Hopefully this is the right place for this question. I remember a few years back a thread in GQ (I think) about a black and white photograph taken during a war, after a battle I believe. Possibly the Civil War, possibly the Boer War, not sure. I suppose it could possibly be WWI, but I don’t think it could have been later than that.
The thread discussion revolved about the veracity of the photograph, and whether it was a genuine shot or one that had been staged by the photographer. I think one of the reasons it was considered possibly staged was the placement of a large number of cannonballs embedded in the dirt.
I also remember that the original link for this site involved a website that was devoted to analyzing such pictures. It was a fascinating historical site that taught a lot about photography and verifying historical accuracy. There was a lot of back and forth between the historian and some researchers regarding proof and so on.
I’ve been dying to find this website again because there were lots of other examples of factfinding that I wanted to read. Also, it’d be interesting to see if any more details about this photograph have cropped up (pardon the pun).
Does anyone else remember this? I remember it being one of the best examples of how educational the SDMB and the web in general can be.
I found that by searching for Roger Fenton, who faked a photo of the Crimean War by adding cannonballs to the shot. This is mentioned (and linked to) in that thread.
Were you thinking of the Shorpy web site? It’s also mentioned in that thread. That’s a great site for sucking out a few hours of your life (just one more click and I’ll stop…)
Aha! That is indeed the photo I was thinking of, although that’s not the thread, interestingly enough. However, going to the Museum of Hoaxes site (which I’ve loved for ages) for the photo brought up the NYT blog from Errol Morris, and his Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? is indeed the series of articles I remembered that captured my interest after being discussed in the thread. I think his blog does a lot of this debunking. (Oh and I think this photo was the first time I learned about Shorpy–that’s an amazing site too!)
And doing a search for “Errol Morris” and “photograph” (but not Crimean) led me to the thread i was thinking about: Errol Morris Photography Blog, in Cafe Society from October 2007. Dang! Six years this thing has been in the back of my mind and I just remembered it tonight.
Thanks so much, engineer_comp_geek, for leading me down the right path! Now I have some fun stuff to read to while away my insomniac hours.
