The Photoshopped Refugee?

He seems to have something white wrapped around his head. I live in lebanon and this guy looks quite out of place. There arent any black lebanese that I know of.
But why the hell would anyone want to photoshop a black guy into such a picture?

Come on Alex, it's clearly a cut and paste job (I doubt they even used photoshop. Check out the really strong reflections of light off his eyes, in contrast with everyone else in that picture.

But more disturbing is "Picture 6 The white ghost in the machine" on 11points.com. So it's a pic of a girl with a laptop sitting on the lawn and smiling at the camera. On the screen of the laptop is a "reflection" of a white girl.

I've got two big problems with this. And suspect it's a fake fake.

1) The reflection is at the wrong angle if the black girl was photo'ed in.

but the main one is...

2) The image on the laptop screen is supposed to be a reflection so why can you read the name of the university the right way around (ie not backwards?) on the top the white chick is wearing?

its a scarf that goes all the way around his neck too. Why would anyone need diversity in this picture???

I think Mario's right. If you look at the front of the man's head, he's clearly wearing some white thing that also goes around the back of his head.
Sometimes you get odd-lookin edges on object with (unmamipulated) digital photography.

What seems odd to me about the man in question is that his head seems much bigger than anyone else's in the photo. But that could be a trick of perspective. So I, vote "undetermined" on this one.

It looks to me like the head was just set on top of a woman's head...they are all wearing scarves that cover their head & neck...and I think someone just inserted the head over it. It does look fake, and I don't think the lighting looks correct. All the men are wearing standard shirts. The woman have many layers draped across them. JUST like the "head" guy.

I vote photoshopped because they forgot to give him a neck.

I can't imagine any possible motivation for adding "diversity" to this photo. It's Lebanon, Americans are going to expect everybody there to look like Yasser Arafat. Nobody's going to feel that the picture is out of balance because there are no black guys in the crowd.

@ Joel B:

There'd be no need for ghosts if nor photoshop if the black girl in photo 6 were watching a video of someone wearing the university sweater.

This would also explain why the university's name is not in mirror image 😊

Maegan's argument is compelling, but again, WHY photoshop a black man (or anybody else, for that matter) into this picture?

Here's a theory: Maybe this man is a relief worker for a U.N agency. He was supposed to be at work at the refugee camp that day, but he went to the movies instead. So he pasted himself into the picture to send to his bosses.

I'd expect that Tyler Hicks (the photographer) would have taken a series of photographs of the place, not just one. Perhaps somebody can find some of the other photos, and could see if the guy shows up in them.

Hicks has other examples of creative journalism:

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/new-york-times-busted-in-hezbollah.html

Dunno why the need to shop him in...Maybe the face of the person there didn't look appropriate to the scene itself? The black face looks more somber for the event?

It looks alot like someone from slightly out of the picture's hand on the back of the man's head.

@ Rob,

Thanks, nice point, (although why anyone would watch a video of a fairly "ordinary" white girl wearing a university sweat-top is beyond me)

@Maegan,

I'm opting for a smiling lady who was deemed out-of-place. And had her head pasted over. I can't think of any-other reason... (and people do smile even in really horrible situations)

those of you who say that is not photoshopped have no clue about photoshop it is obviosly photoshopped. the white scarf "theory" is ridiculous. Who ever did this used the magnetic cutting tool and did a piss poor job of it.

I originally was going to chime in and say that it looked odd, but not necessarily photoshopped... but Maegan's idea puts a spin on it that seems to explain it. If it's real, then the scarf looks awkward around his "neck" and doesn't seem natural in the way it's partially covering the back of his head. But if consider as though it's just the head itself pasted over some woman....... it all seems to make sense, actually.

looking at this again, I must admit that it looks like a paste over a womans head. Also I only know a few palestinians but none are black (not an impossibility but odd). I guess if somebody could find a motive for the exchange, that would be cool. And what is it with the light blue garb next to this guy??...looks like they covered something there also.

Mario..look at all the women. Their clothes are multi-layered. I don't know if it's due to the scarves, or just the way they dress in general...but I think it's just from seperate layers/pieces of clothing.

Final (maybe) thought on this, people don't just photoshop for diversity.
The "added" guy might just have been what they had available...

Maegan, you'right and Joel's simple smile theory from before is 1 of a million possible reasons. One last point would be that no other guy is wearing a head scarf, perhaps a Palestinian person woul let us know about head garb traditions for men and women in palestine. (By the way, I,m glad I'm not running for office. My flip flopping was monumental).

"One last point would be that no other guy is wearing a head scarf, perhaps a Palestinian person woul let us know about head garb traditions for men and women in palestine"

Yeah, but none of the other men are even covering their head in some way. I still think it's just an overlapping pic...and the woman's scarf wasn't covered completely by his head. If his head was enlarged any more it would look even more obvious.

Why would anyone want to falsify the picture of black person into a photo of Lebanese? It's as if someone assumes that no one can tell the difference, which is an odd and very racist assumption. Makes one wonder about who was in there originally, that would require editing them out? The face they stuck in there looks almost like Levar Burton, at least from his younger years.
It almost seems like the Sarah Palin photos in Runner's World were photoshopped too - she's in incredible shape for her age. Next they just need to Photoshop her into doing something intelligent for a change!
Ho ho, but that was a cheap joke, at the expense of a cheap Alaskan Crook. I know the people up there like to maintain how independent and free they are...which is usually a cover up from being a bunch of thugs, looking to get away with just about anything they can. Especially since she's investigated a half dozen times by ethics committees and had to spend over $200,000 of the taxpayer's money on lawyers to keep her out of jail, because we can't have our political leaders going to the Slammer - it would mean they were accountable for their actions to the people they are supposed to be representing, and we just can't have that...but enough of that.
I wonder how many photos that make it onto the news wires are faked? It could get creepy - I understand some work is necessary, in order to unblur lines and so forth, but a lot of people will take things for gospel as long as it runs in the newspapers.

Is it not a bandage, with a lint pad at the back and tied under his chin? And why should there not be a man of north African appearance in Lebanon (you could technically walk from one place to the other).

My real surname means: "man from Tripoli (Lebanon, not Libya)". My father last visited Beirut and Baalbek in 1968, and brought back several photos of family and friends. In the interest of diversity, I scanned some, and added in really pasty white people. Now I know, some might say, it would be easy to spot as fake because there are no pasty white people in Lebanon, but I did a good job, you can barely see the cut-and-paste lines, and they all have necks. I think I'll shop in some Native Americans next, because God knows, there are no Native Americans in Lebanon. Oh, BTW, the "black" fellow is the reincarnation of Jesus, and that's a halo around his head. Duh

If it was a lady who was smiling and looked out of place, wouldn't it have just been easier to edit them out all together? All you would have to do is pull in the right side. It would make the picture smaller, but no more smiling lady.

Eh? It's obviously the edge of the head-scarf of a woman standing behind the 'shopped' man, facing left.