April 1—or April Fool’s Day—is traditionally a time for harmless pranks and practical jokes. It is a day when many will be taken in by good-natured mischief, whether tricked by the most elaborate or the simplest of deceptions. In the spirit of tomfoolery and fabrications, LightBox presents a selection images that show some of the more surreal and bizarre realities of the world around us, all photographed during the mad month of March. From costumed crime fighters to giant paper airplanes and facial-massaging snails, these photos prove that truth can be more astounding than fiction. Happy April Fool’s Day!
March 11, 2012. Retired Brazilian police officer Andre Luiz Pinheiro, 50, dressed as superhero Batman, poses for a picture in Taubate city in Sao Paulo. Pinheiro has been called to help police patrol the crime-ridden streets of Taubate.Roosevelt Cassio—ReutersMarch 26, 2012. A group of militarymen observes guns displayed at Santiago's international airport for the XVII Internatinal Air and Space Fair FIDAE.Claudio Santana—AFP/Getty ImagesMarch 27, 2012. This photo provided by NASA shows chemical tracers that were released from five rockets launched from NASA's Wallops Island test flight facility in Atlantic, Va.AP Photo/NASAMarch 21, 2012. Workers prepare to launch a 45-foot paper airplane from the Pima Air and Space Museum over the desert in Eloy, Ariz.Joshua Lott/Handout—ReutersMarch 25, 2012. The alleged world's largest thurible swings in operation in the St. Jodokus church in Waghaeusel-Wiesental, Germany.Uli Deck—EPAMarch 26, 2012. A Boeing 787 Dreamliner is symbolically baptized with water after landing at the Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in Santiago.Felipe Trueba—EPAMarch 25, 2012. Pope Benedict XVI wears a traditional Mexican hat while being driven through a crowd before officiating mass in Silao, Mexico. Tomas Bravo—ReutersMarch 28, 2012. In Belgrade, Serbia, Macedonian paraplegic athlete Mile Stojkoski pushes himself on a highway during a marathon from his native town of Krusevo to the London Olympics. Stojkoski will travel from Macedonia to Britain in a marathon that covers a total of 3500 km (2175 miles) to raise awareness on people with disabilities.Marko Djurica—ReutersMarch 5, 2012. A batsman in the Maasai Warriors cricket team is pictured during pratice at a cricket grounds in Mombasa, South East Kenya.Carl de Souza—AFP/Getty ImagesMarch 23, 2012. An employee gives a medical-cosmetic massage to a client using an African snail at a beauty salon in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk Alyona Zlotnikova.Ilya Naymushin—ReutersMarch 29, 2012. Doves are seen inside a dress made of chocolate presented at the first Salon du Chocolat (Zurich Chocolate Show) in Zurich.Christian Hartmann—ReutersMarch 28, 2012. Chicks, dyed with artificial colours, are sold at a street market in Beirut to celebrate the Christian occasion of Easter.Joseph Eid—AFP / Getty ImagesMarch 27, 2012. General view of the kitchen area at the Billion Euro House art installation in Dublin by the Irish artist Frank Buckley. Worthless euros, taken out of circulation and shredded by Ireland's Central Bank, form the interior walls of an apartment that Mr. Buckley does not own in a building left vacant by the country's economic ruin.Paulo Nunes dos Santos—PolarisMarch 29, 2012. A flowerhorn fish is displayed at the annual fish festival or "Pramong Nomjai Thai Tuala" at a shopping mall in Bangkok.Pornchai Kittiwongsakul—AFP/Getty ImagesMarch 28, 2012. Afghan security forces escort Taliban militants clad in Afghan women dresses to be presented to the media at the Afghan intelligence department in Mehterlam, Laghman province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan.Rahmat Gul—AP PhotoMarch 13, 2012. Armless professional photographer Rusidah, 44, takes a photograph as she carries out camera maintenance Purworejo, Indonesia.Ulet Ifansasti—Getty ImagesMarch 26, 2012. View of boots at the so-called "Boot hill"—where tourists and locals leave a shoe before leaving the island, according to tradition—near Stanley, in the Falkland Islands. Next April 2 commemorates the 30th anniversary of the war between Britain and Argentina for the possession of the islands.Martin Bernetti—AFP / Getty ImagesMarch 13, 2012. A truck passes a dummy policeman in the town of Krugloye, some 200 km (125 miles) east of Minsk, Belarus. Belarussian traffic police widely use double-sided cutouts of officers equipped with fake radar guns to try and curb speeding vehicles. Vasily Fedosenko—ReutersMarch 8, 2012. Zoltan Kohari, known as the Slovak Batman, puts on his costume in his home in the town of Dunajska Streda, some 34 miles south of Bratislava, Slovakia. Kohari, who is 26 years old, lives alone in an abandoned building without water, heat or electricity. For local residents he became known as the hero in a Batman's costume. While he has not fought crime yet, he does believe in justice and wants to help the police.Radovan Stoklasa—Reuters
