2. Fake Photos: Tourist of Death

I have found an intersting photo while looking for information for my essay (how ethical is it for journalists to produce images of human suffering?).

http://www.russellheimlich.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/touristofdeath.jpg

This photo, titled UHOH.JPG or MISSING(1).JPG, shows a tourist posing on the roof of the World Trade Center a split second before the first plane crashed.
It first appeared a few days after 9/11. In addition to the photo a text message was released on the net: the message said "This is just an astonishing picture..this was from a camera found in the wreckage of the WTC, developed by the FBI for evidence and released on the net today....the guy still has no name and is missing..."
The photo sparked sesations of horror in those who viewed it in the days immediately following the terrorist attacks on the United States. Many people believed it to be real, everyone thought the picture was found on a camera in the ruins of the WTC.

However after much speculation, the photo has been analysed and a number of logistical errors showed that it was an edited picture, or a hoax.

Firstly, September 11 was a warm and sunny late summer day, not the type of weather in which a tourist would have been decked out in a winter coat and hat.

Secondly, The airliner shown in the picture is approaching from the north and would therefore have been the plane that hit the north tower of the World Trade Center (WTC1), but WTC1 did not have an outdoor observation deck.

Thirdly, While the sun is shining from the guy's left, producing harsh shadows on the right side of his face, the plane is evenly lighted from above.

Why people are making fake images like these?
As time passed, more became known of the origins of this photo. A Hungarian tourist who had visited New York in November, 1997 was responsible for this hoax - being both the subject and the instigator. He'd sent the alteration to friends as a 'joke' after the events of 9/11...