You may have heard of the scandal surrounding the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest held by the Natural History Museum of London, in which the winning photographer was disqualified after experts ruled he had used a stuffed anteater in his winning photo. The story has gained so much traction that even Conan O'Brien picked it up for a few laughs.
What made the scandal so bizarre is that normally with things of this nature, the issue is Photoshopping, which can be detected by requiring winners submit raw files to verify the authenticity of images. However, in this case, there was no digital doctoring; rather, wildlife experts concluded that the winner had taken a taxidermied anteater from the entrance of the park he was shooting in and posed it for the photo. The scandal has caused quite a stir in the wildlife photography community, so much so that even late-night comedy host Conan O'Brien picked up on the story, providing a pretty funny monologue on it that you can watch above. For his part, Marcio Cabral, the photographer at the center of the controversy, maintains his innocence and has said he simply wishes to move on from the scandal, which he claims has destroyed his reputation.
well at least it was a real anteater and not a stuffed animal toy :P
If I were Cabral (and I was innocent of course), I would spend the rest of my life trying to prove my point and save my reputation. If I succeeded, of course, it would require a public and worldwide retraction of the contest's organizers. I would never simply "move on." It is not just the reputation that is at stake, but ethics and honesty, too.
he is clearly guilty... period. even us "non anteater specialists" can tell it's the same animal.......
what did the rules say ? if he followed them he's good, if not he's not. simple.