Read on Twitter
Uğur Şahin's story is indeed amazing. But the picture does not show him or his family. And the fact that even one of our leading sociologists (like ten thousands others) falls for the meme should worry us. 1/6 https://twitter.com/richardsennett/status/1335537183743217664
The picture was fist, it appears, attributed to Uğur Şahin's family on Italian sites. 2/6
But the photography is from a series by Candia Höfer, Called Turks in Germany, form 1979. Şahin would have been 14 then. 3/6 https://artreview.com/march-2017-reviews-candida-hofer/
Could this still be him on the picture? Certainly. But his company stated several days ago that it is not. 4/6 https://factuel.afp.com/cette-photo-ne-montre-pas-la-famille-de-ugur-sahin-lorigine-du-premier-vaccin-contre-le-covid-19
@richardsennett became famous for analyzing the decline of the public sphere and rise of individualization. "Masses of people are concerned with their single life histories and particular emotion as never before; this concern has proved to be a trap rather than a liberation." 5/6
Maybe those who share such pictures think it matters little whether the picture is authentic. After all, the story itself is, and the picture illustrates the story well. But then why attribute such a picture at all? Or, why not check whether the picture is actually authentic? 6/6
