Topic: New Robert Johnson photo?

[frankie]

good god... a johnson-O-rama!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10205783255515769.1073741861.1088094800&type=3

[Gilgamesh]

Any undated B&W photo of a black man is potentially Robert Johnson. Don't you guys know anything? 

Ms. Gibson has zero credibility. Whatever credentials she has should be revoked. Shuddering to think this horrible person may have had her "expertise" decide actual court cases.

[Rivers]

Just catching up on the news, I clicked on the original link and it 404's, IT jive talk for it's been taken down. Wasn't up there for very long was it? Could be something fishy is going on, though mostly I believe everything I read on the internet.

[Stuart]

Is this the one?

http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/music/article/New-photo-of-bluesman-Robert-Johnson-unearthed-6703035.php

I did a search for "Robert Johnson" and this was at the top of the list.

[alyoung]

Y'kno I can't help thinking this is a hoax, designed to denigrate Lois Gibson. The picture is so obviously not from the 1930s (the chrome furniture, the eyeglass fashions and the Coke bottle shape are among items that have been pointed out as being 1950s) and the quotes purportedly from Ms Gibson that I read in one story just didn't ring true. I could be wrong (it does happen occasionally), but something seems "off" in this discovery. (PS: As one of the 49 signatories to the thesis shooting down the previous Lois Gibson "identification", let me make it clear that I have no problem with Ms Gibson being denigrated; it's just that this one seems a little odd.)

[harriet]

Frank Matheis and Dr. Bruce Conforth just debunked her on this particular photo - they are getting a good reception to the publication and its being picked up :
http://www.thecountryblues.com/op-ed/another-robert-johnson-photo-debunked/

[One-Eyed Ross]

Now, if we could just get a picture of Robert Johnson and Elvis with JFK, we'd have some $$

[Stuart]

Thanks for the link, Harriet. Elijah's got it right.

(Edited to add: Here's a different link): https://www.academia.edu/19869937/Another_Robert_Johnson_Photo_Debunked

The photo ID reminds me of a quote, perhaps from Samuel Johnson (maybe apocryphal or miss-attributed), I paraphrase, "It's not what people don't know that gets them in the most trouble, but what they know with absolute certainty that just isn't true."

And another (the first half from Richard Feynman, the second from a bumper sticker): "The easiest person to fool is yourself, so don't believe everything you think."

Edited to add: I think "denigrate" may be too strong a term, Al. "Discredit" the accuracy of her photo identifications is more appropriate, IMHO, as is calling into question her qualifications to do so. There were a few attacks on Ms. Gibson that veered into the personal on the IGS thread, something that I think is uncalled for as she may be honest and sincere with respect to her beliefs about person she identified as RJ in the photos, but just simply incorrect in her identification.

[Gilgamesh]

Thanks for the link, Harriet. Elijah's got it right.

(Edited to add: Here's a different link): https://www.academia.edu/19869937/Another_Robert_Johnson_Photo_Debunked

The photo ID reminds me of a quote, perhaps from Samuel Johnson (maybe apocryphal or miss-attributed), I paraphrase, "It's not what people don't know that gets them in the most trouble, but what they know with absolute certainty that just isn't true."

And another (the first half from Richard Feynman, the second from a bumper sticker): "The easiest person to fool is yourself, so don't believe everything you think."

Edited to add: I think "denigrate" may be too strong a term, Al. "Discredit" the accuracy of her photo identifications is more appropriate, IMHO, as is calling into question her qualifications to do so. There were a few attacks on Ms. Gibson that veered into the personal on the IGS thread, something that I think is uncalled for as she may be honest and sincere with respect to her beliefs about person she identified as RJ in the photos, but just simply incorrect in her identification.

"Hopefully the definitive biography of Johnson that Gayle Dean Wardlow and Bruce are completing will put an end to much speculation and conjecture."

First I've heard of this. Hopefully not another "Biography of a Phantom"? It's almost complete, the article says.

[alyoung]

Thanks for the link, Harriet. Elijah's got it right.


Edited to add: I think "denigrate" may be too strong a term, Al. "Discredit" the accuracy of her photo identifications is more appropriate, IMHO, as is calling into question her qualifications to do so.

Quite right. "Discredit" is the word I was looking for (although I don't think "denigrate" is too strong ... it's just not quite the right word).

[bluesprof]

Aside from the fact that there are SO many things wrong with this latest "authentication", including the fact that a photo of the real Calletta Craft looks absolutely nothing like the Calletta Craft in this photo, what makes this laughable is that this is the second Robert Johnson photo Gibson "authenticated" and neither man looks like the other (let alone that neither look like Johnson).  You would think that both photos she "authenticated" as Johnson would at least resemble each other but they don't!
And, of course, there's the evidence presented by Eric F. James (relative of Jesse James and founder of the James Family Preservation Society) that Gibson outright faked a photo of Jesse James.  She was engaged in an apparent fraud that she is still posting as "truth" on her "Lois Gibson's School of Forensic Art" facebook site.  She has NO credibility at all.

[wreid75]

Just imagine if 1/30th of the time spent by researchers on Robert Johnson was spent on any of the other wonderful musicians, some of whom were his equal or better?

[Pontius2000]

I would like to know how she identified the other people in the photo? I had recently looked for pictures of a young Lockwood and all I could ever find were photos of his aged 50+. Do pictures of Lockwood from the 30s era even exist?

[Prof Scratchy]

There's fantastic silent colour film footage of him and Sonny Boy Williamson II playing on a store front porch for the King Biscuit Hour roadshow.

[Pontius2000]

There's fantastic silent colour film footage of him and Sonny Boy Williamson II playing on a store front porch for the King Biscuit Hour roadshow.

Yep, there's no doubt whatsoever that it's Lockwood in the video. Even at that age, he has the same facial features and expressions. Doesn't really look like him in the photo, but it's a still photo and he would've been about a decade younger.

If the other known photo of Carletta is legit, then that is absolutely not her in this photo.

Doesn't look like RJ to me, wish I could see his whole face. RJ had one eye that was slightly smaller than the other, I have that same thing with my eyes. This guys eyes look identical.