Fact Check: These vehicle graveyards are not in Japan but United States
Stunning images of hundreds of cars lined up in rows have caught the attention of netizens, who claim that these photos are of vehicle graveyards in Japan.
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India Today Fact Check
These are pictures of vehicle graveyards in the US. One of them is a digital recreation of a vehicle graveyard in New Mexico by Turkish artist Aydın Büyüktaş. The other two were taken by Reuters photographer Lucy Nicholson in California in 2018.
Stunning images of hundreds of cars lined up in rows have caught the attention of netizens who claim that these photos are of vehicle graveyards in Japan. Vehicle graveyards are places when abandoned vehicles are kept for dismantling or recycling.
Several Facebook users have posted these pictures with the caption, “Car cemetery in Japan”.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the pictures are of vehicle graveyards in the United States. One of them is a digital creation of a vehicle graveyard in New Mexico by Turkish artist Aydn B¼y¼kta. The other two were taken by Reuters photographer Lucy Nicholson in California in 2018.
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With the help of reverse image search, we traced the sources of all the three pictures. We have numbered them for easy identification.
First image
This is a digital recreation of a photograph taken at a vehicle graveyard in New Mexico, United States. Visual effects artist Aydin B¼y¼kta digitally bends photographs toward the sky to recreate images that give a surreal effect.
The Istanbul-based artist had posted this photograph on Facebook in 2017 with the caption “in New Mexico”. The image was also published on other websites on creative photography such as “Collater.al”.
Aydin B¼y¼kta has also posted this photograph on his Instagram page in 2020 with captions, “What good and #actsofkindness have you noticed in an upside-down world? Turkish photographer & digital artist Aydn B¼y¼kta creates Inception-like scenes by warping landscapes.”
Second and third images
These two images were taken by Reuters photographer Lucy Nicholson as part of a set in 2018. According to the caption, “Reacquired Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars sit in a desert graveyard near Victorville, California, March 28, 2018. Volkswagen has taken parking lots to a whole new level in the United States and will not be emptying them soon.”
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Hence, it is confirmed that all three photographs were taken in the US and not in Japan.
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