Wednesday 3 March 2010

World Press Photo Disqualifies Photographer!


Today the World Press Photo announced that “after careful consultation with the jury, [it has] determined that is was necessary to disqualify Stepan Rudik, winner of the 3rd prize story in Sports Features, due to violation of the rules of the World Press Photo Contest."
Ukraine-based photographer, won the prize for his story "Street fighting, Kiev, Ukraine".
No doubt this will commence many discussions on the word manipulation and what is acceptable in the modern world. 

How did they know? The organisation added in their release: "Following the announcement of the contest results, it came to the attention of World Press Photo that Rudik's story had violated a contest rule. After requesting RAW-files of the series from him, it became clear that an element had been removed from one of the original photographs."

What was removed – apparently a foot. World Press added the new rule last year that "the content of an image must not be altered" ...... "only retouching which conforms to currently accepted standards in the industry is allowed".  


World Press Photo says: "In the opinion of the jury, the photographer ventured beyond the boundary of what is acceptable practice. Consequently, this judgment left World Press Photo no choice but to disqualify Rudik." 

So once again the debate of what is manipulated and what is not is bought to the forefront. What can and can’t we do in our new digital darkroom? No doubt a debate that will continue for a long time.

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