It doesn't look like him to me, but who knows?



"A newly-analyzed photo purportedly shows Robert Johnson, the mysterious blues legend whose meager recordings became a groundwork for American popular music.
Only two such photos have been unequivocally confirmed, and the prospect of another is held as a holy grail in blues society.

The identification comes from Lois Gibson, award-winning forensic artist for the Houston Police Department and professional analyst of historical photographs. She also announced identification of a Johnson photo in 2008; that one was accepted by the Johnson estate but widely contested by blues historians.

The new photograph turned up in an antique Winthrop desk, filled with odds and ends, bought in a 2013 auction by Donald Roark, a 64-year-old retired lawyer and professor in Pensacola, Florida.

In a cluttered draw was a three-by-five inch photo of four people seated at a public table, the man in question on the left.
"I guess it was because of the hat," Roark said, recalling his first glimpse of the picture, and his memory of the photo cover of the Robert Johnson album he owns. "I chuckled and thought that guy kind of looks like Robert Johnson."
When he asked his wife who the man looked like, she said Robert Johnson. He sat on the suspicion for two years, until reaching out to Gibson's manager online for a professional take on the photograph.
It was one of the five-or-so requests for a photo identification Gibson gets each month, she said.
"Ninety-nine percent of them I look at and well, I don't laugh in their face, but I shrug it off," she said.

But the purported Johnson photo gave her pause. Gibson, who spent the last three decades analyzing and reconstructing faces, said she recognized Johnson's face. But the scene offered further evidence—three people who Gibson identified as known acquaintances of Johnson: Calletta Craft, Johnson's wife from 1931, who bears a marked eye condition; Estella Coleman, who housed Johnson since 1933; and her son Robert Lockwood Jr.

That crowd would set the purported image in the mid 1930s, before Johnson made a name as a nomadic guitar player and blues singer, and before was afforded the privilege to record."

[www.mysanantonio.com]

Interesting! There is something about those eyes, though..

Based on the ladies hairstyles and fashion I would say this shot was taken in the 1940s, several years after Johnson's passing.

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MrEcho
Based on the ladies hairstyles and fashion I would say this shot was taken in the 1940s, several years after Johnson's passing.

I agree. I'd say this was taken in the '40s or maybe even 50s. (I'm a professional fashion and textile historian.)

Thanks for sharing!

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Voodookitten76

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MrEcho
Based on the ladies hairstyles and fashion I would say this shot was taken in the 1940s, several years after Johnson's passing.

I agree. I'd say this was taken in the '40s or maybe even 50s. (I'm a professional fashion and textile historian.)

Hmm, not to doubt you folks but it's rather hard to tell from that shot. The bun on the one lady was a common sight in the 30's too, no?

Robert Lockwood Jr. was born in 1915, I'd say he looks in his early 20's in that shot so that dates the picture between 1935 and 1940. Since Robert Johnson died in 1938....

Here is a shot of Robert Johnson though, I don't really see the resemblence.

doesn't look like him to me

I just got fooled by some Robert Johnson mythology - and I won't be fooled again ...

I was in San Antonio last month, visiting Room 414 at the Gunter, where he recorded. But I later learned from a Gunter executive that the hotel has no idea which room he used, and staff randomly picked 414 years ago because it happened to be vacant at the time some blues pilgrims were visiting. No one had the heart to tell this to John Mellencamp when he recorded in 414 in 2009.

The nose and face in general are thinner (or gaunt) in the newly discovered pic (see side by side pic # 2 in the posted link).
And pic #3 also shows a difference - the overlapping transparencies prove nothing other than how different they look imo.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

maybe it's the cat on the right

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DeanGoodman
I just got fooled by some Robert Johnson mythology - and I won't be fooled again ...

I was in San Antonio last month, visiting Room 414 at the Gunter, where he recorded. But I later learned from a Gunter executive that the hotel has no idea which room he used, and staff randomly picked 414 years ago because it happened to be vacant at the time some blues pilgrims were visiting. No one had the heart to tell this to John Mellencamp when he recorded in 414 in 2009.

LOL Don't ever let the truth get in the way of a good story.....or making a buck off a good story.

well are there any other pictures of Caletta Craft? If you can verify her maybe easier to verify him.

Eyes do look similar.

Clearly looks like him in my opinion.

The lady on the right doesn't look too happy (his wife) maybe because some unknown girl on the left has her leg on his lap.

Also can the Coca Cola bottle on the table in front of the lady to the right be dated?

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The Sicilian
The lady on the right doesn't look too happy (his wife) maybe because some unknown girl on the left has her leg on his lap.

Also can the Coca Cola bottle on the table in front of the lady to the right be dated?

Pretty sure he just has his leg crossed over his other one. If some woman had her leg on his lap I doubt she would have survived long enough for the picture to be taken, lol

I don't buy it ....



ROCKMAN

there is no resemblence.
for example, look at the ears and nose...

Look at the fingers

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DandelionPowderman
Interesting! There is something about those eyes, though..

RJ had one 'lazy' eye, as I remember from what I've read about him...

Yeah the shape of the hands is intriguing...

I vote "yes". That Lois Gibson seems to know what she's talking about.

I'm split, the hands (fingers) look right but those eyes are throwing me off. Look kind of wicked too. Maybe he did make a deal. Sure could play a mean guitar either way.

it looks like a scene from a Movie...too arranged for my taste...

2 1 2 0

The fingers look right, and Lockwood Jr seems to be the right age of 16 or 17 or so. It could be him in my opinion.

Mathijs

It's definitely not me!

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DeanGoodman
I just got fooled by some Robert Johnson mythology - and I won't be fooled again ...

I was in San Antonio last month, visiting Room 414 at the Gunter, where he recorded. But I later learned from a Gunter executive that the hotel has no idea which room he used, and staff randomly picked 414 years ago because it happened to be vacant at the time some blues pilgrims were visiting. No one had the heart to tell this to John Mellencamp when he recorded in 414 in 2009.

Didn't Clapton record there too?? Some of the "sessions for Robert Johnson" songs?

not him..gibson is a liar

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The Sicilian


Also can the Coca Cola bottle on the table in front of the lady to the right be dated?

First thing that occurred to me, but a search on the Coke website indicated that such bottles were in existence at the time. Contents might be a little flat now.

I think it's definitely him.

I'm really not great at this, but the eyes look like a match to me.