Is The Shroud of Turin a Medieval Photograph? A Critical Examination of the Theory

Since the late 1970's, dozens of researchers, scholars, skeptics and "professional debunkers" have presented their theories on how the image on the Shroud of Turin was formed. Some are based on serious science while others show a complete lack of understanding of the Shroud image or its properties. In this paper, I will review the "proto-photography" theory proposed by Prof. Nicholas Allen of South Africa. This theory concludes that the raw materials to produce photography not only existed in medieval times, but that a brilliant medieval "photographer" actually used them to invent photography 500 years before the documented creation of the first photographic negative by Joseph Niepce in 1818. To his credit, Allen has actually achieved what he set out to accomplish. He has, without question, used medieval raw materials to create a faint but good quality photographic image on linen cloth. As I will show however, his own results provide the best evidence against the validity of his theory. In the end, any attempt at duplicating the image on the Shroud of Turin must match all of its physical and chemical properties, not just a select few. It must also withstand the scrutiny of careful, side-by-side comparison to the original. In this paper I will provide just such side-by-side comparisons of key areas of the Shroud image vs. Allen's results and present my arguments against the validity of his theory based on my 30 years of professional photography experience.