Fauxtograph

Hélène suggests here that identity consists not of physical presence, but of a place within a system: without the coating and the papers that back it up, one can have no identity and thus cannot live among the Foreigners — one cannot join that (or any) society. These papers, furthermore, are based on three simulacra, three representations (photographic or otherwise, but each of which Hélène calls a “fauxtograph” [fausse tographie]): the face, the thumbprint, and the signature of the cardholder. The signature itself — the traditional guarantee of an individual’s presence — is nothing other than “that fauxtograph of the name” (203). It is not the real name, but only its false reflection, and it is this reflection alone that allows identity, because it has been encoded into a system. Like Derrida’s “Signature Event Context,” which Hélène’s untutored analysis closely resembles, this line of reasoning privileges the imaginary but nonetheless real power of the name or of its representations, which Derrida calls the “effects of signature” (328), demonstrating the presence of the singer by proving his or her passive and thus absent absorption into a system of representation of which he or she is not actually a part.

That was one of the factors in the fauxtograph scandal a year or so ago. If AP and Reuters didn't photograph and publish the staged events provided for them, they wouldn't be allowed to stay in the country and would lose the ability to cover more staged events.

Faking is as old as photography itself. In the First World War, faked pictures - fauxtographs - were circulated of the Kaiser cutting the hands off babies.