A missing caption can turn a photograph into evidence for almost any story.

An image with no context can be attached to almost any claim. The same photograph of a crowd, a room, or a face will serve several incompatible stories, and each will feel like evidence because pictures carry an authority that words have to earn. The missing caption is where the manipulation lives.

When an image is used to prove something, ask where and when it was taken and what is immediately outside the frame. If those answers are not provided, treat the picture as an illustration rather than proof, however strongly it makes you feel.