On March 23, AFP photographer Patrick Baz stumbled upon a creative group of youths dressed as Superman and Batman while he was out and about in Beirut.
Mario Chiha (dressed as Superman) and his friends were preparing to shoot a campaign called @livelovebeirut, which aims to change people's image of their city, which many have compared to Gotham, the city where Batman lives.
"A while back, a group of young people decided that the image that most people have of Lebanon as a war-torn country wasn't accurate and set out to dispel it via a social media media campaign that they named @livelovebeirut.
"So they created a website, along with accounts in Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, where they post positive images and stories of their country," writes Patrick in his blog on the AFP website.
Patrick said that Mario - a somewhat well-known acrobat and a stuntman in Beirut - and his friends' superhero campaign was inspired by the newly-released Hollywood blockbuster "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," which at the time, was about to hit cinemas in Lebanon.
Naturally, Patrick asked if he could shoot them in action, and they were more than happy to let him in on the fun.
"People say Beirut reminds them of Gotham City, where the Batman character lives. When you look at the photos that I shot of the two comic book heroes, with the skyline in the background, it does sort of look like it," said Patrick.
The amazing photos caught the eye of international media, including the Washington Post and The New York Times.
"These kinds of images are the ones I’m always looking for. These sort of photos, of city life, of society, work really well. You can tell because the photos were splashed in The New York Times and The Washington Post. That caught all of us completely by surprise. Mario and his friends were so excited. They were like, “Yeah, we made it!,” Mario said.
