Bob Dylan isn't in Paris...

And if you did that in a cafe nowadays you’d get shot

Getting irate about misleading photo captions, fake pics, and manipulated images, seems a bit old fashioned. We’ve been living with photoshop for decades, cropping and editing photographs for nefarious reasons is as old as photography itself, and Ai is here and not going away. But allow me to shout into the darkness please? I wasn’t born accepting the way things are.

Photo by Daniel Kramer

This photograph of Bob Dylan has been posted a number of times by an account called Classic Rock in Pics (@crockpics) on X (formerly known as Twitter). The account has a massive 1.1m followers. On February 26th 2022, the photo was posted with the caption ‘Bob Dylan playing chess in Paris, 1964’. It wasn’t the first time this photo and caption had been posted on Twitter, but @crockpics is the poster with the most followers.

The post received twenty replies; two and a half thousand likes; seventy-one thousand views; and three hundred retweets. If you are unsure how Twitter works - retweets are a way people spread a tweet, passing on the info to their ‘followers’. Three hundred retweets means that it’s likely tens of thousands of people saw the original tweet, in addition to those who directly follow the @crockpics account.

The replies and other responses included people critical of Dylan’s chess-playing, pointing out he hasn't developed his kingside - which is fair criticism I reckon - and a good number just entering the chat to exclaim what a dude Bob Dylan is. And, this being social media - where people are at liberty to give us a glimpse into their derangement - this comment was posted; “If you did that in a cafe nowadays you’d get shot”.

It’s not Paris, though. The photo was taken at one of Dylan’s favourite hangouts, the Cafe Espresso on Tinker Street in Woodstock, in the state of New York. The Cafe Espresso, was run by Bernard and Mary Lou Paturel. There’s another shot by the photographer Daniel Kramer, a bit later in the chess game; in that shot you can see Bob’s opponent, who has been identified Victor Maymudes, Dylan’s tour manager.

The Cafe Espresso had a room upstairs, where Dylan occasionally hid himself away to write. The chess photo was taken around the time Dylan was working on the songs on the Another Side of Bob Dylan album.

One reply to the @crockpics post made the comment “It’s Not Paris” but gave no further information. Another made no comment but silently linked to a page at a gallery selling prints of the pic, which identified the photographer as Daniel Kramer, and the original title; ‘Bob Dylan Playing Chess, Woodstock, New York, 1964’. Those are the only two responses highlighting the correct information out of the thousands of people who responded in some way or other.

On September 6th 2022, seven months later, the Classic Rock in Pics account posted the exact same photo with the exact same erroneous caption. This time there were one hundred and forty one retweets. Three out of the thirteen direct replies challenged the caption, including one saying “Not Paris. Woodstock” posted by a music, books, and Bob Dylan fan Bob Russell of Windsor in Connecticut.

Into 2023; and in February that year Classic Rock in Pics was at it again, but this time adding a credit to the the photographer; same photo but now explained as ‘Bob Dylan playing chess in Paris, 1964. Photo by Daniel Kramer’. Anne Margaret Daniel, a teacher and reader who divides her time between New York City and the Catskills was quick with the right info - “This is in Woodstock, New York.” Bob Russell was back on their case, replying “Not in Paris! This is in Woodstock, NY, as someone already pointed out!”

Classic Rock in Pics pumped out the photo again on June 25th 2023, receiving over one thousand likes. The caption read ‘Bob Dylan playing chess in Paris, 1964. Photo by Daniel Kramer’. Now the photographer is routinely being credited. Hallelujah! But, as regards the location of the pic, the pleas of the keepers of the truth were still unheard. Poor Anne Margaret Daniel sounded close to giving up; “Please stop posting this photo and saying Paris. Bob's in Woodstock, New York”.

More recently, February 26th 2024, the account tweeted the photo again, with the same caption as the previous time. Some of us would like to think we have learned something over the last two years; about ourselves, about the ways of the world, or, perhaps, how to make a perfect mushroom risotto. But not the Classic Rock in Pics account; it’s learned nothing, zilch. It was sticking steadfastly to a falsehood despite being shown evidence to the contrary.

This most recent 'Bob Dylan playing chess in Paris, 1964. Photo by Daniel Kramer’ post garnered two thousand likes. One reply points out “This is actually taken in Woodstock, NY” but there’s no sign of Anne Margaret Daniel, or Bob Russell. I sympathise with them. They have tried to correct the tweet which by now has probably been liked by well over a hundred thousand people, but no-one is listening. They probably feel like they’re wasting their time. But I love their work.

The mislabelling of the photograph of Dylan playing chess is all over the internet. The battle to correct the caption reaches website after website. A Reddit thread five years ago includes an exchange on the topic;

u/bravotipo “This pic was shot in France (Paris), as you can see from the signs. Or in a movie studio.”

u/ConsultingTimeLord “I realize that the sign is in French, but all of the information I could find on the photo says it was shot in Woodstock!”

But u/ConsultingTimeLord and his assertion it was taken in Woodstock is then mocked by another Reddit user, u/rescuedogsdad, who asserts “All text, visible, is in French. Let’s let our eyes, and logic, refute research...especially if it’s solely online research.”

In my experience, there are plenty of people who will see what they want to see, believe what they want to believe.

Daniel Kramer has spoken a few times about the Dylan photo-shoot, recalling the red and white tablecloths at the Cafe Espresso, and the genuine seriousness of the chess game (it wasn’t set-up just for him). Bernard Paturel, he remembered, was “a large man with a large moustache”. During the game a few people from the neighbourhood dropped in to the cafe, and some watched Dylan and Victor Maymudes playing. This photo show a woman and her son watching (locals who knew Dylan from coming to the cafe).

Photo by Daniel Kramer

What are they about, these accounts that post photos, often without crediting the photographer but amassing millions of followers, none of whom they reply to or interact with? Generally speaking, accounts of this kind post shareable content to build an audience and then will occasionally post adverts, which they can charge for because of their audience size.

There’s a popular parody account on X called @boringmilner (for the most part, dedicated to posting what could be, but aren’t, the views and thoughts of an allegedly boring footballer called James Milner). The account has built a following of over six hundred thousand. In addition to its usual content, it’s many times linked to an account called @AndyRobsonTips which gives the impression that it’s run by an independent gambler who’s out to help fans beat the bookies (these links from @boringmilner suggest some kind of relationship with @AndyRobsonTips, which, according to a Guardian report a couple of weeks ago, is probably financial).

Meanwhile, Andy Robson Tips, has more than 1 million followers on social media but is all a facade - far from being run by an independent individual, the account is owned by a marketing business paid by betting giant Paddy Power Betfair, to post betting tips linking to their website.

High profile business success story, Steven Bartlett's company Social Chain made a fortune by building up viral accounts. Within two years they owned and controlled around 250 Twitter accounts - some bought up, some they created themselves - and with a relationships to many more. This access to multiple accounts gained them power to influence Twitter content and viral trends, and the means to push their marketing messages to a huge audience. Among their first clients, using the online reach of Social Chain, were ASOS.

The lack of curiosity on the part of social media users faced by images online contributes to the rise of these accounts. And, especially on Twitter, a lack of transparency about the people behind the accounts. It’s worth underlining though, that strategies for building audiences are clever and manipulative but a long way from being illegal.

Classic Rock in Pics, with 1.1m followers, has become a valuable asset, which could be sold and/or switched to push a completely different agenda (although its value has probably fallen since Elon Musk took over Twitter and genuine users have departed and the site has fallen into a mess of bots, fakes, and toxicity).

Several innocuous-looking photo sharing accounts have recently pivoted to boosting cryptocurrency scams, for example.

When I first encountered Classic Rock in Pics I assumed the person behind the account was a music fan with the sole motive of happily sharing pictures of old rock heroes to a nostalgic generation who feel slightly more than adrift modern music, and perhaps modern life. This may be the case, I don’t know. But I was certainly oblivious to the potential other motives for such accounts. I was bothered by a couple of things though; one was the account’s apparent disdain for copyright issues and the habitual failure to attribute the creator or photographer.

However, I did come across an account called @picpedant which painstakingly corrected fake pictures. The man behind it, a graphic designer and web developer with a deep knowledge of photoshop and other means of visual deception, describes himself as a “punctilious internet killjoy [who] debunks fake viral images and attributes uncredited real ones”.

You probably also know the Snopes website which is a very decently researched account which uncovers fraudulent or misleading online posts of all kinds.

Targeting mostly the kinds of accounts posting pics etc purporting to be lightning striking a lighthouse, a meteor shower over Stonehenge, or a shark swimming down a flooded city street, the work for @picpedant was unceasing. He was called into action when an account called Moon Lover with 700, 000 followers posted this…

Unbelievably, this amateurish nonsense - entitled ‘Moonset’ - attracted a host of impressed and excited replies, including “I'd sell my soul to be there right now”, It would be so nice to sit and watch this on a bench down by the lake”, and “Wow!Beautiful”. Two other replies restored by faith in humanity; a Twitter user Falkirk correctly pointed out “That's so shit” and @JayRockerz asked “When you going to sell this account to a crypto bro?”

Unfortunately, the @picpedant account has been dormant for eighteen months.

We’re being manipulated by commercial and disruptive and conflict-triggering forces. Obviously the erroneously and lazily captioned Bob Dylan pic and the terrible fake composite “Moonset” are at the frivolous end of things, but we know how dangerous misinformation can be. Online trickery puts us at the mercy of propagandists, and unhelpful and hostile forces of all kinds. We’ve only got a chance of navigating our way through this if we cultivate a sceptical attitude. Not everything is as it appears.

I have two more images to discuss. Stick around on my Substack for these - one relates to the sculptor Auguste Rodin, the other to the Suffragettes. The Rodin image is pernicious, very much on another level to the issues I have with the ‘Bob Dylan in Paris’ photo. The Suffragette image will be discussed in couple of weeks; it goes back over a century and tells a very curious story indeed.

Cafe Espresso was later converted into the Center for Photography in Woodstock. Photos taken of Dylan at the Cafe by Daniel Kramer subsequently featured in at least one exhibition at the Center. In September 2021, the Center announced it was leaving the site on Tinker St, needing more space. The building is now a gift shop.

How about Dylan? How does he feel about Classic Rock In Pics? Who knows?

He’s only a pawn in their game.

Thanks for reading. Two thousand words of close analysis and thought-provoking ideas just so I can get to that punchline?

See you next time.