This story truly is bizarre as the title on the Digital Journalist feature says.
Some weirdo apparently wanted his claim to fame and resorted to stealing works from several photographers and passing them as his own. For years if not decades no less! But that’s hardly news at all no matter how long he was doing it, it happens way too often. No, no… when he died The New York Times, The Tennessean, American Photo, The Boston Globe and other media outlets bought this fake story and ran his obituary praising his exceptional work and showing photo(s) that someone in those organisation should have recognized as stolen. But no…they didn’t.
It was Gary Haynes, a retired UPI photographer, who recognized the real author and contacted NYT the next morning (aug. 15) yet they still haven’t published a statement, correction or apology.
Head over to TOP for another take on this.
UPDATE
Tyge O’Donnell, son of the photographer whose work is being scrutinized, tries to explain the situation in an email to the Editor & Publisher journal.
Back in the mid-1990s, Dad made a trip to the National Archives and found what he thought were some of his unaccredited photos // In my fathers mind, in the state he was in from the 1990’s onward until his death, he honestly thought it was his photograph // Whether young and partying or old and going senile, your mind can convince you of things if you let it… or if you want it to. If you’ve ever seen how senility and Alzheimer’s can deteriorate a person, you would understand.
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