When Reality Isn’t Dramatic Enough: Misrepresentation in a World Press and Picture of the Year Winning Photo

© Paolo Pellegrin

“What happens when a World Press Photo and Picture of the Year International award-winning photograph doesn’t show what it purports to show? Not through a mistake of interpretation or subjective opinion, but when the facts show the photo wasn’t taken where it was claimed to be taken and when the subject of the photo isn’t who the photographer says he is. What happens when a city is represented through photographs bearing photographer-written descriptions almost wholly plagiarized from a 10 year old New York Times article?  Does it make it worse when the photos and the series in question, “The Crescent, Rochester USA 2012”, have won multiple awards and the photographer is Magnum’s Paolo Pellegrin?”

Disturbing reading. But there may be a reasonable explanation. Read it in full over on Bag News Notes, by Michael Shaw.

And see previous post here linking to Jim Johnson’s unease with Magnum’s Rochester visit, for a bit more background.

*Adding this link to subsequent comments from Paolo Pellegrin on NPPA to clarify the situation.

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