Newly identified photo of delta blues icon Robert Johnson confirmed

A rare photograph of delta blues king Robert Johnson has been authenticated after eight years. The famous subject's identity was confirmed by the same forensics expert who ID'd "the sailor kissing the nurse in the Life magazine photo of Times Square on VJ day the second world war ended." More about Johnson in this 2008 Vanity Fair profile. (HT: @UnlikelyWorlds)

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annoyingmouse

I’m listening to the third My Bloody Valentine album and looking at a third Robert Johnson picture at the same time. My brain is not sure it can handle this…

(It can however handle the fact that it is annoyed that the article finds room to talk of pacts with the devil but doesn’t feel like mentioning the actual talents of the guitarist)
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Pete-Humphreys/100001473594389 Pete Humphreys
  
  i agree. and talent is an understatement. he was an innovator. he is up there with Duke, Miles, Jimmy etc.!!!
  - millie fink
    
    Jimmy? Jimi?
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Jimmie Walker?
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Katrina-van-Malksvig/100000571611598 Katrina van Malksvig
  
  I like to think that the dude on the right IS the Devil, and they took the photo as a memento of their pact.
Woody Smith

I don’t get the point. This photo is merely a greatly recropped version of one that has been on Google images as a Robert Johnson photo since at least 2007, attributed to a Claud Johnson. The original shows their full bodies. All that has happened is that someone with no expertise in the subject has said, “Yep, looks like him to me.”

I’m curious to know who REPAIRED the image, as well as recropped it to hide the freakishly long fingers on his right hand: the original is gravely damaged, with a huge hole in Johnson’s forehead.
- DrMedicine
  
  See that part where it says “authenticated after 8 years”?
- http://twitter.com/papalindsey Scott Lindsey
  
  Dude are you kidding?
http://twitter.com/chrisjimson chris jimson

What is that crappy guitar he’s holding, that doesn’t appear to have any tuning pegs? A Stella, maybe?