Williamsburg Bridge, half lit up, half in the dark, a real photo via The Gothamist
I am borrowing this Discussion Topic from my History of Photography course as a venue to contribute your own “storm stories” or your reactions to coverage on Hurricane Sandy. Those with power during the storm and its aftermath were inundated with overwhelming and often horrific images. An interesting tangent was how quickly fake photographs of Hurricane Sandy permeated the media. These photographs went viral on social media, via forum such as Twitter or Facebook. Read the following articles about faked photographs and watch the short clip by ABC News. The Washington Post reports on how the ‘shark’ photograph even made its way to China. For this Discussion Topic, please post your opinion of the visual coverage of Hurricane Sandy. You can also post any image that you found compelling, fake or real, or one that you took yourself. In addition, please feel free to share your storm stories here or on the OpenLab’s “Storm Stories” website (if you post there, just insert a link here).
ABCNews Hurricane Sandy: Fake Pictures, Memes, Social Media
Washington Post article on fake Hurricane Sandy photo
As noted in the last Discussion Topic, due to the disruption caused by Hurricane Sandy to the University’s class schedule, I have decided to forego a deadline for the remainder of the Discussion Topics this semester. Please make sure you contribute the minimum of 10 blog posts to the course by the last week of class (December 15th).
During hurricane Sandy, a lot of people posted up on facebook many pictures and videos of their homes and streets flooded. When I saw many of these, I knew they were real but I also saw many different pictures that were clearly fake. Some of the pictures I saw were of storm clouds entering the city like that shown in the video clip, I also saw many pictures of cars entirely under water and pictures of tsunamis rushing to the city. Some other pictures I saw during sandy that I thought was fake was one of the statue of liberty half way covered in water, I didn’t know if it was real but I remember seeing news clips on it too. I think it’s possible of sharks to travel when waters are high like that of hurricane Sandy. Although it’s highly unlikely for that, it’s possible for small sharks to travel.
I really didn’t think the storm would hit as bad as it did, there was a poll in which 75% of New York citizens didn’t think Sandy would be this bad. I saw real pictures of subways getting flooded and then fake ones of subways completely submerged with a scuba diver swimming in it. I think its really not something to make a joke about. I some sense yes because jokes always help brighten peoples mood but some of the fake images weren’t necessary. The fact images where viral all the way in China seemed crazy to me. The fake pictures also caused a lot of confusion of what is real or fake and to me the real damage was enough that fake pictures didn’t need to be added.
After the storm and the power outages, I went on facebook and saw numerous pictures of the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. I wasn’t expecting the storm to be that severe mainly because of the storm prior to Hurricane Sandy. I saw numerous shark photos and pictures of train station flooded all the way up to the roof. I saw boats in the living room of many houses. I believe the fake photos are horrible things to do because it creates panic and confusion to the people that believe the photos are real. They might’ve not had that kind of intention but the results are the same.
I wasn’t affected by this storm as others were but I still thought that this storm was close to severe. People were affected negatively because they lost electricity, water, heat, houses and family members. I wasn’t expecting for the storm to take people’s lives. But I’ve seen people mocking the storm and I thought it was absurd. New York was a little fortunate to not experience was people experienced in Louissiana when Katrina hit.
I have a bad experience about Hurricane Sandy and it’s about transportation. When everything was closed in sandy time, our Domino’s Pizza was open. Even though I didn’t want to go, my manager left me with no choice, so I had to go. There were no train services between Jay Street and 34th Street. So, I had to take shuttle bus from Jay Street to 42nd Street. It took me about 2 and half hours to get to my workplace. Because of limited service, there were a lot of people in the bus and trains. Here’s a picture that I have taken during that time in 42nd subway station.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4882396423915&set=a.3199814240412.160415.1417729702&type=3&theater
During the hurricane sandy i was quite fortunate to not have been in any misfortune. at the time of when the hurricane hit, my area only got a light shower after some time i thought it would worsen but i was wrong nothing happened at all. i was quite lucky some would say but many people lost power and shelters others lost homes had no food and couldn’t find a roof over their heads after the hurricane. Im not here to show off how luck i was but am here to so sympathy towards the people who were effected.
During hurricane Sandy, many people were posting up and sharing fake images on Facebook and Instagram. These images spread everywhere, and some of which even made it on to the news. Images were taken from movies such as Day after Tomorrow, and some of which were even made on image editing software. Although these images were fake, it was rather entertaining knowing that some of it can actually be possible. The image with the shark is possible knowing that the water current was so high.
Just like in an tragedy, many people get affected differently and we can’t help but feel bad. Nevertheless, there’s always a few people who take it as a joke perhaps because nothing happened to them. I have seen plenty of real pictures of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, but also a handful of fakes one. I don’t understand why people must mock such tragedy and think it’s funny to do so, but nevertheless i feel bad to those that were and still are affected by Hurricane Sandy and my hearts and prayers go out to the victims.