You Won’t Believe the True Story Behind This Migrant’s Incredible Journey (20 Pics)

 In July 2015 a man going by the name Abdou Diouf posted the first picture to the Instagram account abdoudiouf1993. Certainly, the photo seemed no different to many on the social media site; just an everyday selfie with a smiling family member. Yet it was Diouf’s accompanying words that marked his account out as a little more out of the ordinary. The Dakar, Senegal native remarked that soon he would be journeying to Europe “for a better future” and that he would use the account to document the ups and downs of his journey. And he did just that – creating quite the Instagram storm in the process.

The next few images on the account show Diouf apparently preparing for the gargantuan trek to Spain by getting a pre-trip haircut as well as cooling off at the end of an apparently hard day. He also uploaded a photo of what he wrote was “the las[t] meal from my mother” before the jaunt, and there was additionally a snap of the loaded-up scooter he would use for the initial stage of the trip.

From here, though, things appeared to take a turn for the worse. In the images subsequently posted to the account, Diouf is seen around a fire with “no food,” hot and sweaty during “two days walking” and then – worryingly – cramped in the trunk of a car “trying to cross the border.”

Diouf is also pictured on the run with two friends in Morocco, the beaming smile now decidedly gone from his face. And the next shot uploaded is scarcely less concerning, picturing a “really scared” Diouf as the group spend “all night rowing” in a dinghy.

That said, the effort has all been worthwhile, or so it seems, when the men take their “first step in Spain.” And yet the jubilant scene is followed up with a snap of Diouf being manhandled by police.

The epic journey apparently comes to an end with Diouf wrapped in a thermal blanket prior to being detained in a Centros de Internamiento de Extranjeros, or internment center. Then the final image shows him and his buddies trying to climb a fence, perhaps to freedom again.

Meanwhile, the comments alongside each image reveal the public’s divided attitude toward Diouf’s images. One commenter, neatly summing up one line of argument, simply wrote, “Get the f**k out of my country.”

Others, though, were more sympathetic toward the ordeal depicted. “Good luck and my respect for your courage,” wrote one commenter on Diouf’s final image. “I’m so moved by your story,” revealed another.

Such emotional investment, however, would not be rewarded, as on August 3, 2015, the Abdou Diouf account was unveiled as a hoax. Rather incredibly, the sometimes harrowing pictures were actually part of the promotional campaign for a Spanish photography festival.

The man who played the part of Diouf in the photos, meanwhile, was unveiled as Hagi Toure. And while Toure is in fact from Senegal, he legitimately migrated to Spain over a decade ago. He currently hopes to be a professional handball player.

Meanwhile, the Instagram account and an accompanying video also posted online were in fact the work of Spanish production firm Volga and Barcelona-based art studio Manson. These outfits were hired for the job by the GETXOPHOTO photography festival, which takes place yearly in Getxo, Spain.

The brief given to the creatives was to raise awareness of the festival and start a discussion around the way in which photography is utilized in contemporary culture. Furthermore, since the theme of GETXOPHOTO 2015 is travel, the pictorial story of an illegal migrant was deemed to fit the bill perfectly.

What’s more, the process of actually producing the film and pictures seems as though it was surprisingly straightforward. The assignment’s directors included one Tomás Peña, who used his own iPhone to capture the images in settings within and in the vicinity of Barcelona.

As for the ultimate aim of the project, well Peña told Spanish newspaper El País that it was designed to “denounce the western frivolity” of continually taking self-portraits as well as “the fact that something hasn’t been lived if it hasn’t been shared.”

Volga’s Oriol Caba, meanwhile, told Time magazine that the production company believed the story was “strong and powerful.” GETXOPHOTO also released a statement declaring that the campaign acted “as a reflection on the way we process and share images of displacement and migration.”

But not everyone was so pleased with the hoax account. Photographer and blogger Lewis Bush, for instance, wrote that it was “irresponsible, exploitative and cynical marketing” that “potentially undermines future attempts to highlight the plight” of migrants.

In addition, in the wake of the hoax’s unveiling, Hagi Toure made his real Instagram account private – perhaps in an attempt to keep a low profile, or maybe to distance himself from any resulting furor. Peña told The Huffington Post that he believed Toure simply wanted “to keep his life, to get some quick cash and to keep doing sport.”

Oriol Caba, however, explained to Time that the media coverage that the Diouf account received took even Volga by surprise. Somewhat defensively, he added, “I think the necessity of selling, having hits and being the first to publish is lowering the standards of news.”

For his part, Peña hasn’t attempted to pass any blame onto the press who covered the account without checking its veracity first. Instead, he has attempted to justify the project, saying to The Huffington Post that it was intended to get people to “think about” the migrant crisis. Nonetheless, he also emphasized, “We are not here to find solutions… We are not politicians.”

From a promotional point of view, though, it’s fair to say that the scheme has worked, even when the backlash is taken into account. After all, media outlets around the world have covered the hoax and, by extension, the GETXOPHOTO photography exhibition – notwithstanding the fact that the publicity surrounding it hasn’t always been positive.