New York artist Steven Hirsch kept busy at this year’s International UFO Conference where he met, photographed, and interviewed a number of people who claim to be alien abductees. The portraits, Little Sticky Legs, are eerily beautiful and mesmerizing — and the stories behind them are shockingly surreal. Tales about strange, humanoid beings performing operations, making telepathic contact, and more sound like something right out of a sci-fi movie. To these people, however, the experience was very real. Hirsch’s lens captures their deep emotion, fascination, and in some cases, seeming adoration. His camera is the real storyteller. “I don’t want my audience to have any preconceptions about these people before they see my images and read their words,” Hirsch told Wired during a recent interview. “My interviews barely break the surface of what is going on in their lives… or in their minds.”
One of the portraits includes an image of famed abductee Travis Walton, whose story was turned into the terrifying Fire in the Sky (adapted from Walton’s book of the same name). If you want to see a movie portraying an absolutely chilling abduction experience, seek out the film and brace for nightmares.
Behold the distant, dreamy gazes of Hirsch’s portraits — complete with quotes — past the break.
Image credit: Steven Hirsch [Spotted via Dangerous Minds]
Cami Parker
“In my dreams I see strange men. You know I want to say men but they looked almost sexless, like not necessarily men but just beings, creatures that were poking me, examining me, almost like when I got my boobs done. They were looking at me, searching me and exploring me and it was very strange and honestly quite disturbing, but I felt like they had a higher knowledge of myself then I even had on my own.”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Cynthia
“When I was in my thirties I found out from my father the truth about a government experiment that I was part of in which they were using other alien DNA to create me. I also have been on the ships most of my life off and on. I’ve had lots of contacts. Most of my contacts began when I was a teenager although I had it when I was younger. I was being taken. I’ve been taken on ships quite a bit.”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Terrance
“All I could see was his big black eyes. And I said, ‘But why are you doing all this all the time?’ And he said, ‘You will know when it’s time.'”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Jeffery
“They took my memory away from this abduction.”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Saundra
“Wherever I go I have encounters. To my knowledge I’ve been in contact with six different beings or races from other planets.”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Bruce
“In the middle of the night I woke up just basically cause my nose was itching and I went to scratch my nose and there was glass over my face… ”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Lisa
“I had a hole in the back of my head that under black light glowed with a triangle around it. I like to tell myself that they were dreams but somewhere inside myself I know it was more than that.”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Stephen
“I don’t want to go.”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Jeanie
“They’re gonna knock me out with that white light again.”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Jacquelin
“Clocks started spinning.”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Janet
“They’re supposed to make you forget. I was just angry, because I had to go to work that day. I had to act normal.”
Image credit: Steven Hirsch
Travis
“November 5, 1975, me and six other men were leaving work in a remote forest and we encountered an unidentified flying object and I was taken aboard. My co-workers were accused of murdering me and making up a story to cover up for why I was missing. The state police gave them a lie detector test, but even though they passed ever since then it’s been one sort of attempt to explain it away anyway they could. If you’re going to pass judgement on it get the facts first.
When I regained consciousness on-board I encountered some definitely non human entities and also some beings that resembled humans to a high degree. It was a very traumatic experience.”