hat is a hoax photograph? What are they for, why are they done and what is the point of them? Can there be a legitimate place in photography for hoax pictures? Is a hoax photograph harmless, when does it become cheating and can it be a criminal act? I have questions. Writing for this magazine I’ve come across various hoaxes. Who can forget Jonas Bendiksen’s extraordinary , that hoodwinked the industry into thinking his documentary photographs of people from the eponymous town were legitimate? Researching for an article on ethics in wildlife photography, I came across photos of a frog riding a beetle, a snail riding a frog riding a turtle and five frogs riding a crocodile. These seemingly cute and funny hoax images were often cruel or deadly with subjects being glued, clamped, taped, wired, refrigerated, shaken or killed before being positioned for a photo. In 2010 the Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner, José Luis Rodriguez, was stripped of his prize after judges found he was likely to have hired a tame Iberian wolf
Fauxtography
Apr 01, 2023
6 minutes
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