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Or could someone provide me with a certain event that I can search for which will have images with different interpretations? I am currently unable to find any images with keywords such as "different intepretations of contemporary history" and "examples of historical photographs with different interpretations". Thanks!

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    Are you, by any chance, fishing for a particular image? Jul 23, 2018 at 13:34
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    I don't understand what you are asking. Contemporary history is nonsensical. Contemporary means "occurring in the present". What does it mean to take a historical perspective of something occurring in the present?
    – user27618
    Jul 23, 2018 at 18:16
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    @JMS: Contemporary: 1. living or occurring at the same time. eg "the event was recorded by a contemporary historian". Etymology from the Latin con tempus meaning together in time. When the context is obvious, the referent may be the present time. Jul 24, 2018 at 0:31
  • @KillingTime No.
    – gerald ek
    Jul 24, 2018 at 2:43

2 Answers 2

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Foot Soldier of Birmingham

(Actually most of Malcom Gladwell's podcast fits your requirements) - a statue in Birmingham that is widely believed to be evidence of racist oppression by whites, but the reality is a bit more complex. (I fear I cannot summarize as well as Gladwell).

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I think these are poor examples but,

The swastika. The German version was backwards but the real one is seen as a symbol of good and life.

This is not proven science but there are some people who believe that ancient images at places like Gobelki Tepi and some of the Stone Age caves in France are representations of the sky and not just pictures of animals as others have believed for many years. It’s a newish science and it’s called archer-astronomy.

I’ve also read that one of the original translators of Mayan tablets made many mistakes and. I one dared to correct him because of his status and current beliefs about some of the Mayan imagery is very different from 50 years ago

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    Given the people who usually use the phrase "there are some people who believe", I'm very uncomfortable with the phrase. Uncited sources are problematic.
    – MCW
    Jul 23, 2018 at 22:53
  • From what I've read the people who practice it use the scientific method. Mosre so than some "real" historians" in some ways. And the Gobelki Tepi thing is a crazy coincidence if it isn't depicting the constellations. There is even a free program you can use to see how the sky looked like at any point in history.
    – Alen
    Jul 23, 2018 at 22:56
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    @Alen Please listen to Mr Wallace. Link to your sources on that. Currently you introduce your "bad examples" only with vague hearsay. Interesting, if backed up, dubious if left as is. Jul 24, 2018 at 0:20

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