Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Is This Ukraine War Photo A Fake?

(Click on Image to Enlarge)
Photographer Dmytro Muravskiy has stood by this photo -- and is threatening to sue his detractors

Amos Chapple, Radio Free Europe: War Of Words Over Ukraine 'Combat' Photo

It could be one of the greatest war photographs ever taken – or a fake.

A controversy is escalating in Ukraine over a photo that seems to capture the conflict with Russia-backed separatists in a single frame. It shows two soldiers carrying a wounded comrade down a dirt road as an explosion rips up the ground behind them, sending smoke into the sky. An empty baby carriage stands near a blown-out building by the road.

But a group of Ukrainian photojournalists is crying foul over the photo by Dmytro Muravskiy, who works with the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

In an open letter published this week, they contend that the photograph was staged and call it part of a “clumsy” attempt by the ministry to engage in an information war with Russia.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I do not know if this photo is a fake or not .... but I have learned over the past two years to not trust anyone in this conflict .... photos included.

6 comments:

RussInSoCal said...

^^^ Thought this thing was bot-proof. /

James said...

Perhaps I missed something. I didn't see anything in the article that was evidence of a fake. Their are problems with the photo.

Jay Farquharson said...

You have to go to Russian Media, if you want the "proof" the Ukrainian photojournalists cite as "proof" the photo was faked.

Unknown said...

I am no expert on photography, but can someone with a trained eye simply look at that picture and determine that it is fabricated?

Jay Farquharson said...

Yup.

Perspective is off, ( warped by a telephoto lens), the blast is too "Hollywood", rocks are "raining down" showing the shutter speed was faked, and shrapnel would have killed not only the subjects, but the photographer, long before the blast would have thrown up rocks.

Unknown said...

Cool. That was my initial assessment as well. I would think at that proximity the soldiers and camera person would sustain some injuries. If anything I would think the camera person would duck. Thanks for the reply.