First Friday: Sandy Fakes

At the beginning of this week, the world watched and waited for glimpses of what was happening as horrible Hurricane Sandy swept into New York. We had plenty of warning, and consequently, many designers with Photoshop had plenty of time on their hands. In light of what happened, they are silly now, but I wonder if perhaps some of these images didn’t help those of us who could do nothing but wait.

Did the fake photos allow you to feel compassion for what was happening by providing visuals that made you then search out real ones? Did some of them give you a silly moment in the face of worrying and concern. For me, yes, to both.

I give you a gallery of the Photoshop fakes. The best of which I believe is Chris Henson’s. A designer and copywriter in Virginia, he reworked an image he had posted earlier in the day–a trampoline stuck on wires. I think it’s the best because it was obviously far from reality, but it gave his friends a break we needed. Then we all went back to waiting.

After having now seen all the real images, they are in fact more dramatic than the fakes. We’re stunned. I hope you’ll be spurred into action. Our fellow humans need us. And so do many pets. 

If you took the time to read this post or look at the pictures, I hope you’ll spend five minutes more to send help.  NBC has posted this ‘How To Help After Sandy’ list.