S1 – E10 – Competition Corruption Part II

Above Photo: Marcio Cabral

EP 010: Competition Corruption Part II

Show Notes

PART II

Still on the topic of photography competitions, Mez and Toby zero in on the entrants, and boy oh boy, are there some stories to be told here. It seems there are no limits to the lengths some people will go to in order to get ahead in the game, from the smallest comps to the most prestigious in the photography world. When money and prestige is the reward, play gets dirty very quickly, and even anteaters aren’t safe!! What? Trust us … just listen.

Disqualified Winners:

Nikon Photo Awards – Photoshopped plane into scene – https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/nikon-photo-contest-fail/ 

Photo: Chay Yu Wei
Shaun Ho via PetaPixel
Render Brant
Glenn Guan
Photo: Marcio Cabral
Photo: Natural History Museum Brazil

Lisa Saad – AIPP photographer of the year, found to have allegedly used stock photography in many of her image composites despite claiming it was all her own work, and also allegedly stole images from other photographers to use in the photo montages. Follow the story on Photo Stealers – https://stopstealingphotos.com/lisa-saad-photographer-melbourne-australia/  

Source: Peta Pixel / Black & White Original Photo: Marcel van Balken
Photo: Lisa Saad (and others it appears) / Source: Photo Stealers

World Press 2015 – set up scenes by a finalist. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/arts/design/world-press-photo-revokes-prize.html 

‘The investigation discovered that one of the pictures was instead taken in Molenbeek, a borough in Brussels about 60 km (37 miles) away from Charleroi. Troilo later confirmed the photo was taken at a different location.’

Photo: Giovanni Troilo

2016 – 16% of finalist disqualified https://procounter.com.au/2016/03/03/manipulation-strikes-wpp-again/ 

“Up to 20% of World Press Photo entries that made it to the penultimate round of the contest were disqualified after they were found to have been manipulated or post-processed carelessly, the Dutch organization has confirmed.” – Time

https://time.com/3706626/world-press-photo-processing-manipulation-disqualified/

Photo: Paul Hansen. Source: Peta Pixel
Stepan Rudik’s 2010 3rd Place winning entry was disqualified for excessive burning that eliminated a foot in the background.
Photo: Stepan Rudik

HIPA photo winner in Vietnam begs the question of what are the ethics when photographing people living in poverty.  

https://petapixel.com/2019/03/18/the-winning-photo-of-the-120k-hipa-prize-was-apparently-staged/

Original Photo: Edwin Ong Wee Kee

Show Credits

Click Click Bang Bang: A Photography Podcast is written and produced by Meredith Schofield and Toby Forage.

Edited by Toby Forage

Music by Simon Figliuzzi

Brand design by dingdingding.co

Thanks also to Sean Brokenshire and Bandit for their help in the studio.