Gralhix OSINT Exercise #010
A Journey Through Voodoo Festivals and OSINT Techniques
When three vibrant photos of costumed figures landed in my OSINT inbox, courtesy of Gralhix’s latest challenge, I knew I was in for an intriguing cultural exploration. The task seemed simple: identify the event, determine which two photos shared a photographer, and uncover the photographer’s previous location. But as with any good OSINT investigation, the devil — or in this case, the voodoo spirit — was in the details.
Exercise Challenge: Decoding the Dancers
The moment I laid eyes on these photos, something clicked. The left and bottom images had a similar feel — not just in subject matter, but in quality. They screamed “pro photographer” with their composition, colors, and the way they captured movement. It was like seeing a chef’s signature dish; you just know it’s not amateur work.
The top right photo? Different story. It looked more like a snapshot, probably taken by a tourist or festival-goer. Nothing wrong with that, but it lacked the polish of the other two. This gut feeling is crucial in OSINT work. It’s about noticing small details and following your instincts.
Given the likelihood that two of the three pictures were from a professional, I hoped they’d be easily found on a stock photography site. These sites are goldmines for OSINT practitioners — they’re designed to be searchable and often come with a treasure trove of contextual details and attribution information.
Solution Summary: Google, Getty Images, Score!
My hunch paid off. A Google Reverse Image Search for an exact match revealed that Getty Images held the rights to two of the photos. These professional shots captured a voodoo Zangbeto ceremony on January 9th and 10th, 2012, in Ouidah, Benin. The photographer? A talented pro named Dan Kitwood.
Using Getty Images’ search function with filters on the photographer and a custom date range, I quickly discovered that Kitwood had been in Cotonou the day before. As for the third picture, another reverse image search led me to a blog post from September 2020. The author, an adventurous traveler, had snapped the photo during a visit to Benin in July 2019.
Detailed Walkthrough: Following the Breadcrumbs
Step 1: Identifying the Professional Shots
I started with the images that looked professionally taken, focusing on the costumed individuals in a Google Image Search.
Jackpot! A hit from Getty Images revealed our photographer, Dan Kitwood, had captured this moment on January 10, 2012, in Ouidah, Benin. Ouidah, I learned, is a city on the coast of Benin, known as a center of Vodun (Voodoo) culture. The costumes were indeed for a Voodoo festival, specifically featuring Zangbeto figures — guardians of the night in Vodun tradition.
Step 2: Connecting the Dots
I shifted focus to the other professional-quality photograph — a solo dancer with colors swirling. Sticking with Getty Images’ robust search capabilities, I narrowed my search to “Dan Kitwood Benin 2012”.
Success again! The second image was part of the same event series.
Step 3: Tracing the Photographer’s Steps
To find Kitwood’s previous location, I used a custom filter to search for his photographs in January, grateful for Getty’s feature that groups search results by event. There were only 30 during this period — far less tedious than wading through the over 300 photos Kitwood took in January 2012.
This search revealed that Dan had spent the day before (January 8th) in Cotonou, Benin — our answer to the third question.
Step 4: Verifying the Third Image
Finally, I turned to the third photo from the original tweet. Despite strong similarities to the others, it was important to verify it was from the same event and confirm our intuition that a different photographer had taken it.
A match popped up from a blog post in September 2020.
The blog’s author, “Adventurous Gina,” provided the final piece of our puzzle:
“Last summer in July 2019, in a small village near Ouidah, Benin, the birthplace of voodoo, I had the privilege to witness a Zangbeto ceremony.”
Same event, different year, and a reminder that OSINT often leads us to fascinating personal stories alongside hard facts.
Lessons Learned: The Power of Stock Photos
This exercise significantly increased my appreciation for stock photo sites as OSINT resources. There’s a wealth of valuable, freely accessible information that could prove crucial in many investigations. Moving forward, I’m setting a goal to better familiarize myself with various stock photo sites, exploring their offerings and mastering their search and filter capabilities.
It’s worth noting the ethical considerations when using such resources. While stock photos are publicly available, it’s crucial to respect copyright laws and attribute images correctly. In OSINT work, we must always balance our quest for information with ethical responsibility.
Additional Considerations: OSINT Organizing
As we hit the milestone of ten completed OSINT exercises, it’s a good time to reflect on the importance of organization in this kind of research. Especially when producing reports, solid organization is key. Without it, you might find yourself backtracking and redoing work to ensure correct links and citations.
There are numerous ways to organize, and everyone needs to find a system and tools that work for them. Currently, I’m using a program called Scrivener, which helps me structure my research and writing. It’s a work in progress, but here’s a glimpse of my current setup:
I invite you to ask yourself: How is your organization working for you? What serves you so that your OSINT work is more efficient and less stressful? What needs changing? These are evergreen questions worth revisiting periodically.
Conclusion: Dancing with Data
Using the Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 203 standards, I’m almost certain of our investigation’s results.
This exercise, while straightforward, reinforced the value of trusting one’s instincts while always verifying information. It also highlighted the unexpected places where valuable OSINT data can hide — even in the captions of stock photos.
More broadly, this investigation offers a glimpse into how OSINT techniques can be applied to cultural studies. By piecing together information from various sources, we not only identified a specific event but also gained insights into the rich traditions of Vodun culture in Benin. This intersection of technology and cultural exploration is a fascinating aspect of OSINT work that often goes unnoticed.
Acknowledgments
As always, many thanks to Gralhix for her labor in putting these exercises together and inviting and encouraging others to give OSINT a try. It’s a great community doing important work thanks to practitioners like her.
I’d love to hear about your experiences with stock photo sites in OSINT work. Have you found them useful? Any tips or tricks to share? Drop a comment below and let’s keep the conversation going!
