World Press Photo Second Prize Contemporary Issues Category, Singles. Photo by Ronghui Chen, China, City Express
The National Press Photographers Association and World Press Photo
plan to hold a symposium later in 2015 to talk about ethics in
photography, following news that 20% of the photos entered in the World
Press Photo contest were disqualified after reaching the penultimate
round, due to digital manipulations of some sort being discovered.
Meanwhile, the NPPA has called on the photographers disqualified from
the contest to release their photos to the public.
The news was revealed by the NPPA over the weekend. Says its
President Mark Dolan, in part, "The news that so many final entries in
World Press were disqualified because of digital manipulation is
staggering, and it obviously raises concerns about entries in our own
contest." He has praised World Press for requiring its finalists to
produce RAW files for examination, and has hinted that the NPPA might do
the same in the future.
For now, however, the two organizations are looking to get together
this fall – possibly at Columbia University, though it hasn’t yet
confirmed whether it will host the event – to discuss photography
ethics. Dolan is calling for sensible discourse in the community,
saying, “…rather than accusing, I believe what we need to be doing is
questioning - WHY is this happening and, more importantly, WHAT can we
do to change it?”
World Press Photo’s Lars Boering, managing director, also commented
on the planned symposium, and he wants to see it touch on more than just
ethical considerations. "...it all needs to be discussed, including
manipulation, and what the industry thinks is still okay as far as
working on the files. It will be a follow-up discussion to the one we
will have about this during the World Press Photo Awards Day in
Amsterdam in April. And it should go beyond World Press and the
photographers as well, because we've realized that a lot of publishing
houses are also looking into this, because it's not only the
photographers who work on the files but also the art departments as
well.”
As to whether the disqualified photographers will release their
photographs to the public, Boering doesn't believe it will happen:
"NPPA's statement today calls on them to make it public if they want
to, but I don't think they will because it might be very harmful to them
and I don't think people should be punished for making stupid mistakes.
It's a difficult lesson, and one they've already learned."
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