controversial

In September 2015, Turkish photographer Nilüfer Demir came across the body of 3-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi on a beach. Her photo of Kurdi's body spread across the world, drawing the world's attention to the migrant crisis and becoming a symbol of the widespread suffering.

This month, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei decided to recreate that haunting photo by posing for a picture while lying face down on a pebbled beach in Lesbos, Greece. The resulting photo, captured by photographer Rohit Chawla for India Today, is now drawing both praise and criticism.

Corbis Images announced last week that it has sold its massive collection of photos -- one of the largest archives in the world -- to the Chinese company Visual China Group, which struck a deal with Getty Images to have Corbis images sold exclusively through Getty.

As many photographers wondered about the future of their images and paychecks, Getty Images co-founder and chairman Jonathan Klein took to Twitter to celebrate his success in getting Corbis' images.

44-year-old South Korean photographer Ahn Se Hong has won his lawsuit against Nikon over the cancellation of his 'comfort women' exhibition. The Tokyo District Court ruled last Friday that Nikon must pay Ahn ¥1.1 million (~$9,150) in damages.

If you're a concert photographer looking to shoot Janet Jackson's Unbreakable World Tour 2015, you'll have to agree to some extremely strict terms for permission to do so. First, you'll only get 30 seconds total to shoot. Second, you agree to sign over all copyright to your photos.

Heads up: digital rights management (DRM) could be coming to the JPEG image format. That's right... the same kind of controversial technology that's currently being used to protect movie, music, and book copyrights could one day be used to restrict the usage of images, and that proposal has people up in arms.

Facebook has deleted a controversial page called "Project Harpoon," which posted photos of plus-size models and celebrities next to Photoshopped versions showing what they would look like if they were thinner. The page gained thousands of fans during its short existence, but it also attracted a loud outcry from the public and from the women seen in the photos.

Photographer Vanessa Hicks is fighting back today after being chastised and harassed online for using an American flag as a prop during a baby photo shoot. It was a simple Facebook share that has gotten quite a bit of national attention.

Flickr -- a site that sometimes seems like the punching bag of the photo community -- is again taking heat from photographers, this time over their recent announcement that people can select from millions of Creative Commons-licensed photographs to buy as wall art.

The photos are being sold for profit, but none of that profit will go to the photographers who took the shots, and some of these photographers are speaking up about what they see as an injustice.

While the CaNikon war is the usual debate in the photography world, they are by no means the only two camera manufacturers out there. With the rise of the mirrorless market and improvements to the sensors packed inside, a number of photographers are starting to make the jump to companies like Sony and Fuji, even for their more serious work.

The US Forest Service is under fire today after proposing a set of rules that would put strict restrictions on photographers and filmmakers who want to ply their trade in wilderness areas. The rules subject potential projects to an approval process with permits costing as much as $1,500 while fines for breaking the rules would run around $1,000.

If you've been following photography news -- and given you're reading this we'd say there's a good chance that's the case -- you've probably heard something along the lines of "Texas just legalized upskirting photography!" And while that's not entirely untrue, the facts are a bit less sensational.

Students at the University of York in the UK spent their graduation day yesterday Tweeting images of a controversial offer by school photo agency Success Photography.

When they went on the agency's site to select their graduation picture options, in addition to how many wallet size prints they wanted and whether or not they wanted a digital download, the site also allowed them to select "Digital Slimming" and "Digital Complexion and Smile Enhancement."

Photography and sports are easy bedfellows. As wonderful as it is to watch a goal unfold before your eyes on television, it's just as powerful to see a tack-sharp photograph of the look of dismay on the goalie's face as the ball soars past his or her outstretched arm.

But sports photography isn't just for capturing dramatic moments; sometimes it can affect the course of sports history, as was the case in 1989, after one of the most controversial games in the history of football.

Last week, Terry Richardson found himself at the center of yet another controversy when model Emma Appleton tweeted a screenshot that showed a crude message allegedly from Richardson himself. Whoever sent that message offered to exchange a Vogue shoot for sex, but it turns out that person wasn't Terry Richardson.

Well that was fast. Only a day after news broke of the controversial Massachusetts ruling that 'upskirt' photographs were in fact legal according to the states Peeping Tom laws, the state's legislature has responded by passing a ban.

Last night, Getty Images made a huge announcement that could forever change the way high quality images are shared on the Internet. Like Flickr before it, Getty is introducing an embed feature, essentially creating an "easy, legal, and free" way for people to share the majority of the agency's images in a non-commercial context.

Overland Park, Kansas became the focal point of many a photographers' ire this week when it was announced that, from now on, professional photographers would be required to purchase permits if they wanted to shoot in any of the city's public parks.

Victoria's Secret model, mother, and wife to Hollywood star Orlando Bloom (for now... I'm still hopeful) Miranda Kerr landed in some seriously hot water with the Internet-at-large recently after posting a clearly Photoshopped photograph of herself to her Instagram account.

One of the things big time photographers are phenomenal at is getting their subjects to trust their judgement implicitly. Of course, how far does that trust really go? Well, in the case of celebrity photog Tyler Shields and actor Zachary Quinto, that trust meant Quinto being willing to be dragged behind a car at 40mph.

The dust has barely settled from the Instagram policy fumble, but it looks like parent company Facebook might be in for a similar upheaval.

The company's recently proposed changes to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Data Use Policy -- which were supposed to take effect on the 5th -- have been delayed after users and privacy groups alike have voiced serious concerns.

VICE Magazine has withdrawn from it Web site a photo series depicting famous female authors committing suicide, after the piece drew widespread criticism for being "breathtakingly tasteless."

A young Israeli soldier sparked outrage around the world and Web this past week after uploading an ill-advised photo on Instagram. The photo, pictured above, shows the back of a young Palestinian boy's head in the crosshairs of 20-year-old Israeli sniper Mor Ostrovski's rifle.

A new controversy is brewing in the world of stock photography. Just last month, it came to light that Getty had agreed to license 5000 of its stock photos to Google while paying the creators of the images a meager one-time fee of $12. Now, one of Getty's most successful stock photographers is claiming that his account is being terminated in the aftermath of the first hoopla.

American portrait photographer Gregory Heisler (whom we featured yesterday) is probably best known for his 70+ cover portrait photos for TIME magazine. One of his most famous portraits shows a double exposure, "two faced" photo of President George H.W. Bush. The photograph, shot entirely in-camera, was used as the first TIME "Person of the Year" cover photo.

In 2011, photographer Michael Wolf was awarded Honorable Mention in the World Press Photo 2011 contest for …

During the 9/11 attacks in NYC, Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker shot what is perhaps the most controversial image created that day: a photo that appears to show a group of young people casually enjoying themselves while the World Trade Center burns in the background. Hoepker kept the image under wraps for four years and then caused quite a stir after publishing it in a 2006 book. Columnist Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times that "The young people in Mr. Hoepker’s photo aren’t necessarily callous. They’re just American."

French photographers organization Union des Photographes Professionnels (UPP) launched a controversial new advertising …

Remember the hoopla last year after artist/programmer Kyle McDonald installed an app on …

Early in 2011, there was a brouhaha after newspaper photographer Jay Westcott …

Clothing retailer H&M has sparked quite a bit of controversy after admitting that most of the models featured on …

After seeing a video on YouTube of an Indonesian toddler who smokes 40 cigarettes a day, Belgian photographer Frieke Janssens decided to respond to a general smoking ban introduced in her country recently with a series of photos showing children smoking.

You've probably heard the expression "It's the photographer, not the camera", but apparently Nikon -- or at least one of its PR people -- hasn't. A few hours ago the company updated its Facebook page with,

A photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses, and a good lens is essential to taking good pictures! Do any of our facebook fans use any of the NIKKOR lenses? Which is your favorite and what types of situations do you use it for?

Needless to say, the post was met with quite a bit of disagreement in the comments.

Kodak uploaded a video to YouTube recently thats been causing quite a bit of controversy. It’s a talk by …

Last November NYC firefighter Robert Keiley posed for a stock photograph that showed him covered with soot and holding …

Spanish sports daily AS was forced to publish an apology earlier this week …

Earlier this week stock agency FotoLibra received an email from English Heritage (the public organization that manages historical sites) that read,

We are sending you an email regarding images of Stonehenge in your fotoLibra website. Please be aware that any images of Stonehenge can not be used for any commercial interest, all commercial interest to sell images must be directed to English Heritage.

After the email and a strongly worded response was published to the FotoLibra blog, the story was picked up by Boing Boing, which then published a story titled "English Heritage claims it owns every single image of Stonehenge, ever". Needless to say, there was a pretty swift public outcry.

News agency Reuters is being accused of biased reporting after it was discovered that photographs released by the agency had …

Danish-Norwegian artist Nina Maria Kleivan has come under fire for a series of photographs in which she dresses up her year-old daughter Faustina as some of history's most evil figures. The series, titled "Potency", has been shown in exhibitions around Europe, and is meant to explore the nature of evil.

Last year the Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition dealt with controversy when …