This weekend Magnum photographer Steve Mccurry has been accused for manipulation some of his images. There have been at least three incidents where content of images have been removed to make Mccurry’s pictures look better.
Søren Pagter, head of the department of photojournalism, has been interviewed about the incident for the Danish daily, Politiken.
Today’s Politiken an interview with Søren Pagter about Mccurry’s manipulation.
The article is visualized with a before and after picture showing that two men, a lamp post and several things in the background have been removed.
In the interview Søren Pagter states among others things that the manipulations are a serious matter, which makes him angry.
“It seems as if the illusion of the perfect image is more important to Mccurry than the story and the people in his pictures”, states Pagter.
Søren Pagter also questions Mccurry’s statement that the incidents are the case of bad and wrong work by a lab technician.
“A professional photographer knows what he has photographed and how his pictures will look like. I’m sure Mccurry checks the quality of the work, when he gets copies and prints of his pictures”, Pagter says in the interview.