The True Story Of The Viral 9/11 Photo Everyone Thought Was A Hoax
In this episode of Underunderstood, Billy Disney tracks down the subject of an unsettling photo that keeps cropping up around the internet.
In 2015, a photo popped up on Reddit. The photo was of a small child in the sunshine with a slight smile on his face. A pair of yellow binoculars hangs around his neck. And in the background, the World Trade Center towers are smoking.
After the photo was posted, users on Reddit were quick to suggest that the photo was not real. "Probably fake no way would everyone be that calm," one user wrote. "Photoshopped," wrote another. "Sun in the background yet the kid's shadow is to his immediate left," another one said.
Amidst all the speculation on Reddit, a man came forward to claim the photo was real and that he was the boy in the photo. "My name is Austin Sansone and I live in TriBeCa (which is in the lower westside of Manhattan) and this is a picture of me on 9/11," he wrote. He attached a photo of himself holding the actual photo as proof.
"Not that i dont believe him, but even if it was a shop couldnt the guy have just printed out the picture he shopped and hold it up?" one user said.
"Lol that isn't proof," said a user.
"14 minute old account?" another user said. "Hmmmm."
The skepticism from other users weren't unwarranted as there's reason to believe someone might fake a photo from 9/11. Another viral photo that appeared to show a tourist atop the World Trade Center with a (badly Photoshopped) approaching plane in the background was later debunked as a fake.
And it's true there are many odd things about the photo. The child, as well as the people in the background, appear strangely calm. No one is looking or pointing at the buildings. And then there's the weirdest thing: the sun appears to be beating down from high above, but the shadows point sharply in one direction.
Still, there's no denying that the photo is compelling. The angelic-looking kid. The graininess that evokes nostalgia. The ordinariness of the crowd contrasted with the enormous, smoking building.
The photo has traveled far: A Google reverse image search shows it's propagated to hundreds of sites in different languages. It's even become a meme format. And still, no one has conclusively proved if the photo of the eerily calm kid is authentic or not.
To settle this internet mystery once and for all — including for his skeptical family members — Billy interviewed Austin and his mother, Susan Lyall, to get to the bottom of what happened that day.
For the complete story, listen to the full episode.
Underunderstood is a podcast that explores stories the internet missed. You can listen on their website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or subscribe by searching "Underunderstood" in your favorite podcast app.
