Camera Clues: A Handbook of Photographic Investigation

by Joe Nickell

In Camera Clues, Joe Nickell shares his methods of identifying and dating old photos and demonstrates how to distinguish originals from copies and fakes. Particularly intriguing are his discussions of camera tricks, darkroom manipulations, retouching techniques, and uses of computer technology to deceive the eye. Camera Clues concludes with a look at allegedly "paranormal" photography, from nineteenth-century "spirit photographs" to UFO snapshots.

248 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 1994

About the author

Joe Nickell was an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal.
Nickell was a senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and wrote regularly for their journal, Skeptical Inquirer. He was also an associate dean of the Center for Inquiry Institute. He was the author or editor of over 30 books.
Among his career highlights, Nickell helped expose the James Maybrick "Jack the Ripper Diary" as a hoax. In 2002, Nickell was one of a number of experts asked by scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. to evaluate the authenticity of the manuscript of Hannah Crafts' The Bondwoman's Narrative (1853–1860), possibly the first novel by an African-American woman. At the request of document dealer and historian Seth Keller, Nickell analyzed documentation in the dispute over the authorship of "The Night Before Christmas", ultimately supporting the Clement Clarke Moore claim.