Career/Weibo]

Just as one country is making headway when it comes to the plight against fake photos, so another seems to be relishing in the capital gains that come from manipulating reality.

The stunning photo above is of farmers ploughing the land with their buffalo, reminiscent of what rural China was like in its bygone days.

Anybody who travels to Xiapu County, a rural town in Fujian, China, can capture a similarly idyllic scene, and they seem to be all the rage on China’s version of Twitter, Weibo.

The only thing is, they’re almost completely manufactured and the farmers do not make a living by ploughing the land, but instead by modelling for tourists who want the money shot.

According to Insider, Xiapu is still an agrarian town, but most of the people and landscapes that are seen in the photos of the area are really just photo crews masquerading as fake farmers and phoney fishermen.

The town started setting itself up as one giant stage for a photoshoot after their main source of income, being their excellent seafood, was depleted, with years of bad harvests from the sea resulting in economic suffering.

The local government encouraged the idea to turn Xiapu into this masquerading rural seaside village and now the whole town is in on the pretence, with local businessmen angling to facilitate the perfect shot, complete with timed appearances, trained animals, and special effects of mist and smoke.

See this image? It is not the result of a patient photographer waiting for the moment the fisherman cast their nets in perfect synchronicity as they work well into sundown, but rather models dressed in a rural fisherman’s garb told to wave their nets for the benefit of tourists:

Image: ReLvXing/Weibo

Another:

Image: HeiHeiYingYouJi/Weibo

The New York Times noted in their article about this phoney business that some models are paid $30 (R430) for their appearances.

And this one? Also, just fishermen imitating the age-old practice typical in the area. But instead of the photographer waiting for them to do their job, they’re waiting for the photographer to come along and get the shot:

Image: ShuYuShideChuanShuo/Weibo

These geese? Trained:

Image: LvXingZhecareer/Weibo

That smoke? Not a necessity but a prop:

Image: Sina Travel/Weibo

And here’s your last re-enacted pastoral shoot of a “farmer” and his buffalo:

Image: Sina Travel/Weibo

Fake or not, rural photo spots like this are increasingly popular, with the social media savvy who are willing to pay not giving much of a damn that the images are staged, so long as they turn out well.

Sure, sometimes a good photo just needs to capture an essence, and it’s not so hard to derive meaning and sentimentality from them, but it is alarming to realise just how much the rise of fake is taking over the real.

[source:insider]