'My award-winning photo is no fake'

A tragedy wrapped in controversy. Image: Paul Hansen

A SWEDISH photographer has strongly defended himself against claims from a tech blogger that his gripping image, which won the prestigious 2013 World Press Photo of the Year, was a fake.

A "fraudulent forgery" was the bold phrase used by tech site extremetech.com in describing Paul Hansen's picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike in Gaza being carried to their funeral.

But speaking exclusively to news.com.au, Hansen said the "photograph is certainly not a composite or a fake".

"I have never had a photograph more thoroughly examined, by four experts and different photo-juries all over the world," he said.

The story in extremetech.com said that Hansen "took a series of photos - and then later, realizing that his most dramatically situated photo was too dark and shadowy, decided to splice a bunch of images together and apply a liberal amount of dodging (brightening) to the shadowy regions".

But Hansen said he had done nothing of the sort. Here's what he told us:

"In the post-process toning and balancing of the uneven light in the alleyway, I developed the raw file with different density to use the natural light instead of dodging and burning. In effect to recreate what the eye sees and get a larger dynamic range.

"To put it simply, it's the same file - developed over itself - the same thing you did with negatives when you scanned them."

It is not the first time the image has attracted controversy. When questions were asked earlier this year, the president of the jury which chose the winner, Santiago Lyon of the Associated Press, said:

"We are confident that the images conform to the accepted practices of the profession."

The World Press Photo rule pertaining to photo manipulation states:

"The content of the image must not be altered. Only retouching which conforms to the currently accepted standards in the industry is allowed."

Hansen's image still sits proudly on the website of the World Press Photo awards. News.com.au has contacted World Press Photo for comment.

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