đź’ˇ Check out Sofia's blog and this exercise here
Challenge
The large photo below was taken from a page of the Epoch Times, a Chinese newspaper.
Please answer the following questions:
a) What was the audience applauding?
b) When was the photo taken?
c) What is the name of the venue?
First Look
We’re working with a photograph of a Chinese newspaper article from the “Epoch Times”. The article contains an image of a concert hall. On the top right of the page we can see what looks like a date, including “2023” in arabic numerals. Now I don’t speak Chinese, but luckily Google Lens has got my back.
Shen Yun
Google Lens helps us translate this text and reveals that the audience was applauding the Shen Yun Performing Arts show. The article also mentions performances in seven cities around the United States and in Europe. That might help us pinpoint the exact venue 🔍 Translation With Google Lens
I took a step back and searched for the original Chinese article title for some more context. The first search result takes us to an article on epochtimes.com. We use Chrome’s built-in translation function to make sense of the Chinese. The article is from January 2023 and describes the series of Shen Yun shows, including a list of the seven cities they were performed in:
“Let’s take a look at audiences from San Francisco on the west coast of the United States to Atlanta and Norfolk on the east coast, to the famous southern cities of Austin and Dallas, to Berlin in Germany and Birmingham in the United Kingdom”
One by one, we work our way through the cities by googling shen yun + the city name, to find the venues. We follow this up with a Google image search for the venue to cross check if it matches our photograph. Finding the Venues
At the third venue we get lucky, the photograph from the article was taken at the Chrysler Hall in Norfolk. The distinct ceiling, walls, and balconies confirm we’re at the right place. Clear Match of the Ceiling, Walls, and Balconies
We already know the series of performances was in 2023, so to find out when exactly the image was taken, we query Google for shen yun chrysler hall norfolk 2023. The page sevenvenues.com lists the show dates as 7 and 8 January, 2023. This matches the date from the initial epochtimes.com article. But was it January 7 or 8?
We’ll try our luck with Google images for the same search query and, among all the exercise writeups of other OSINT practitioners, we find an image that looks suspiciously like our source photo. Same Image?
Further down on the page we find the image and can confirm that it in fact matches our source. The caption specifies that this was taken on January 7, 2023 🎉 Bingo
Answers
A: Shen Yun Performing Arts show
B: January 7, 2023
C: Chrysler Hall in Norfolk
Final Remarks
This one was quite straight forward, but a nice showcase that Google Lens doesn’t always immediately find the exact source image!