SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A mystery that ABC 4 first told you about in May continues to unfold. A photograph, tucked into a Utah grandmothers’ scrapbook was passed on to her granddaughter after her death, but this is not your typical pioneer photo. This one appears to be that of LDS Prophet, Joseph Smith.
Kim Marshall says she didn’t notice the photo in the scrapbook until earlier this year. But she knew immediately it was unique. She had never seen anything like it, and it was not the same as the commonly seen painting, or image owned by The Library of Congress. She also knew there was a controversy about whether a photographic image had ever been taken of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints founder. She wondered if she had the photographic evidence. “You know it just keeps coming back. You have this gut instinct this is a photo, this isn’t a painting it’s a photo.”
Marshall began a quest to authenticate what her grandmother had given her. She remembers being told it was given to her grandma while she was serving a mission in Texas. The man who gave it to her was not a member of the LDS Church, and saw no value in it. Her grandmother thought it was an image already owned by the church and did not pursue the origins.
Marshall took the photo to Al Thelin, a Utah photo-historian and an expert on daguerreotype photographs. In May, he examined it and determined it was printed on 1950’s paper. But, he also believed it to be an authentic daguerreotype photograph of the Prophet. He also did not believe claims that this photo was simply a picture taken of the Library of Congress image, which had been retouched. He recommended a micro scan, a process in which the small photo could be enlarged with the aid of a computer, without loss of resolution. The micro scan would allow experts to look for brush strokes.
The micro scan was performed in June at Borge Anderson Photo in Salt Lake City. Al Thelin said “Once you scan it, pop that contrast out, it will blow you away how many good things you will see after it’s scanned.”
The results did not disappoint Thelin or Marshall. Thelin said "His eyes look incredible, it actually is the Prophet Joseph Smith and it is a photograph. There are no brush strokes on it.”
Once the image was ingested into the computer further analysis was possible. The next step was comparing the existing images of Joseph Smith with Kim Marshall’s. Ed Bateman, a professor of art history and a digital and photo expert matched the images and found another mystery.
“The Library of Congress picture and the painting, they have a really close analogy, they line up almost perfectly. This has kind of a whole different set of shapes,” said Bateman.
Still, Bateman maintains it’s the same person in each, but the Library of Congress version and the painting are elongated. “If you were seeing it as a continuum, you know from the painting on one level, the Library of Congress image is somewhere in between, and so this, is the most photographic of the three,” said Bateman.
And all agree the most striking difference between the three is seen in his eyes. Kim Marshall says, "The people, when they see his eyes say 'That’s not a painting. That’s a person, I can see into his eyes.' It’s incredible.”
