staged

Federal agents staged an elaborate fake murder photograph to catch a man who they suspected of plotting to kill two business associates to avoid millions of pounds in debt.

A Swedish photographer has been using his photography to call for peace on Earth in an adorable way. His carefully staged scenes show anti-war squirrels communicating their message in a variety of ways.

An independent photojournalist who contributes to Getty has been accused of staging a photo of a child throwing a mask into a burning barrel during an anti-mask protest in Portland, Oregon.

I'm Martin from the All About Street Photography channel, and today I would like to talk about a photo taken by legendary war photographer Robert Capa -- a photo that is both very famous and also somewhat controversial.

Another year and another controversy for World Press Photo. This year, photographer Ramin Talaie raised questions about the authenticity of Hossein Fatemi who took 2nd place in long-term projects with his An Iranian Journey.

My name is Dirk Hardy. I'm a 27-year-old Dutch photographer currently based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. For the past eighteen months, I worked on a personal project called Void. After having lived and worked in New York City for six months a few years back, I developed an obsession for the elevator.

Wouldn't it be interesting if we had snapshots through the eyes of famous artists throughout history? The images could reveal things they saw, worked on, and were inspired by.

Italian photographer Dan Bannino just finished a new project titled "The Eye of the Artist" in which he recreates scenes of the lives of art masters... as seen through their eyes.

“World Press Photo is committed to supporting and advancing high standards in photojournalism and documentary photography worldwide.”

That's what the "About The Foundation" page on the World Press Photo says. Now follow this timeline of recent events.

We shared last week that the Belgian town of Charleroi was protesting after a series of photos casting it in a bad light was awarded 1st prize at the prestigious World Press Photo contest. According to the town's mayor, Italian photographer Giovanni Troilo had gone out of his way to stage shots for the purpose of painting the city as "The Dark Heart of Europe."

Today, after investigating the claims against the photographer, World Press Photo announced that it will be sticking by its decision on the controversial award.

Charleroi is a town of about 200,000 people in Belgium that has fallen upon some tough times in recent years due to increases in unemployment, poverty, and crime. Italian photojournalist Giovanni Troilo pointed his lens at the city last year, capturing a gloomy photo essay titled "The Dark Heart of Europe." The images were recently awarded 1st prize at the prestigious World Press Photo contest in the Contemporary Issues category.

The contest, which already got a black eye after 20% of the finalists were disqualified for unethical photo editing, has another messy problem on its hands: the town is accusing Troilo of staging his winning photos.

Bristol, England-based photographer Peter Thorpe has a special treat for his clients every holiday season. For the past 20 years, he has sent hilarious promo Christmas cards featuring his dogs as different animals in elaborate handmade scenes.

Think the above photo is showing a violent protest in the Middle East? Think again. The photo is in fact a screen grab from a video showing just how easily news photos of a 'violent protest' could be staged.

The mid-1800s was a busy time for photographic firsts. In 1838, daguerreotype inventor Louis Daguerre captured the first ever photo of a human being. One year later, in 1839, photograph pioneer Robert Cornelius stepped in front of his camera and created the first self-portrait. 1840 held yet another interesting development: the first hoax photograph.

You might recognize the photograph above. Titled Valley Of The Shadow Of Death and snapped by British photographer Roger Fenton in 1855, it's considered to be one of the oldest known photographs of warfare. Problem is, it might also be one of the oldest known examples of a staged photograph.

Here’s a fascinating video in which Italian photographer Ruben Salvadori demonstrates how dishonest …

You might not know this, but virtually all of the still photographs you've seen in the press showing President Obama announcing the death of Osama bin Laden are staged photographs. Reuters photographer Jason Reed wrote an interesting behind-the-scenes blog post on Monday, explaining:

As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff and asked to remain completely silent. Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of that teleprompter and the President then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us.

Apparently this has been standard practice during Presidential speeches at the White House for quite some time, and is meant to prevent the noise of camera shutters from interrupting the televised address. Despite the fact that news organizations try to disclose the nature of the photos in the captions, the fact that these photos are staged doesn't sit well with some folks.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how Annie Leibovitz went about shooting Kirsten Dunst …