Alien life, undeniable truth or just a myth? Whilst the bigger part of the world does not believe in extraterrestrial life, aliens and their encounters with citizens of the earth have become a topic that has, especially in the United States, become quite mainstream. The three photographers Peter Helles Ericksen, Tobias Selves Markussen and Sara Brincher Galbiati decided to meet people that had encounters with alien life– not only to share their stories, but also to create a dialogue free from prejudice.
In Germany, barely anyone believes in aliens. In the USA it is sightly different: a recent survey found that more than half of all Americans believe in extraterrestrial life. The phenomena book is a photography project in which Peter Helles Ericksen, Tobias Selves Markussen and Sara Brincher Galbiati explore the American UFO myth. They chose the United States not only because of the quantity of believers and witnesses of UFO sightings, but also because there are a lot of places linked to stories related to aliens, such as Area 51. The U.S. Air Force facility in Nevada has, because of its secretive nature and undoubted connection to aircrafts, become a focus of modern UFO and conspiracy theories.
The fascination with extraterrestrial life has been present for a long time and that is mainly because we do not know a lot about our universe other than the fact that we do not know a lot about it. It is, as far as we know, an infinite space and it is definitely not impossible that there is intelligent life out there that resembles ours. Even the chief scientist of NASA has said that he believes alien life will be found within the next decade.
