French college apologises after making white students 'look black' on US website

A French art college has apologised after it emerged that a photograph of white students had been edited to make some students "look black".

The bizarre move was apparently intended to broaden the college’s appeal in the US.

The fail was exposed after former students of the private Émile Cohl art school, in Lyon, discovered that a photo from a group visit to a gallery had been edited and posted on on a promotional website for the college.

In the original picture, none of the students were black, but in the edited version, there appear to be several black students. As well as three faces being darkened, two people of colour were also added to the picture, which has since been removed.

Social media users criticised the fact that the college would rather manipulate photos than admit black students.

Antoine Rivière, the college director, said that one of the photographs had been doctored without the school’s knowledge:

We had sent a certain number of documents to an American communications agency in order to highlight our college

This is the opposite of what Émile Cohl represents

H/T: The Guardian

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