A photo of National Geographic magazine posted on Instagram has provoked a storm of controversy among Almaty residents, Tengrinews reports.
A photo of National Geographic magazine posted on Instagram has provoked a storm of controversy among Almaty residents, Tengrinews reports.
©shaulschwarz
Once the photo was posted on the Instagram account of National Geographic magazine on April 3 by Shaul Schwarz, it immediately drew attention of the townspeople, who were outraged that the picture captured not a best part of the city and thus, misconstrued the true image of Kazakhstan's Almaty.
One of the Instagram users wrote: “Almaty is a very beautiful city with amazing nature and architecture. Why did they choose this photo? Did they do it on purpose?”.
In response to this photo, Almaty residents began to post photos capturing the most beautiful places and views of their hometown with #truealmaty hashtag.
Around 200 photos were uploaded over one hour and now there are more than 1,000 of them.
While many Almaty residents were expressing their resentment, other people said there was nothing to be outraged with, because this photo showed the reality and there was no reason to feel aggrieved.
“They did the right thing when they posted the photo depicting the worst part of the city. Maybe, it will bring some change. They should have photographed the bad roads we have, for example, Kuldzhinsky road,” another Instagram user said.
Meanwhile, the conductor of the #25 bus Yerkinbek Yessenbekov that appeared on the photo said he did not remember the moment when he was photographed.
"My sister saw the picture on the Internet and told me about it. Well, of course, it is interesting how it turned out. I do not even know what to say. Everyone calls me now and tells about it, many people write to me. I do not really remember the moment when I was photographed,” a 32-year-old conductor said.
Writing by Assel Satubaldina