Photographs are great not only because they preserve an instant in time, forever. Sometimes they also capture something quite unintended by the photographer.

For example, I am helping a friend restore his '38 Ford pick up. We need to see what the firewall should look like because the battery sits there, and his was mutilated by acid. While thumbing thru my copy of [U]The Early Ford V8--As Henry Built it[U], I saw a picture of exactly what I needed in the section on body construction and painting. The picture was not about the battery box, or the firewall, yet it contained that information.
At the risk of hijacking the thread---the same could be said about the pictures of the "Grassy Knoll" in Dallas--as to whether or not they show a "badge man" behind the picket fence. That information ( or shadow) was not in the photographer's mind when he took that picture, but it has helped fuel a controversy ever since.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags