Introduction

Link: https://gralhix.com/list-of-osint-exercises/osint-exercise-008/
Difficulty:

For beginners: a) Easy, b) Medium, c) Medium  
For experts: a) Easy, b) Easy, c) Easy

Briefing:

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?

Click [here](https://gralhix.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/osintexercise008-2.png) to open the photo on a new tab.

Attachment:

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Solution

The briefing tells us the newspapper we see in the photo is a chinese one and comes from Epoch Times. This can be confirmed with the chinese characters.

When it comes to translate things, Google Lens is insanely effective (what a news!):

From there, we have multiple elements and names.
The newspapper was published on Janury, 12, 2023.

There is a domain name www.dajiyuan.co.uk but it redirects to www.epochtimes.com
Then we have these names:

• Shen Yun
• Michael Hinterseer
• Shenlong
• Kiobel Blanino

Maybe they are related to the event we see in the photo.

In the middle of that there is one event that is mentioned: "American God Ball Art Troupe". But there is absolutely nothing about it on the Internet (even with something related to Epoch Times). So we’ll ignore that for the moment and maybe come back later on it if we don’t find anything else.

If we search for "Shen Yun" on Google:

We learn that this is a non-profit performing arts and entertainment company based in the US.
They also have a website: https://www.shenyun.com

On that website, we learn that the group is composed of Chinese performers (dancers, musicians, etc..).

So there is a high chance that the photo in the article is about this troop (and because the title mention them).

Now we must find when this photo was taken. The article is dated January, 12, 2023 so the photo is at least as old as this date (or older).

We can search for this information on Google:

On January 12, 2023, they performed in Edinburgh at the Edinburgh Playhouse. But images of this theater don’t correspond to the photo:

So we have to find a previous date to match the exact location.
On their website, there is a list of next and past performances: https://www.shenyun.com/tickets

This is technically possible to enumerate all of them and look for the theater but I would be way too long and I have other Gralhix’s OSINT challenges to complete 😀

So let’s use our friend Google Lens:

This is a perfect match and we have a theater name: Chrysler Hall

We need to validate this location and double check it to be sure (even if the reverse search is giving us the exact match):

The elements are the same.

We can also confirm the date from Shen Yun’s website:

We are not completely sure about the date. It could be Januray 7 or January 8.

When we used Google Lens, we found an exact match. And if we click on the photo, there is a description to it:

We have anything we need to answer the questions.

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Flag

a) Shen Yun Performing Arts
b) January 7, 2023
c) Chrysler Hall, Norfolk, Virginia