JDMvW Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 <p>The German magazine<em> Der Spiegel</em> has an English-language article on the revocation of the award and on limits of reality and photography:</p><blockquote><p><strong>Italian photographer Giovanni Troilo won the World Press Photo Award in February, but it was revoked in March. The city he portrayed, Charleroi in Belgium, complained that his photos were more fiction than reality. Where should the line be drawn?</strong></p></blockquote><p>http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/world-press-photo-award-revocation-spurs-debate-a-1024744.html</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelChang Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 <p>Couple of links showing the photo:<br> <a href="http://robchaney.net/world-press-photo-strips-giovanni-troilo-of-his-first-prize-win-for-misrepresenting-photo/">World Press Photo Strips Giovanni Troilo of His First Prize Win for Misrepresenting Photo | Lop Rabbit Photography</a><br> <a href="http://petapixel.com/2015/02/26/town-accuses-photographer-of-staging-his-shots-that-won-world-press-photo/">Town Accuses Photographer of Staging His Shots That Won World Press Photo</a></p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJHingel Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 <p>It was stage staged scenes presented under the category of documentary photography. There is surely no scientific and objective line to draw between the two, but in this case it seems to me to be uncontested. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Helmke Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 <p>In the days before Photoshop this is what I had to be careful of in the news business. I could burn and dodge all I wanted to and play with lighting and contrast but straight news was straight news and it wasn't hard to figure out. I have to agree with the comment along the lines of manipulation not always coming in the post-processing phase. There are some good examples of that in this article which somehow offend me more that the digital abuses we often see today in journalism. I think this photographer has a problem with Belgium.</p> <p>Rick H.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJHingel Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 <p>Rick, maybe his choice of the city of Charleroi (or other former coal mining area cities around, like Borinage or La Louvière) and their ancient Italian immigrant families (50000 wItalian workers arrived in the end of the 1940s) was not totally random. The photographer is Italian. Belgium in general was not the subject, I would think.<br> Maybe, one could indeed say that these staged photos of people in Charleroi tell a story that might be closer to "reality" than any documentary photo rapportage would be able to tell. As we all know staged photography is not just phantasy land. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim_Lookingbill Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 <p>If those series of "documentary" photos were displayed out on a table with no one telling me a thing about them I wouldn't have any idea what, when, where, why and how they were taken which I believe doesn't even rise to levels of journalistic integrity.</p> <p>In fact if no one mentioned they were meant as "documentary" photos I would've defined them as mere tonemapped and color stylized stock photography. Frankly I have less faith in World Press in how they choose who gets a photography award than I have in the photographer in question. </p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJHingel Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 <p>And yet, Tim, World Press seem have taken a correct decision in withdrawing the price, in this case.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplumpton Posted March 25, 2015 Share Posted March 25, 2015 <p>I applaud the decision of the World Press. It is clear that Contemporary Issues is a category that is not meant to be art or fiction but instead an honest, balanced and perceptive recording of the human existence (I know not the exact rules for the category, but assume that they are in line with these suppositions), something which Giovanni Troilo has ignored.</p> <p>History is seldom perfectly objective and often subject to distortion or incomplete account, but a good historian uses a methodology that is as objectively neutral as possible. When history is portrayed in a different manner sometimes the effect on the reader can be greater. Troilo has made some points by misrepresenting reality. He is far from being alone as a reporter or actor within contemporary society, but he should not be given a prize that is meant to document reality.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim_Lookingbill Posted March 26, 2015 Share Posted March 26, 2015 <blockquote> <p>And yet, Tim, World Press seem have taken a correct decision in withdrawing the price, in this case.</p> </blockquote> <p>So someone can influence World Press's judges?! I don't think that's sweetening the pot.</p> <p>Do any of these judges perform any due diligence or do they just look at a photo and wait for the "all warm and fuzzy" feeling as a go ahead on their decision?</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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