Imagine this: You just got a fancy new dSLR and you’re playing around with some self portraits at home on a school night. You post a couple on Flickr and you forget about it. Fast forward 6 years later, and your face has been seen and used by millions around the world, without your consent. This is exactly what happened to Noam Galai.
The Stolen Scream: A Story About Noam Galai from FStoppers on Vimeo.
Galai came to the U.S. from Israel in 2006 to work for AOL. Some time after taking this picture, a co-worker mentioned she had seen him on a T-shirt, but he just chalked it up to a case of mistaken identity. Galai later discovered his images were being used for graphic design, editorials, publications and many other for-profit operations, all without his permission. To make things even more interesting, his image is being used as graffiti and apparel in a current political movement in Iran. Unsuspecting Iranians have no clue that the symbol freshly painted on their walls and clothing is just an ordinary Israeli guy who lives in America. It was even easy for me to find the above image through a 3-second google search.
How would you react if your identity was exploited to this degree?
Interesting thought. It’s a powerful photo, thats for sure.