The Viral Image Of The Syrian Boy Sleeping Between The Graves Of His Parents Is Fake

The photo is actually part of an ongoing art project.posted on January 17, 2014 at 10:38am EST

Chances are you’ve seen this very very viral photo of what was purported to a little 

boy from Syria sleeping between the graves of his parents. Well, it was staged.

Twitter: @abdulaziz_Photo

The photo was taken by photographer Abdel Aziz Al-Atibi. The boy in the photo 

is his nephew and it was taken for a conceptual art project that Al-Taibi was 

working on.

Twitter: @abdulaziz_Photo

The image was taken out of context, most likely by english-speaking users 

where it quickly gained momentum before it hit the front page of Reddit 

Thursday night. It’s been viewed over a million times on Imgur.eddit.com

Al-Taibi tried to fight the misinformation around the photo on his Twitter 

and Instagram but it’s still going strong under the fake caption as of Friday morning.instagram.com

The original meaning behind the photo was a somewhat satirical statement

 on how children might feel like their parents are more affectionate in death

 than in life. Al-Taibi works on pieces about domestic violence often.

instagram.com

“It’s absurd how people can easily be manipulated without going back to the

 source and the facts,” Al-Atibi told beirut.com about how easily the photo

 went viral under the wrong caption.

Ryan Broderick

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/the-viral-image-of-the-syrian-boy-sleeping-between-the-grave