Prize photo 'phoney' claims dismissed

Claims that this year's World Press Photo of the Year winner was a fake were dismissed by experts, after allegations against Paul Hansen's prize image publicly surfaced on Monday.

Forensic image analyst Neal Krawetz claimed that the image, Gaza Burial, had been significantly altered, judging by the history of the changes made to the final image with the Photoshop editing software.

Krawetz's conclusion was that Hansen had stitched together three versions of the scene, of a group of men burying two children killed in an Israeli air raid, to create the prize-winning image.

One website suggested that Hansen would possibly have to return his prize. With the growing controversy, World Press Photo appointed two experts to analyse Hansen's image.

Computer scientist Hany Farid, and forensic scientist Kevin Connor concluded that Hansen had used "a fair amount of post-production" but they ruled out any suggestion that the image had been spliced together, as suggested by Krawetz.

Hansen said his picture was not a fake and that there had only been "toning and balancing of uneven light" after the image was captured in an alleyway.

But yesterday Krawetz, on his blog, stated the analysis and Hansen's admission proved his argument that the original image had been altered, although it was not a composite.

Veteran Cape Town photographer Benny Gool said the image looked as if it had been enhanced.

"But I don't think someone would enter a fake image into World Press Photo [due to the scrutiny]," said Gool.

He proposed that the pressure on Hansen could also be politically motivated as the image had cast the Israeli government in a bad light.