Photographer Debby Termonia (48) makes you doubt in her book and exhibition ‘World record fakers’. — © Debby Termonia
Sint Truiden –
Cycle sixty kilometers backwards, while playing a Bach piece on a violin. Or lie in a grave for 105 days. Have people really done that or is it fake news? The Truiense photographer Debby Termonia (48) makes you doubt in her book and exhibition ‘World record fakers’.
Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 4:00 AM
The Truiense photographer is usually busy with assignments for magazines such as Knack, Le Vif, Libelle and Trends. “I hardly have time for my own initiatives. That changed when the team at cc De Bogaard in Sint-Truiden asked me for a group photo. I wanted to do it, but in my way. I like to stage my images and I have a lot of props at home (laughs). Hats, an old typewriter, shorts, blood… I didn’t have to look for anything extra for my exhibition: everything was already in the house.”
Man puts cart on his head. — © Debby Termonia
This exhibition was organized at the request of the Truiense cultural center. Because Termonia has a fascination with what is true or not today, she chose that theme. “I once saw an image and noticed that Photoshop had been manipulated, but that image was still perceived as ‘true’. You see that happening more and more now. It used to be quite a challenge to fake something, but now there are all kinds of technical tools – apps, AI, etc. – that make this very easy. That’s quite scary, because what else are we supposed to believe? What do people like Trump and Putin do with something as important as ‘truth’? I wanted to expose that evolution, but in a fun way. I’m not going to wave any fingers and I don’t see myself as a do-gooder. I wanted to do it my way, with a dose of humor, because that is also part of my photographic work.”
Cycle 60 kilometers (reverse) while playing Bach (on violin). — © Debby Termonia
She went looking for absurd world records. Like: lying in a coffin in a grave for 105 days. Or a man carrying a Mini Cooper on his head. Or someone who can blow the largest bubblegum balloon in the world (diameter: 50.8 cm). She depicted those world records with her camera. She took twelve photos of people working on their world record. But what is real about her images and what is not? Spoiler alert: she’s going to tell you in the next paragraph.
Lying in a coffin for 105 days. — © Debby Termonia
“All records in the book actually happened and are officially recognized. The photos of the people I took are not the people who performed that world record. So these are World record fakers and not World record breakers. For every image with a made-up text, the truth follows a page later: the real name of the person who did that and some explanation about what that world record actually means.”
Dancing self-portrait. — © Debby Termonia
She herself is also in the book and at the exhibition in De Bogaard: as a faker who has danced disco for 127 hours straight. Friends and family also figure: as someone who was struck by lightning seven times, as someone who swallowed five wristwatches (not the leather straps, so probably a vegan) or someone who managed to ram twenty nails into a plank with his head. It also contains one real record, which she set in motion especially for this book and exhibition. You can discover for yourself which record that is. You shouldn’t believe everything you read in the newspaper…
‘World record fakers’, book and exhibition from 10/2 to 30/3, De Bogaard Sint-Truiden. Info: www.worldrecordfakers.be
