Superstition Mountain © Steven Hirsch
Photographer Steven Hirsch went on assignment to photograph alien abductees at a UFO conference in Connecticut, and was so engaged by his subjects that he decided to attend a second conference in Arizona for a series of portraits, drawings, and testimonies collected together in the series “Little Sticky Legs”.
The detail of each story is matched by the intensity of Hirsch’s portraits, each subject recounting their tale as it unfolded. Some are visited repeatedly, whereas others have a single encounter. What many share in common is the arrival of a very fast hovering ship with a lot of lights, and many abductees also recall being probed. Some believe things have been implanted in their body while others believe they are given psychic abilities. Some walk away with messages and warnings; for others, the encounters are pure glee.
Andrea, an alien abductee, was hiking in Bell Rock, Sedona, AZ, when she encountered a creature that looked like a men’s shirt box that stood four feet tall on little sticky legs, who began communicating telepathically with her. The alien is one of a group of ten, and it’s pushing her to complete the hike to Bell Rock. As Andrea recalls, “The whole thing’s so bizarre I don’t know what to think of it anyway but I’m walking. So I’m walking and there’s ten of them now, then there’s more and there’s more and by the time we get to Bell Rock there are literally thousands of these guys. And I see other humans walking around and nobody sees them but me. They are laughing and singing and dancing. The happiest most loving little creatures. And I asked them, ‘Why me?’ and they said, ‘You’re one of us.’ In the back of Bell Rock there’s a Stargate. There was a pipe going up. I could see their little bodies were being sucked up in the vortex in the pipe. Sucked up into the heavens.”
Steve © Steven Hirsch
And, just like that, the encounters are over and all that is left are the memories, the belief, and the faith. For Hirsch, documenting these stories is a personal calling. He recounts, “My photography is autobiographical. I make photographs about my life experiences. I grew up in Brooklyn and lived across the street from Brooklyn State Hospital. An enormous building it cast a shadow, literally and figuratively over my block. The hospital was a psychiatric hospital for the mentally insane. It was filled with thousands of patients who could be heard blocks away yelling and screaming throughout the day. The hospital would let the least dangerous patients walk around outside and they would wind up walking directly down my street. Perhaps they were simply escaping. They would tell me wild delusional stories, always looking disheveled and as an eight year old it seemed like they were the most fascinating people I would ever meet in my life. I had no camera nor knew had to take pictures but the faces and stories were captured in my mind forever. Unbeknownst to me years later it set the tone for much of my imagery and storytelling, while photographing people on the fringe.”
Jill © Steven Hirsch
Working as a photojournalist, Hirsch observes, “Little shocks me. I try to go into my portrait projects with no preconceived judgments of the subjects. I’ll usually ask nothing more than, ‘What’s happened to you?’ or ‘Tell me your experiences?’ I record the interviews and most of the time. Sometimes I don’t even listen to the subject speaking to me other then to do a soundcheck so I won’t ask questions based upon their responses. I let them say whatever comes to mind. The people I photograph don’t seem to have any trouble telling a story so I just let it flow. I brought a sketchbook and pens with me the first time I photographed them. I just had a feeling that it would be the right thing to do. I asked them to make the drawings. I knew there were a lot of images in their minds and they felt they’d seen some amazing things. I wanted to see what those things looked like.”
Each story, when taken individually or as a whole, brings to bear the revelation that, in so many ways, we can never know what actually happened, and what it all means. We are given a glimpse into what each person so powerfully believes, and it is in this belief that their humanity unfolds, whether a tale of wonder or a nightmare of the highest order. Perhaps the only thing we can know is that the possibilities are as endless as the Universe itself.
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer, curator, and brand strategist. There is nothing she adores so much as photography and books. A small part of her wishes she had a proper library, like in the game of Clue. Then she could blaze and write soliloquies to her in and out of print loves.
