Saudi photographer tells me: This is not Syria, its not a grave and the boys parents are not deadBy Harald Doornbos
There’s a big chance you have seen this dramatic picture of a Syrian boy covered by a blanket sleeping between the two graves of his dead parents. It went viral after some big accounts published it yesterday on twitter.
There is only one problem: The picture is not from Syria, but from Saudi Arabia.
Frankly, there are more problems regarding the picture: Because there are no bodies in the graves either.
And the graves are not graves but piles of stones made to look like graves.
And the sad sleeping boy did not lose his parents at all. He is the little son of the photographers’ sister, who made these pictures as part of an art project.
The photographer is twenty five year old Saudi national Abdul Aziz al Otaibi. I decided to call him and ask for his comments. And sure – he is pretty annoyed by all of it.
“Look, it’s not true at all that my picture has anything to do with Syria,” Al-Otaibi says, “I am really shocked how people have twisted my picture.”
I talked to Al-Otaibi over the phone via an interpreter. He is in the town of Yanbu al Bahr (Spring by the Sea) in Saudi Arabia, where he is a keen photographer. In the meantime, I am in southern Turkey, on the border with Syria.
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link to haralddoornbos.wordpress.com]