A few posts in this thread, which is probably my favourite of the entire forum, have referred to the evidential value of old photos.
Haven't they mostly been thoroughly scrutinised and satisfactory explanations proffered for the apparent woo factor though?
The famous 1941 "hipster time-traveller" photo of a young man with wraparound sunglasses and a shirt with a curious logo was initially impressive, until the shirt was identified as being a "Montreal Maroons" ice hockey team shirt from 1938 and, apparently, such sunglasses were available at the time, but just hadn't become widely popular yet.
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Then there's the woman in a 1928 Charlie Chaplin film supposedly having a conversation on her mobile. In reality, it was almost certainly an early form of hearing aid, like the 1905 version shown below, which is only slightly larger than say a Samsung Galaxy S22:
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My favourite though, has to be the "surfer dude" in the 1917 photo of a picnic in San Josef Bay, British Columbia.
Everyone is dressed as you would expect, in sober post-Edwardian clothing - except for one young man. With his unfashionably long, tousled hair, dark T-shirt and what looks like cut-off jeans or boardshorts he seems decidedly out-of-place (and time!). He also seems to be attracting some strange looks from those around him.
Does it mean that a pukka time-traveller gate-crashed this genteel picnic?
Probably not. But am I right that this photo still retains a certain degree of weirdness?
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Anyone else have a favourite photo of an alleged time-traveller?