Conspiracy Theory

Julian Ward, from the Hans Weston film

A couple of short video links this morning, both good.

First, meet Julian Ward, a photographer from Wellington, New Zealand, born 1948. The short film by Hans Weston, "Julian Ward: Gifts from the Gods," which shows him working both on the street and in the landscape, is informative and companionable. It introduced me to the work of the painter L.S. Lowry, too. Julian's pictures were mostly new to me; so far I've only recognized three that I've seen before. There's lots by and about him on the web, and he's published several books.

Second, a film about a comprehensive analysis to determine whether a notorious photo is real: "Why people think this photo of JFK's killer is fake," from Vox. The main expert consulted by the filmmakers is Hany Farid, one of the country's foremost experts specializing in the forensic analysis of digital images and the detection of manipulated images. He's at Berkeley now; the last time I wrote about him he was at Dartmouth. "The visual system didn't evolve over millions and millions of years to reason about about a flat piece of paper," Professor Farid says at one point. I won't give away the conclusion.

I also attempted to watch the 2020 Dutch film "The Forgotten Battle," alleged to be the second most expensive Dutch film ever made (I don't know what number one might be), because one of the plot points is a boy taking pictures that will be useful to the resistance, developing them in his basement. The film is so relentlessly brutal and gory that I couldn't take it, and had to bail on it halfway through. So, no further comment.

Mike
(Thanks to Allan Ostling)

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Nico.: "World War Two, The Netherlands, Photography…

"You could try The Darkroom of Damocles. A classic, over here. Nico, Amsterdam."

Mike replies: Thanks Nico, I'll try that.

Tom Burke: "'Zwartboek'—Black Book—is apparently the most expensive Dutch film ever made."

Pierre Charbonneau: "The film on Julian Ward is most lovely. I found interesting that a man so charming and gentle has the boldness to photograph so close strangers on the street. How different from Bruce Gilden's approach. Of course, their respective photos are not the same."

Jim Simmons: "Thanks for sharing the Julian Ward movie. Julian is a treasure to New Zealand, with his decades-long dedication to recording our culture with his uniquely kind and curious vision."

Comments

[David Smith]

The Dutch movie would have been about average, until they shot the scene of the boy in the basement developing a film. Just buying that one roll of film broke the bank!

[Stan B.]

I often can't make sense of the lighting and shadows in my own photos, but you should listen to the arguments 'proving' the lunar landing photos were faked!

PS- The most recent remake of All Quiet on the Western Front is just visually stunning- although you might not make it through that one either...

[Ken Tanaka]

Thanks very much for the call-out of the Julian Ward doc. Mr. Ward is clearly a very practiced and skilled documentary / street photographer. I very much enjoyed watching this video and, right now, browsing more of his work at his web site. It’s always so enjoyable to encounter new caches of good work by “new” people able to narrate tours of their own works.

[David Comdico]

Thanks for sharing the Julian Ward video. Enjoyed it. I agree that preserving the world as it is is a noble pursuit.

[Rick in CO]

Both movies should be required watching. Think Ukraine.

[robert e]

Hi Mike, Belated congratulations on the grandkid! Also, well done on the recovery of your health!

Hope this isn't too far off-topic for this post (and I apologize if this has been covered on TOP before) but I was gobsmacked the other day to learn that there are photographs of veterans of the American Revolution who were still alive at the dawn of the technology!

Albumen portraits of six veterans were published in an 1864 book called "The Last Men of the Revolution", but photos of several others have been found since.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Men_of_the_Revolution

https://www.phillyvoice.com/photos-a-rare-view-of-revolutionary-war-veterans/

To long life and good health!

[Mike Ferron]

I read 2 books on the JFK assassination. I personally recommend that no one investigate this deep as it will make your head spin and in the end you will never be able to reach a conclusion. Too many possible players, connections and motives. Possible false flag twisted into something real. Same for RFK, MLK and JFK Jr. All water over the damn now but still very strange.

[Bob Johnston]

Thanks Mike. I just love these things you find. Another recent visually rich (made for TV) series is The English. It's a great story. It is violent but you should get through it OK

[Chris]

All Quiet on the Western Front. Why, oh why did they not just stick to the book, instead of changing it to what I suppose was meant to make it more "relevant", exciting, and in the process sentimentalizing it? We can't even blame Hollywood this time as it was not a US film. I thought the Dutch film was pretty good myself.

[Ernest Zarate]

The one undeniable conclusion re: JFK assassination is that people love a conspiracy theory, and once they start down that rabbit hole, it’s nearly impossible for them to find their way out. No matter the evidence one shows that their theory won’t hold water, let alone stand up to scrutiny, they’ll either deny that evidence, or “Yeah, but…” their way down a different hole.

All one need do to see this currently is to observe (from a safe distance) the claim by some regarding the 2020 election.

What would be interesting is to understand WHY people are so enamored with conspiracy theories. And why, once invested in those theories, these individuals cannot and will not let them go.

SMH, as the young uns text…

[SMH mean "shaking my head," for those who aren't up on the lingo. I have to look it up EACH TIME.

Re the subject of your comment, Ernest, I fell for a conspiracy theory once, and I am grateful for that experience. It helped me understand how people can fall for them. It was also good for me to experience how hard it was to admit that I had been duped and was wrong; remaining stubbornly positive that I knew the truth was so much easier on my ego. --Mike]

[Earl Dunbar]

I sent the Julian Ward link to my good friend in Paris who is “a French Kiwi” and grew up in Wellington. Her first comment was “ Gosh I know so many Wards from NZ”.

Which made me wonder if New Zealand hospitals have “Ward wards.”

I’ll see myself out.