I was present in Turin the last time the Shroud was displayed for public viewing in 2015. In pre-internet days, people queued for hours in the hot sun or pouring rain to get in to see it. On that trip, they allocated 30-minute slots to groups of no more than about 20 people. It worked out wonderfully. I also took the liberty of traveling around central and northern Italy, taking in Rome, Florence, Turin, Vicenza, and Venice. It was an unforgettable holiday / pilgrimage. Turin has a very interesting Shroud museum with lots of information.
Barrie Schwortz, lead photographer on the original STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project), in 1978, died last month. He was one of the original skeptics who showed up to, "look at the painting, take a few photos and go home." The day he saw the Shroud, his life would never be the same. The image is actually a photographic negative, where normal light patterns are reversed. Barrie says that if modern photography actually began in 1836 as commonly believed with the photograph of a boy standing on a busy street in Paris, then the Shroud puts that dating in serious doubt. If it is a clever forgery, someone invented photography 600 years earlier. Schwortz would go on touring the world talking about the Shroud and even set up www.shroud.com, which is still online today. One expert physicist stated that the only explanation for such an image is "an extreme high-energy burst of light within a minute time-frame."
Seeing it up close was very interesting, and the image is quite surreal. I do agree that you don't need the Shroud to prove the historicity or personhood of Jesus. But it's there....in your face, with a clear message penned by Saul of Tarsus in his first letter to the church he established at Corinth:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18.
