Ah, the internet. Home to all sorts of wild speculation and misinformation. Photography history rarely has a part to play in the crazier claims, but I happened upon this doozy (see screen capture at left) not long ago.

Click through to the article (hosted a site whose top articles are currently 10 Bizarre Pairs of Underwear and 10 Weird Diseases) and you’ll find Diane Arbus’s Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967 bearing a caption that reads “Mengele’s Twins from Brazil”.

Uh, no.

Is this picture not terrifyingly odd enough on its own without being (incorrectly) linked to Nazi genetics experiments? Sometimes fiction is a lot stranger than fact.

Were I blessed with complete dominion over time and space, I’d beam myself to San Francisco to see Edward Hopper & Company at Fraenkel Gallery. It’s on view until May 2; hopefully my teleportation ability [ READ MORE ... ]