Jean-Michel Bihorel opened his computer on March 19, 2020 and posted on Facebook a 3D image he called ‘Winter Sleep’ — Sueño de invierno. What he did not imagine was that within days that piece would travel the whole world disguised as a lie. 🌋
Thousands of people shared it convinced that it was an aerial photograph of the Iztaccíhuatl volcano, the Mexican mountain also known as ‘The Sleeping Woman’. They described it as “the postcard that is driving the internet crazy”. It was so perfect, so detailed, so real… that no one wanted to doubt it. But Bihorel, a French digital artist, had to come forward to publicly clarify his authorship twice: in 2020 and again in 2021. AFP Factual verified it using reverse image search, which led directly to the artist’s website with the complete sequence of the work from different angles and a 3D video. 🎨
What you see in that image is not snow, or rock, or a volcano. It is pure talent. And perhaps that says something about us: sometimes the most beautiful thing circulating on social media does not need to be real to leave us speechless. ✨