Fact Check: This Is NOT An Original Photo Of Barack and Michelle Obama

Warped Photo

Is this a photo of Barack and Michelle Obama as a young couple? Not really. The original photo of the Obamas has been manipulated, intentionally distorting the features of Michelle Obama to make her appear masculine.

The manipulated image appeared in a post (archived here) where it was published on October 10, 2020, under the title "Barry & Michael back in the day...".

This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Oct 12 18:37:05 2020 UTC)

This original color photo was not seen online until it was posted on January 17, 2019, by Barack Obama himself. He included the photo in a birthday greeting to his wife from his verified Instagram account. Many publications picked up on this story and published articles that same day, BusinessInsider.com wrote an article: "Obama shared an adorable throwback picture to celebrate Michelle's 55th birthday" Barack Obama's greeting said:

I knew it way back then and I'm absolutely convinced of it today -- you're one of a kind, @MichelleObama. Happy Birthday!

View this post on Instagram

I knew it way back then and I'm absolutely convinced of it today -- you're one of a kind, @MichelleObama. Happy Birthday!

A post shared by Barack Obama (@barackobama) on Jan 17, 2019 at 7:02am PST

The manipulated picture first appeared in reverse image search results on October 10, 2020. The manipulated picture has color adjusted to a higher saturation, changing the skin tones orange. A distortion effect has been applied to Michelle Obama's face and neck. This photo-editing distortion tool not only changed the features of her face but also slightly warped aspects of the surrounding area.