Students are made to appear in black on the picture of the French art school

A French private art school apologized after one of its promotional images had been tampered with to include more black students.

The photo of a class trip in an art gallery was posted on an American promotional website for the Emile-Cohl School of Art in Lyon.

Students noticed that it had been modified to darken the skin of white students, black pupils being inserted numerically.

The school apologized and attributed this image to a US public relations firm.

Social media users have published comparisons of the original image and the modified version on Twitter.

On its website, a statement from the Collège Émile-Cohl indicates that the school was alerted for the first time by students. They say that it has been "retouched to change the physical appearance" of some students.

He removed the corrected image from the website and apologized to those concerned, "because it goes without saying that we disapprove of this process."

The photo was to be used as promotional material for a new college affiliate in Los Angeles.

The director of the college, Antoine Rivière, said in an interview with the French news magazine L'Express that the college sent several photos to an American communication company "to strengthen the reputation of our school there".

The picture was changed without their knowledge, he says.

"It's the antithesis of what Émile-Cohl represents," he told the magazine.

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