Comments on: Can you date this picture: answer… http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/ If the past is a foreign country, this is your passport. Sun, 23 May 2024 03:34:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kasumi http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-969 Kasumi Wed, 28 Apr 2024 22:35:39 +0000 http://howtobearetronaut.com/?p=3372#comment-969 Grahame-the female race as a whole has been wearing LIPSTICK of one kind or the other for AGES, CENTURIES, ENONS, and GALAXIES far away-forever ok. Grahame-the female race as a whole has been wearing LIPSTICK of one kind or the other for AGES, CENTURIES, ENONS, and GALAXIES far away-forever ok.

]]> By: Grahame Miller http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-919 Grahame Miller Sun, 25 Apr 2024 10:13:43 +0000 http://howtobearetronaut.com/?p=3372#comment-919 Great stuff!!! I laughed out loud at being proved wrong, not once but three times. Any more such puzzles in the pipeline? I love 'em. Great stuff!!! I laughed out loud at being proved wrong, not once but three times. Any more such puzzles in the pipeline? I love ‘em.

]]> By: Paul Barnfather http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-904 Paul Barnfather Sat, 24 Apr 2024 14:30:02 +0000 http://howtobearetronaut.com/?p=3372#comment-904 Wow, seems we were all fooled by #1. Everything about it looks modern: the face, the hair, the cut and pattern of the dress, the sharp focus. What an incredible photo! Interesting that #3 is fake. There is something odd it, I just can't put my finger on it... Wow, seems we were all fooled by #1.

Everything about it looks modern: the face, the hair, the cut and pattern of the dress, the sharp focus. What an incredible photo!

Interesting that #3 is fake. There is something odd it, I just can’t put my finger on it…

]]> By: Chris http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-902 Chris Sat, 24 Apr 2024 12:19:51 +0000 http://howtobearetronaut.com/?p=3372#comment-902 Thanks for your great responses. Here are the answers: <strong>1. Genuine</strong> <em>"Unidentified woman, half length portrait, seated with arm on table."</em> Sixth-plate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daguerreotype" rel="nofollow">daguerreotype</a> by<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Presley_Ball" rel="nofollow"> James Presley Ball</a>. Cincinnati circa 1850s. In the collection of the Library of Congress. <strong>2. Genuine</strong> This is Benjamin Dyer - <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdyerstudio/" rel="nofollow">M.Dyer</a>'s grandfather's great-grandfather: <em>"Benjamin was from Durham, Androscogin, Maine. He was born in 1819 and went on the California Gold Rush sometime around 1850. He wore two gold earrings - the family story is that he found gold, but one day woke up and his partner was gone along with the gold."</em> <strong>3. Fake</strong> This is "DJ" photographed by <a href="http://www.robertszabo.com/" rel="nofollow">Robert Szabo</a> on 12th November 2024. Thanks for your great responses. Here are the answers:

1. Genuine

“Unidentified woman, half length portrait, seated with arm on table.”
Sixth-plate daguerreotype by James Presley Ball. Cincinnati circa 1850s. In the collection of the Library of Congress.

2. Genuine

This is Benjamin Dyer – M.Dyer’s grandfather’s great-grandfather:

“Benjamin was from Durham, Androscogin, Maine. He was born in 1819 and went on the California Gold Rush sometime around 1850. He wore two gold earrings – the family story is that he found gold, but one day woke up and his partner was gone along with the gold.”

3. Fake

This is “DJ” photographed by Robert Szabo on 12th November 2024.

]]> By: Steffi http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-897 Steffi Fri, 23 Apr 2024 20:58:00 +0000 http://howtobearetronaut.com/?p=3372#comment-897 there is something authentic about the pose of the woman far left, the way she holds herself- especially the hands, the placement of some books and her gloomy slightly absent look. The man is difficult to say; it could be just a cropped version of the original or done by a photographer who liked to try sth different. His coloured in cheeks are cute ... a lot of the discolouring could have happened when digitising and trying to recover the photo but looks photoshoped. I think he is a fake. I'd say the girl is a fake too. I feel her picture being taken is too casual an affair. And the contrast too dense. But unlike Grahame, I believe she wears a corset. there is something authentic about the pose of the woman far left, the way she holds herself- especially the hands, the placement of some books and her gloomy slightly absent look.
The man is difficult to say; it could be just a cropped version of the original or done by a photographer who liked to try sth different. His coloured in cheeks are cute … a lot of the discolouring could have happened when digitising and trying to recover the photo but looks photoshoped. I think he is a fake.
I’d say the girl is a fake too. I feel her picture being taken is too casual an affair. And the contrast too dense. But unlike Grahame, I believe she wears a corset.

]]> By: Anne Hill Fernie http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-895 Anne Hill Fernie Fri, 23 Apr 2024 16:48:36 +0000 http://howtobearetronaut.com/?p=3372#comment-895 Woman one just has that glossy, corn-fed look about her and her eyebrows are plucked! The posture of the bloke & the strange angle of the camera just doesn't ring true for the 2nd one (although I might be wrong. The third one is quite tricky and looks pretty authentic to me....... Woman one just has that glossy, corn-fed look about her and her eyebrows are plucked! The posture of the bloke & the strange angle of the camera just doesn’t ring true for the 2nd one (although I might be wrong. The third one is quite tricky and looks pretty authentic to me…….

]]> By: Melissa Donaghue http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-892 Melissa Donaghue Fri, 23 Apr 2024 14:23:42 +0000 http://howtobearetronaut.com/?p=3372#comment-892 Thanks to Grahame Miller for writing everything I had to say about these, for me! The focus on "girl 2's" face is what gives this one away; way too sharp. Thanks to Grahame Miller for writing everything I had to say about these, for me! The focus on “girl 2’s” face is what gives this one away; way too sharp.

]]> By: Chris http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-888 Chris Fri, 23 Apr 2024 11:59:00 +0000 http://howtobearetronaut.com/?p=3372#comment-888 This is a great response, Grahame. And I will tell you - only not yet... This is a great response, Grahame. And I will tell you – only not yet…

]]> By: Chris http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-887 Chris Fri, 23 Apr 2024 11:57:47 +0000 http://howtobearetronaut.com/?p=3372#comment-887 Thanks Paul. Lets see what others have to say... Thanks Paul. Lets see what others have to say…

]]> By: Grahame Miller http://howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/can-you-date-this-picture-answer/comment-page-1/#comment-886 Grahame Miller Fri, 23 Apr 2024 11:55:26 +0000 http://howtobearetronaut.com/?p=3372#comment-886 No 1 is fake, but a fairly creditable attempt at 1850s (particularly in the smooth hairstyle). But the gradations between the high-definition face and more blurred hands would have been beyond a mid-19th-century camera. The off-shoulder neckline would have been acceptable for evening wear but not in a day dress, and neither would in any case sport the fussy all-over pattern shown here. The lady also appears to be uncorseted (tsk, tsk) - and is she wearing lipstick? No 2 is harder, but I suspect also fake (attempt at 1860s?). The surface looks artificially distressed, the facial expression has a fleeting snapshot quality incompatible with the long exposures of the time, something about the hair and whiskers just isn't quite right - and is that an earring in the right ear? If no 3 is fake, it's the best of the three. The overall look of the photograph is convincing and the cut of the dress is immaculate early-to-mid 1860s, although the tipped-back bonnet suggests a few years earlier (bonnets in studio portraits are a bit unusual) - and I wonder about the smirk. Go on, tell me... No 1 is fake, but a fairly creditable attempt at 1850s (particularly in the smooth hairstyle). But the gradations between the high-definition face and more blurred hands would have been beyond a mid-19th-century camera. The off-shoulder neckline would have been acceptable for evening wear but not in a day dress, and neither would in any case sport the fussy all-over pattern shown here. The lady also appears to be uncorseted (tsk, tsk) – and is she wearing lipstick?
No 2 is harder, but I suspect also fake (attempt at 1860s?). The surface looks artificially distressed, the facial expression has a fleeting snapshot quality incompatible with the long exposures of the time, something about the hair and whiskers just isn’t quite right – and is that an earring in the right ear?
If no 3 is fake, it’s the best of the three. The overall look of the photograph is convincing and the cut of the dress is immaculate early-to-mid 1860s, although the tipped-back bonnet suggests a few years earlier (bonnets in studio portraits are a bit unusual) – and I wonder about the smirk.

Go on, tell me…

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