Photographer cooperating with forensic investigation; Israel says bias ‘comes with the territory’
The 2013 World Press Photo of the year by Paul Hansen (photo credit: AP/Paul Hansen, Dagens Nyheter)
On November 20, 2012, during
Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip, Swedish photojournalist
Paul Hansen snapped a powerful image depicting the funeral of two
Palestinian children. Three months later, it was chosen by World Press
Photo as its picture of the year.
“The strength of the [picture],” noted
World Press Photo jury member Mayu Mohanna on the winning image, “lies
in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the
innocence of the children. It’s a picture I will not forget.”
The photograph in question,
taken by Hansen for the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, shows the
funeral procession of Muhammad and Suhaib Hijazi. Angry men fill a
narrow alley as they carry the wrapped bodies of the small victims. The
siblings were killed along with their father in an Israeli airstrike
responding to Palestinian rocket fire.
But the prize-winning photo, entitled “Gaza Burial,” was a bit too perfect, it seems.
On February 15, the day the prize was
announced, observers started questioning the veracity of the photo. A
commenter on the British Journal of Photography website pointed out that
the lighting led her to believe the image was photoshopped.
Expert analysis followed. Forensic image
specialist Neal Krawetz published a comprehensive study of the photo,
finding that it was “significantly altered.” Looking at the size of the
image, Krawetz states that, at the very least, the image was cropped
considerably.
He then examined the save history of the
photo, and concluded that, based on three separate conversions of the
photo, it is actually a composite of three images. “This is what you
typically see when a picture is spliced,” he noted.
The lighting in the image was likely
significantly enhanced as well. Dark shadows would have spread across
the late afternoon funeral, and highlights on the mourners’ faces do not
match the position of the sun.
Krawetz also points out that the manipulations
took place primarily on January 4, two weeks before the World Photo
Awards’ January 17 submissions deadline. It was modified one more time a
day after Hansen was announced as the winner. “I can tell you,” writes
Krawetz, “that the controversial picture is definitely not original.
Moreover, it appears to have been modified specifically for this
contest.”
Hansen insists that the photo captured the
auspicious lighting in the alley, and that he did not alter the image.
However, he failed to present the digital original of the photo, or RAW
file, to the awards ceremony on May 1, saying that he simply forgot to
bring it along.
Though some enhancing of colors in
journalistic images is generally permissible, the type of manipulation
of which Hansen is accused crosses the line.
The Associated Press’s standards guide states
that the “content of a photograph must not be altered in Photoshop or
by any other means. No element should be digitally added to or
subtracted from any photograph… Minor adjustments in Photoshop are
acceptable…[to] restore the authentic nature of the photograph. Changes
in density, contrast, color and saturation levels that substantially
alter the original scene are not acceptable.”
Other press agencies have similar guidelines.
“Paul Hansen has previously explained in
detail how he processed the image,” World Press Photo told The Times of
Israel. “World Press Photo has no reason to doubt his explanation.” The
organization added that it has asked two independent experts to carry
out a forensic investigation of the image file, with Hansen’s full
cooperation.
“Paul Hansen has previously explained in
detail how he processed the image,” World Press Photo told The Times of
Israel. “World Press Photo has no reason to doubt his explanation.” The
organization added that it has asked two independent experts to carry
out a forensic investigation of the image file, with the full
cooperation of Hansen.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson
said that unlike other places in the Middle East, Israel welcomes
journalists and is proud to be open to media scrutiny. “We aren’t
particularly happy about some of the bias against us, but that comes
with the territory we live on and the fact that we’re an open,
democratic society. This particular case seems to be more a question of
professional photography ethics than anti-Israel bias,” he told The
Times of Israel.
Boston University historian Richard Landes, who writes about media coverage of the Middle East at The Second Draft,
sees this incident as part of a larger pattern. “These manipulations
and forgeries — what I call ‘Pallywood’ — take many forms. In its most
extreme, staged scenes, Syrian babies presented as Palestinian victims
of Israeli aggression, make it into the Western press. This incident is
more akin to the photoshopped scene of Beirut in 2006 when the Reuters
photographer added plumes of smoke.” Landes called these instances “a
systematic manipulation of Western empathy.”
“This incident is inexcusable,” added Landes. “The Reuters journalist was fired on the spot.”
The relevations about Hansen come as the
Newseum in Washington, DC, “reevaluates” its decision to honor two
Hamas-affiliated cameramen in Gaza killed in an Israeli airstrike in
November 2012 as journalists who died in the line of duty.
As of May 14, Hansen’s photograph was still
prominently featured on home page of World Press Photo website. The
organization did not respond to requests for comment.
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