The New York Times has accused a UK-based photographer of digitally manipulating images, forcing it to remove photos from its website after apparent detective work by a member of the public.
Adam Gurno was browsing a slideshow of images captured by Bedford-based photographer Edgar Martins that depict abandoned construction projects.
Gurno claimed that the award-winning photographer had used image manipulation software to ‘mirror’ one side of a house shown in one of the pictures.
‘At the top there was a tiny bit of wood and it sort of set off an internal alarm. We built our house a few years ago? The angle on it seemed a bit unreal and it kind of made me say “I don’t know, I think these are kind of fake”,’ Gurno is quoted in a blog.
In an Editor’s Note (pictured) posted on its website after removing Martins’ photo essay, the New York Times wrote: ‘The introduction said that the photographer, a freelancer? “creates his images with long exposures but without digital manipulation”.
‘A reader, however, discovered on close examination that one of the pictures was digitally altered, apparently for aesthetic reasons.
‘Editors later confronted the photographer and determined that most of the images did not wholly reflect the reality they purported to show.’
Martins, who is believed to be travelling, could not be reached for comment.
NEWS ALERT 14 JULY: Photographer responds to manipulation accusation
The images appeared in the New York Times Magazine and online.
The photographer’s work has been exhibited and published worldwide.
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