Is this photo of Occupy Wall Street authentic?

Question

Alleged aerial image of Occupy Wall Street

This photo is actually getting pulled off Facebook...so, the photographer added a lil text and renamed the file. Pass it on. I'm SURE the media doesn't want this one out there. Share it as much as you can.

Leaving aside the claim that the image is being pulled from Facebook, or that "the media" denies the protest is happening, is this an accurate photograph of the Occupy Wall Street protest?

It doesn't ring true to me: It seems far more populated than other photos of the event would suggest, and I would have thought more flags and placards would be visible, but I don't know.

This doesn't look like any part of downtown that I am aware of... — Domenic, Oct 09 '11 at 04:36
Sure... in a situation like that all those cars would pass through the crowd with no issue at all... — nico, Oct 09 '11 at 07:44
I have personally commented on any number of my friend's posts of this picture to tell them it's a photoshop, prividing the link that appears in the answer. None of them seem to care. — John Rhoades, Oct 10 '11 at 14:08
That's okay. We can be your new friends now you realize what sort of people your old friends are :-) — Oddthinking, Oct 10 '11 at 14:47
I think that is a high-res screen grab from [SimCity](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity) — going, Oct 10 '11 at 22:18
Those don't even look like people, they look like very noisy pixels. — Michael, Oct 24 '16 at 17:36

score 38 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

38

This blog post that did some investigation on that photograph quite clearly shows that it is a photoshop job. Furthermore, the originator of the photoshop job has as much admitted to it being photoshop, and he did it to bring attention to the movement, even though he is not involved in it.

“yes its photoshopped I was hyping the event lol you do know the news is lying to us all day long. So they have CNN and Fox the 99% have me lol

Sincerely,

Jason Wettstein”

If you peruse the two blog posts (I know, not the most reliable sources), they do a lot of research for us. They link to the original photographs from google and highlight how the photoshop was done.

edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:41

Community

1

answered Oct 09 '11 at 05:17

Larian LeQuella

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What a freaking genius. – Sklivvz Oct 09 '11 at 08:47
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Ahh. The Michael Moore defense: "Their lies justify my lies." – JohnFx Oct 11 '11 at 04:39
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@Sklivvz - was that a comment on the quality of the photoshop, on the idea behind it, or on Larian's investigation? :) – user5341 Feb 02 '12 at 18:05
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Note that the Google link now has updated photography that no longer matches the June 2011 photos used for the "Occupy" image. The main point of the Tim Parkinson investigation (first link) is that the June 2011 Google photo and the "Occupy" image have all the same cars in exactly the same places. – Nate Eldredge May 05 '20 at 18:02

Is this photo of Occupy Wall Street authentic?

1 Answers1

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