© Korea Central News Agency

The photo of the funeral of Kim Jung-Il distributed by the Korean Central News Agency, the official news agency of North Korea, was stunning: Limousines driving in formation behind a giant portrait of the Supreme Leader, rows of mourners lining their route, snow whitening the ground, a giant North Korean flag billowing majestically at the top of the frame. It was picture perfect. Too perfect, apparently.

Today The New York Times Lens Blog compares the image from the official news agency with one taken at almost the same moment by a photographer with Kyodo News of Japan, and distributed by AP. Working with digital forensics expert Hany Farid of Dartmouth, they show that the image from Korean Central was Photoshopped. The Lens blog goes into lots of detail, showing (with several close ups) that some men standing on the sidelines with a camera were erased, replaced with cloned snow. (Read more about their analytical methods and see the photos here.)

Lens reports that the doctored photo had been distributed by European Pressphoto Agency, Reuters and Agence-France Presse (AFP) before the retouching was discovered by The New York Times (which had also, briefly, run the image on its Web site). Once Lens reported

Undoctored photo, © Kyodo News

that the photo was doctored, the three agencies issued kill notices, Lens reports. “This photo was altered from the source and not by AFP,” the agency noted.

Gee, if you can’t trust an official news photo from the government of a secretive nation with a history of repressing journalism, who can you trust?

Maybe the agencies can be excused for not anticipating that such a stage-managed spectacle would be doctored. The retouching doesn’t seem politically motivated, as in all those airbrushed photos from Stalinist Russia. Why would a North Korean photo editor go to the trouble of Photoshopping out a few anonymous figures?

The Lens blog offers one explanation: “totalitarian esthetics.”

“With the men straggling around the sidelines, a certain martial perfection is lost. Without the men, the tight black bands of the crowd on either side look railroad straight.” When it comes to stage-managed spectacle, symmetry is all.

Two months after she settled a copyright suit brought by photographer David LaChapelle, pop singer Rihanna once again has the blogosphere in an uproar. Recently, a LiveJournal blog posted screenshots from her new video, “You Da One,” alongside images by photographer Sølve Sundsbø. The scenes from the video show Rihanna in a bowl-cut wig wearing what appears to be a nude bodysuit with the shadows of various shapes projected on to her body. The shots are remarkably similar to editorial work Sundsbø has done, which Fashionista reported appeared in a 2008 issue of Numero magazine. Neither Rihanna nor Sundsbø, who is represented by Art+Commerce, have released statements regarding these latest accusations.

Earlier this year, Rihanna was sued by LaChapelle for copyright infringement, who claimed scenes from her video “S&M” borrowed heavily from various sadomasochistic images he’s made. The two reached an out-of-court settlement agreement, the terms of which were not disclosed.

Related articles:

Rihanna Settles Lawsuit with David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle Sues Rihanna for Infringement

An Ethiopian court has declared Swedish photojournalist Johan Persson and reporter Martin Schibbye guilty of supporting terrorism and entering the country illegally, according to an AFP report.

“Guilty as charged, period, unanimous vote,” the judge declared, according to the AFP story. The judge added that just because Persson and Schibbye are journalists doesn’t mean they didn’t engage in “criminal acts.”

“They have not been able to prove that they did not support terrorism,” the judge reportedly said.

Prosecutors are calling for 18-year jail terms, and sentencing is scheduled for December 27. (Editor’s note: See update, below.)

Persson and Schibye were arrested last July in the Ogaden region of the country. Ethiopian troops are currently fighting rebels in the oil-rich region and the government has barred journalists from the area. Schibbye and Persson, who is represented by the Swedish photo agency Kontinent, gained access to Ogaden with the help of a group of rebels that the Ethiopian government classifies as terrorists. Persson and Schibbye admitted at trial they had entered the country illegally, but vehemently denied they were aiding the rebels.

The ruling against them was handed down despite the evidence they presented to establish their bona fides as journalists, and despite prosecutors’ admission that video footage used against the journalists had been doctored (the footage reportedly was altered to make the journalists look as if they had been engaged in military training with the rebels).

Calling on Ethiopian authorities to release the journalists, Tom Rhodes, an East Africa consultant for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), says Persson and Schibbye were just doing their jobs. “Their trial is politicized and designed to curb any reporting on the sensitive Ogaden area.”

Amnesty International and the Swedish government have also called upon Ethiopian authorities to release the two journalists.

CPJ says Persson and Schibbye aren’t the only journalists to be charged by the Ethiopian government with serving as messengers for “terrorist” groups. A total of ten journalists have been charged  “with trumped up terrorism charges” since June 2011, according CPJ.

Update: A court in Ethiopia sentence Persson and Schibbye to 11 years in prison on December 27, the Swedish Foreign Ministry announced. Though the sentence was lighter than the 18-year sentence the prosecutor had sought, a spokesperson maintained the innocence of the journalists. “It is not fair that they are sentenced since they are journalists on a journalistic mission.”

©Larissa Sansour

The Musée de l’Elysée abruptly cancelled the 2011 Lacoste Elysée Prize for photography, protesting the decision by prize sponsor Lacoste to exclude one of the finalists. Lacoste, meanwhile, has announced that is “has decided to cancel once and for all its participation in this event and its support for the Elysée Prize.”

Lacoste reportedly objected for political reasons to a project by finalist Larissa Sansour called “Nation Estate,” which was inspired by the recent Palestinian bid for nationhood at the United Nations. Lacoste said in a statement today that Sansour’s work did not fit the contest theme, and denies it excluded her for political reasons.

Click here to read the full story.

This year, organizers for the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International Convention and Trade Show invited their headlining speakers and renowned industry leaders to express what WPPI means to them. They got a lot of great videos in response to the request, but one of our favorites was done by Melbourne, Australia-based Jerry Ghionis. Inspired by the recent Old Spice commercials, check it out to find out what WPPI means to him.

Prosecutors have decided not to “issue any tickets” against a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel photographer arrested while covering an Occupy protest near the University of Wisconsin last month, the newspaper has reported.

It is unclear from the report what grounds prosecutors may have had–if any–for issuing tickets.

The photographer, Kristyna Wentz-Graff, was arrested while photographing the protest November 2, and taken to a police station in downtown Milwaukee. The Journal Sentinel reported at the time that she was arrested “without warning [and] without being told why she was being arrested.”

In video footage that circulated online showing a police officer grabbing Wentz-Graff and handcuffing her, the photographer’s press credentials were clearly visible, and she was carrying two cameras–one with a very large lens. (A still photo of her arrest can be seen here.) Bystanders also reportedly told police she was a working journalist as they arrested her.

Under criticism for the arrest, and protest from the Journal Sentinel, police said at the time they had no idea she was a journalist until after they arrived with Wentz-Graff at the police station.

The mayor of Milwaukee reportedly said shortly after the arrest that it was clear to him from the video footage that Wentz-Graff was a journalist, and he added, “I very much support her First Amendment right to be there.”

Related: Pictures of Photog’s Arrest Force Police Accountability

© Shikhei Goh

A close-up photograph of a dragonfly weathering a rain storm in Indonesia’s Riau Islands earned photographer Shikhei Goh the $10,000 grand prize in the 2011 National Geographic Photography Contest.

In a statement, National Geographic magazine photographer Tim Laman, who was one of three judges for the competition, celebrated the photograph’s “beautiful light, rare action in a close-up image, as well as its technical perfection.” Goh’s photograph also won first prize in the “Nature” category.

A photograph by Izabelle Nordfjell of a Sami reindeer hunter preparing to take a shot while his son covers his ears won first prize in the “People” category, while George Tapan’s image of
a rainbow stretching out over the ocean off of the Philippines’ Onuk Island received first prize in the “Places” category.

These photographs were selected from more than 20,000 images submitted by professional and amateur photographers from more than 130 countries.

Galleries of the winning images and honorable mentions are online here.

The other judges were National Geographic magazine photographers Amy Toensing, and Peter Essick.

Over on PDNOnline we’ve gathered together the biggest photography news stories of 2011, a year marked infringements on the rights of photographers, by sticky legal cases whose results will be felt long into the future, and by tragedy. The 15 stories we highlighted were the most-read news articles and blog posts on PDNOnline and PDN Pulse this year.

Which of these stories do you think was the most important news story of the year? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Deadlines are approaching for several competitions that give you a chance to have your work seen by photo editors, curators, and others in the industry.

Magenta Foundation Flash Forward 2012
Open to US, UK and Canadian photographers under the age of 34. Winners and honorable mentions will be published in the catalogue of the competition, and be featured in June at an exhibition in Boston and at the biennial Flash Forward festival in Toronto in October. The winner of the Bright Spark Award will receive $5,000.
Fee: $50 US and Canada; £40 UK
Judges: Julien Beaupré Ste-Marie, Photo Editor, enRoute Magazine; Erin Elder, Manager, Business Development & Partnerships, Digital Media, The Globe & Mail; J.J. Kegan McFadden, Director/Curator; PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts; Erin Stump, Erin Stump Projects; Diane Smyth, British Journal of Photography, London; Stefanie Braun, Senior Curator, Photographers’ Gallery; Francesca Sears, Director of Profile, Panos Pictures; Holly Stuart Hughes, Editor, Photo District News; Daniel Cooney, Daniel Cooney Fine Art; Paul Moakley, Deputy Photo Editor, TIME; Lisa Botos, 0oi Botos Gallery, Hong Kong; Sujong Song, independent curator and publisher, Korea
Deadline: Dec. 31, 2011
www.magentafoundation.org/submissions/submit.php?project=11

Center for Photography Woodstock’s Photography Now
Winners will be exhibited at the Center for Photography at Woodstock’s main gallery from March 10 to April 22, 2012. Fee: $50 for 6 images ($30 student/senior; proof of status required); $60 for 10 images; $100 for 20 images.
Judge: Natasha Egan, director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago.
Deadline: Jan. 20, 2011.
cpw.org/CurrentOpportunities/PhotoNow/pages/PhotoNow_EXH.html

World Press Photo 2012 Multimedia Contest
Open to production teams who have produced or first published a multimedia production in 2011 of up to 20 minutes in length with a journalistic storyline and professional still photography.
Judges: To be announced.
Deadline: Register by January 25, 2012
multimedia.worldpressphoto.org/

The PDN Photo Annual
Winners of this juried competition are featured in the June issue of PDN and on PDNOnline; more than $15,000 in cash and prizes available. Entrants have the opportunity to submit work to the Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture, which comes with a $15,000 prize. Photographers will also be chosen for the Marty Forscher Fellowship Fund prize and the Sony Emerging Photographer Award.
Fee: $45 single entry; $55 for series; $25 for students; discounts for PhotoServe Members.
Judges: So far, they include fine art dealers, ad agency creatives, magazine photo editors; a preliminary list  can be found at http://www.pdnphotoannual.com/index.shtml.
Deadline: Jan 25, 2012.
www.pdnphotoannual.com/

American Photography/American Illustration
Winners are included in the annual large-format AI-AP books distributed to art directors, photo editors, designers and art buyers.
Judges: To be announced in January.
Deadline: Jan. 27, 2012
www.ai-ap.com/cfe/

2012 CENTER Awards
There are three awards, and each include different prizes and selection criteria.
Project Competition: Honors photographers working on documentary and fine-art series.
Prizes: $10,000 cash, an exhibition at Center, publication in Fraction magazine, admission to Review Santa Fe.
Fee: $35 members/$45 nonmembers.
Judges:  Greg Hobson, Curator of Photographs, National Media Museum (UK); Paul Moakley, deputy photo editor, TIME;  Christopher Steighner, Senior Editor, Rizzoli Publications Inc.

Project Launch: Honors works in progress.
Prizes: $5,000 cash, exhibition, publication in Fraction magazine, admission to Review Santa Fe and more.
Fee: $25 members/$35 nonmembers
Judge: Virginia Heckert, Associate Curator, J. Paul Getty Museum

Choice Awards: The annual awards for outstanding photographs in three categories.
Prizes: Exhibition at CENTER, publication in Fraction magazine, gift certificate to Singer Editions fine-art printing.
Judges: Ashley Givens, assistant curator, Victoria & Albert Museum (Curator’s Choice); Jamie Wellford, senior photo editor, Newsweek Daily Beast (Editor’s Choice); Stephanie Braun, senior curator, The Photographer’s Gallery
Fee: $25 members/$35 nonmembers; or enter all three categories for $60 members/$75 nonmembers

Deadlines for all three competitions: Jan. 30, 2012
www.centeryourcareer.org/2012/center/awards/faq-general.html

A number of US photographers may be able to collect royalties they never knew were owed to them, thanks to the efforts of the Authors Coalition of America to collect payment for photocopies of works by US authors that are made in foreign countries.

The ACA has published a royalty distribution list that names dozens of US authors–including some photographers–who are eligible to collect royalties. The list doesn’t say how much each author is eligible to collect, but those listed can fill out forms and contact the ACA about collecting the money.

The list, along with instructions for collecting payments, is posted here on the ACA Web site.

Among the photographers whose names appear on the list are Sam Abell, Walter Bibikow, Andrew Hetherington, Corinne Day, Philip Lorca di Corcia, Gary Hershorn and others.

The ACA is one of 22 author organizations in the US that formed a coalition in 1994 to receive and distribute royalties for photocopies of copyrighted works that are made in foreign countries.

The ACA says on its web site that the royalty collection system originally did not identify authors individually, so the royalties were “used for the benefit of authors” by the 22 organizations that received the royalties. Starting in 2007, however, the ACA began receiving so-called “title-specific” royalties for “visual materials authors.” That means the individual authors are identified in some cases, so the ACA is able to disburse those royalties to the identified authors.