This project is a response to a sea change in American and global politics and culture over the past decade, characterized by a rise in prominence of opportunists using misinformation and mistrust of institutions for personal gain. Looking to the past, we found the true story of a Great Depression era grifter in the American Midwest, that had an eerie resonance to our current cultural and political realities. By studying this strange account of American history, we found parallels with a wider cultural shift in global politics.

The Naked Truth combines traditional, manipulated, and performative photographs in dialogue with a historical archive, resurrecting the period of the Great Depression when a Victorian era health spa and resort was turned into a fake cancer curing hospital by “Dr.” Norman Baker. Baker began his career as a traveling vaudeville mesmerist, later finding success applying the same tools of spectacle and illusion as a medical charlatan.