CIA facial software uncovers the artist Francis Bacon – in drag
A recent Guardian article has led to the discovery of an historic photograph of the painter Francis Bacon – in drag.
The gallery, on the work of notorious Soho photographer John Deakin featured a photograph listed as "Unknown Woman, 1930s". Some might even have concluded that the unknown woman's dour expression and cheap-looking pearls were yet another instance of Deakin's peculiar eye for the sadness of urban life.
But a comment left on the piece led the collection manager of the Deakin Archive, Paul Rousseau, to look again. Commenter bullshotcrummond first noticed that the image had been labelled in a press release as "Transvestite, 1950s" which led another commenter, congokid, to rejoin "Or is it Bacon in drag?"
Rousseau was struck by the similarity straight away. "I'd never considered it before, annoyingly," he says. Searching through the archive, he was able to establish that the photo was one of a set dated 1945 (making them some of the oldest in the Deakin collection), possibly taken for Lilliput magazine, a publication with a reputation for risque photography. There were 15 images in all, and Rousseau immediately set about establishing who the models might be. "I quickly landed on his closest friends Denis Wirth-Miller and Richard (Dickie) Chopping. Denis was a painter and Dickie was semi-famous for designing the original dustjackets for the James Bond books..."
Using facial recognition software developed by the CIA, Rousseau produced videos which show that the similarity between Deakin's cross-dressing sitters and these men is, if not conclusive, then certainly startling.
detail of Francis Bacon, 1952, by John Deakin. Photograph: John Deakin/Vogue
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/jun/16/cia-software-unveils-francis-bacon-in-drag
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