Spot the difference

• Source: Global Times
• [22:46 January 10 2010]
• Comments

Left: Original photos by Meng Tie. Right: Award-winning photos by Sang Yuzhu.

By Chen Rui and Zhu Shanshan

Asked why photographers cheat, Xu Lin said it was all a gamble.

"When money and ambition are involved, people throw themselves into it," Xu said. "They toss all their chips on the table and hope the public won't notice and catch them out.

"If they win, they stand to make money and gain prestige. The problem is how to slash the odds of success."

The Internet is making such gambles riskier by the day, he noted.

The latest Jilin Province headline-grabbing photo scandal should not be characterized in the media as an isolated blemish on the industry, Xu said.

"It's a fight – a fight for reform," he said.

People's Daily senior editor Xu first received an e-mail at the end of last year alleging the winning entry in the nation's top official photography contest was copied.

A photographer for 43 years, Xu recognized if Sang Yuzhu's set of 2009 Golden Mendel Award-winning photos were faked it would represent the greatest scandal yet in an already-tarnished industry.

The e-mail in his in box had come from Shen Jishuang, son-in-law of Lang Qi, a photographer who works in Northeast China: when a touring exhibition arrived at Changchun, capital of Jilin, four of Sang's 10 winning photos looked familiar.

That was because the four had already been published in a photo album by Wen Bo, a member of Changbai Mountain Photographers Association in Antu county, Jilin, and Meng Tie, who works for the Changbai Mountain Management Committee.

Xu studied both sets of pictures and could see no difference at all.

Xu, 65, considered his next move for a few days. Finally on January 6, he posted all the photos on his blog and invited comments.

The post received more than 10,000 clicks and 600 comments in three days. Some praised Xu's courage but most denounced Sang, vice president of the Jilin Photographers Association, as a cheat.