Is this the most controversial image of the Twenty-First Century?

Troilo and The World Press Photo awards — As The World Press Photo awards withdraw a prize awarded to Italian photographer Giovanni Troilo for his image of a painter and subjects in Belgium, we are left to question what's really real in photojournalism?

Awards are usually courted by a fair amount of controversy. In fact that’s mostly what they’re good for. You get a whole industry, and surrounding community, to sort of analyse where a subject’s at and usually some great issues are addressed, some great conclusions are made.

And so the World Press Photo awards have fulfilled their duty to photojournalism this year in sparking a great debate about ethics and honesty in the discipline. The catalyst? This striking NSFW image by Italian photographer Giovanni Troilo.

LaVilleNoire_web_07_695x565

Submitted to the awards as part of his series The Dark Heart of Europe, Troilo claimed this image of a painter and his subjects was shot in Charleroi, Belgium, where the whole series was claimed to have been shot. Independent investigations have since revealed that the image was in fact shot in Molenbeek, in Brussels. More damning still, is the accusation that many of the photos in Troilo’s award-winning collection are also staged.

Troilo admits the location details were wrong, claiming an honest mistake, but vehemently denies staging any of the images. The World Press Photo awards have since withdrawn Troilo’s prize amid growing pressure from the photojournalism community – a respected French photojournalism festival Visa Pour L’Image went as far as to ban any World Press Photos from its festival this year to protest the prize.

Whether Troilo made a mistake or he intentionally misled his audience is up for debate. What’s interesting is how difficult that will be to prove either way. All photography carries an element of ambiguity to it. There is no such thing as a truly honest photograph. Every part of the process, from what the photographer chooses to capture and what they choose to omit, to the wants and desires of the subject, and the stance of their editor. There are multiple truths and you cannot represent them all in one image.

“All photography is fiction,” Joerg Colberg, who runs Conscientious, an editorial website about contemporary fine-art photography, once wrote in British Journal of Photography. “As a photographer you make choices, which influence the photograph enough for it to be more of a fiction than a fact. That’s photography for you. That’s just the way it is. But the photojournalist’s task, no actually the photojournalist’s duty is to minimise the amount of fiction that enters her/his photography. We are quite aware of the problem in the news context, so we expect photographs in this context to be as truthful as they can be.”

In the second documentary photography special issue of Huck, released in October last year, photography writer Oliver Laurent commented that: “A work of fiction can be as powerful, if not more, as reality.” But quoted photographer Tom Jamieson in saying as long as “you’re open with it”.

Even Lars Boering, who recently took over as managing director of World Press Photo, is acknowledging the grey areas. “We have to look hard at the ways photography is changing,” Boering told BJP yesterday, March 5. “It seems some people are confused about what journalism is and where documentary photography starts. Everybody is talking about art photography [in which images can be manipulated and staged with no issue] but while documentary photography can be art, it is not by definition [the same thing]. To go from documentary photography to art is a big step, and there needs to be a step in between which is about personal storytelling. That is a whole new area, and a very interesting and exciting one, but we have to understand its relationship to photojournalism in a more traditional sense.”

It might not be suitable for the prize, but it seems Troilo’s photograph is challenging us all to reconsider the definitions of truth and objectivity in images in general, which can only be a good thing.

Careful what you believe.


Latest on Huck

Smiling person in black wetsuit riding surfboard on calm ocean with rocky hills in background.
Sport

Maryam El Gardoum is breaking new shores for Morocco’s indigenous surfers

The Amazigh Atlantic — Through her groundbreaking career and popular surf school, the five-time Moroccan champion is helping women find their places in the waves.

Written by: Sam Haddad

Dimly lit underground carpark, long winding corridor with concrete walls, floor, and pipes above.
Activism

Youth violence’s rise is deeply concerning, but mass hysteria doesn’t help

Safe — On Knife Crime Awareness Week, writer, podcaster and youth worker Ciaran Thapar reflects on the presence of violent content online, growing awareness about the need for action, and the two decades since Saul Dibb’s Bullet Boy.

Written by: Ciaran Thapar

Colourful embroidered jackets worn by two people, with skateboarder visible in background. Bright colours and graphic designs on the clothing.
Sport

Volcom teams up with Bob Mollema for the latest in its Featured Artist Series

True to This — The boardsports lifestyle brand will host an art show in Biarritz to celebrate the Dutch illustrators’ second capsule collection.

Written by: Huck

Black and white image showing a group of shirtless men socialising, some laughing.
Culture

A visual trip through 100 years of New York’s LGBTQ+ spaces

Queer Happened Here — A new book from historian and writer Marc Zinaman maps scores of Manhattan’s queer venues and informal meeting places, documenting the city’s long LGBTQ+ history in the process.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Four persons - three women and one man - posing outdoors. The women are wearing elaborate clothing and jewellery.
Culture

Nostalgic photos of everyday life in ’70s San Francisco

A Fearless Eye — Having moved to the Bay Area in 1969, Barbara Ramos spent days wandering its streets, photographing its landscape and characters. In the process she captured a city in flux, as its burgeoning countercultural youth movement crossed with longtime residents.

Written by: Miss Rosen

A person wearing a black cap and holding a sign that says "What made me"
Music

Tony Njoku: ‘I wanted to see Black artists living my dream’

What Made Me — In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s avant-garde electronic and classical music hybridist Tony Njoku.

Written by: Tony Njoku

Huck is supported by our readers, subscribers and Club Huck members. It is also made possible by sponsorship from:

Signup to our newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter to informed with the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture, featuring personal takes on the state of media and pop culture from Emma Garland, former Digital Editor of Huck, exclusive interviews, recommendations and more.

Please wait...

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.