It’s the most subtle difference but the distinction is significant.
In one image, a woman wearing a headscarf appears to walk “casually” past the scene of an unfolding terror attack, staring down at her phone in apparent ignorance.
That image, from Westminster Bridge on Wednesday where a car had only moments earlier mowed down pedestrians, was shared widely on social media.
Mid-stride, she stared down at her phone. Here it is:
The subject of the photograph was globally shamed. Twitter user Texas Lone Star was the first to post the picture online, with the hashtags #PrayforLondon and #BanIslam.
She accompanied her post with the caption: “Muslim woman pays no mind to the terror attack, casually walks by a dying man while checking her phone.”
Others used it as propaganda to spread their own anti-Muslim sentiments. They suggested she didn’t care about the attack that left five people dead and many more injured.
The freelance photographer who captured the image said on Friday there are two sides to the story. Photographer Jamie Lorriman defended the woman in a scathing attack towards those who criticized her.
He said those on social media who used her to make wrongful assumptions should be ashamed. He said a series of images he captured on Wednesday showed she had more emotional depth than what was being reported.
This second image says it all.
Mr Lorriman said the second image in the sequence shows her in a clearly emotional state, with distress written all over her face.
“In the other picture in the sequence she looks truly distraught … personally I think she looks distressed in both pictures,” Lorriman told the ABC.
“The people who took on that picture are being rather selective,” he said.
“To assume she was ignoring someone is impossible to know, the look on the woman’s face, she’s horrified, she’s in the middle of a traumatic situation.
“She probably just wanted to get off the bridge.
“I feel so sorry for the woman in the picture. If she’s seen this, she must feel awful.”
For all the criticism, many rushed to the woman’s defense on social media.
Lone Star Texas was called out by user @rashedalyoha, who pointed out that nobody is shaming a white man in a similar picture who “did the same thing”.
Another user, Barbara Davis, said: “Can no one see why a Muslim woman wearing a head scarf might be worried for her safety at that point? The white guy not so much”.
RogueBennyBen put everything in perspective with this comment: “who knows what they were doing. Plenty of people involved. May even have been told to walk on. Judgment not needed”.
The suspect in the attack was shot and killed by police, but not before he stabbed hero cop PC Keith Palmer to death. On Friday he was identified as 52-year-old Khalid Masood, a former English teacher who was named Adrian Russell Ajao.
This article was originally published in news.com.au