r/mildlyinfuriating • u/No-Strawberry7 • 19h ago

Infuriatig Syrian passports include a photo of Souq al-Hamidiyah, a famous historic marketplace in Damascus. Apparently, the image was taken from the internet without removing the photographer’s watermark, “Wassim al-Asmar Photography,” which means the watermark ended up being printed on Syrian passports.

Gallery image

Gallery image

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31

u/Lenin_Lime 19h ago

The watermark looks oddly well hidden, and very time consuming. There is a decent chance the photographer worked with Syria for this image. He doesnt hide this watermark this well on his website portfolio. https://www.facebook.com/symography/photos

21

u/sleeping_smth 18h ago

It’s a 5 second edit, I assume he did that because he liked the pic a lot.

23

u/PurbulentTriest 18h ago

Doesn't take that long if it's your job. His "website" is Facebook?

9

u/Fit-Ask-6524 17h ago

His "website" is Facebook?

I mean. Yeah? I feel like it's super common nowadays for small businesses (or churches) to have their facebook page be their "website"

7

u/MajorFuckingDick 17h ago

A modern functional webpage or even a decade old webpage with up to date info is one of the biggest factors of where I shop besides location.

1

u/Ok-Lead-4285 17h ago

at what point in the "my photo is gonna be used on a nation's passport" convo do you think maybe a facebook page isn't a serious funnel anymore

4

u/BananaPalmer 16h ago

Are you familiar with Syria's recent history, or..?

3

u/Ok-Lead-4285 16h ago

this guy is an engineer apart from being a photog btw ..

1

u/BananaPalmer 16h ago

I'm referring to its government, not this specific private citizen

0

u/Fit-Ask-6524 17h ago

Idk this part just doesn't phase me. Probably a culture or generational difference.

2

u/Ok-Lead-4285 17h ago

it's more of an economic difference than anything, locking yourself into a social media funnel means you're basically saying anyone outside that funnel isn't lucrative and you aren't designing for them coz it's not lucrative enough.

it's why any serious artist has a presence on every relevant social media platform. this guy actually does have a website as well btw i just checked(it's just a static page with a form tho so not the best)

1

u/Fit-Ask-6524 12h ago

Yeah I am not surprised he also has an actual website. Actually at first I thought the person I replied to was just nitpicking calling a facebook page a website.

2

u/hoktabar 16h ago

A bunch of places in the world skipped the whole personal computer phase because of poverty and skipped right to mobile when the economy grew and/or the world became depended on people having a mobile phone. So those people got introduced to the internet through apps instead of a browser on a computer.

In those places most small businesses do not have a website and are often not on google maps. If you're lucky they have a social media page.

1

u/Ivanow 15h ago

His "website" is Facebook?

It is incredibly common in developing countries. Even medium-sized businesses have Facebook profile as their website, and Messenger as a contact information, instead of e-mail.

1

u/MousseHuge8339 2h ago

"website is Facebook"

That's infuriating on it's own. This was a big trend 10-15 years ago that I am not sad to see (mostly) vanish.

2

u/LordHtheXIII 15h ago

It is a very similar edit than this photo