Another example of MSM fauxtography? Something about this photograph by AFP's Marco Longari seems odd.
HonestReporting contacted veteran photographer and imagery advisor David Katz for a more professional assessment. There's no absolute smoking gun, but Katz raises some serious concerns.
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The motion of the toy: "When you throw something like that, the moving object blurs slightly. So I magnified the picture. If you look around the shape of the bunny and around the shape of the hand throwing it, there’s a difference in the pixels. I’m not making an accusation, but this is something that needs to be explained."
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The lighting: "The bunny looks too well lit. Judging from the look of the sky, I would expect part of the bunny in shadow. It looks too perfect. The chances of getting such perfect lighting in a natural setting is complete luck."
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The size and angle: "From where the photographer is standing, the size of the bunny is out of proportion to the size of the man throwing it. If he shot it with a telephoto lens, he wouldn’t have gotten the man and the bunny in such perfect focus from that distance. If he shot this with a wide angle, which looks most likely, everything would be in focus, but there’s a greater potential for distorting the angles and sizes. Even if the image was shot with a wide angle lens, in my opinion, it wouldn’t justify the size of the bunny that appears. Unless the bunny is coming right at the photographer, it would be somewhat smaller in relation to the man’s hand. But it’s difficult to be sure."
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The bottom line: "My gut feeling was that it was electronically manipulated. But I’ve seen situations where props like teddy bears or dolls were brought in and laid down next to a scene to create an effect. This brings to mind photos of Qana that included a Mickey Mouse doll. The pink rabbit is a child’s toy, and anything that smacks of a child is a cynical use of photography. It’s propaganda that Hamas wants, and the photographer is either going along with that in agreement or because he knows the image will sell."
HonestReporting contacted AFP for an explanation. We await their reply.
You can see plenty of examples of altered and staged photos, botched captions and props in MSM photojournalism which dominated our 2006 Dishonest Reporting awards.
