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Myriam Dalal

This Viral Photo Purporting to Show an Orphaned Syrian Boy Isn’t What You Think It is

Saudi Arabian photographer Abdel Aziz Al-Atibi was shocked to find that the picture he took of his nephew Ibrahim on January 3 in Saudi Arabia was picked up on social media networks and reported as being a picture of a Syrian child found sleeping near the graves of his parents.


(Photo via Imgur)

Al-Atibi tells Beirut.com that he took the photo, which was staged with fake graves, as part of a conceptual project. “I’m a photographer and I try to talk about the suffering that is happening in society, it’s my hobby and my exaggeration is intended to deliver my idea,” he says. When he originally Instagrammed the photo, he wrote: “some kids might feel that their dead parents’ bodies are more affectionate to them than the people they’re living with.”

Shortly after hearing the news about his work’s use, the 24-year-old uploaded some behind-the-scenes shots in an attempt to put an end to its connection with children suffering in Syria.



“I’ve previously talked about domestic violence and my nephew (the boy in the picture) was the main subject of that picture as well. It’s absurd how people can easily be manipulated without going back to the source and the facts,” Al-Atibi says.

And for the people who objected the use of the tombs to build a picture around, the photographer says that being a Muslim, as he is, means that the graves and the dead are symbols that garner respect.