In the RAW

Photomouth looks at real or fake – The authenticity of photographs has always been a major consideration but with more and more advanced digital imaging software and a perception that images online are free, it is a difficult area to police, both for photographers and photo competitions like TPOTY.

I’m left wondering whether respect for the creative process, and particularly for photography, is diminishing rapidly, maybe even a thing of the past. So what is making me think this? I have to put two hats on to fully answer that; my photographer hat and my TPOTY hat.

Over the years we’ve seen some pretty shocking attempts to dupe both myself and the award judges, including one entrant who had simply photographed images in a newspaper and entered them as their own!  No doubt other awards also face similar difficulties. 

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Published

By Chris Coe

Chris is a professional photographer, and the founder of Travel Photographer of the Year. He has been working as a professional photographer since 1992, shooting both editorial and advertising photography, and has published over 50 books. He lectures on and teaches photography, mentors and is a competition judge.