Nic Cage ... Is that you?!

An interesting story about a Confederate P.O.W., held at the Prisoner of War Depot on Johnson’s Island in Ohio, and how he created a makeshift camera in order to photograph his confinement.

From the January 1909 edition of Confederate Veteran Magazine, page 28:

Lieut. G.B. Smith, of Bristol, Tenn., had his lens with him when captured and taken a prisoner to Johnson’s Island, Ohio. By bribing a guard he procured some chemicals, placed his lens in a tobacco box, and with this crude outfit opened a gallery clandestinely in the garret of Block 3 of that prison. The material used as plates for his tintype pictures was cut from old oyster cans, and the only light procurable was from one 8×10 glass in the attic, except that which came through the cracks in the walls.

Click here to read through the rest of this December 25th, 2008 article from the Kingsport Times-News on this mysterious photographer, and check out io9’s post to learn more about his connection to Nicolas Cage.

* The incredible story of this mysterious Civil War P.O.W. photographer is real … Nicolas Cage being an undead gentleman who lived during the Civil War? … that’s for you to decide!