ONE OF THE winners of the World Press Photo award has been stripped of his prize amid allegations that some of the photos was staged.

Giovanni Troilo won first prize in the Contemporary Issues category for his series about urban decay on in the city Charleroi, ‘La Ville Noir – The Dark Heart of Europe.’

Some of the photos included shots abandoned buildings, locals ‘dogging’ in city parks at night and pictures from inside a psychiatric institution.

“A perverse and sick sex, race hate, neurotic obesity and the abuse of psychiatric drugs seem to be the only cures being able to make this endemic uneasiness acceptable,” the photographer wrote about the series on his website.

But several websites began questioning the authenticity of some of the photos with the Mayor of Charleroi also coming out in recent days against the series.

In a letter to the organisers, Paul Magnette disputed the portrayal of a photograph showing a bare-chested, obese man with the caption that he lived in one of the most dangerous areas of the city.

Magnette said the man was in fact a well-known local figure who ran a wine bar, and that the photo essay as a whole misrepresented Charleroi. “That is why we are asking you to consider withdrawing the award,” he wrote.

“He claims to be doing investigative journalism; a photo essay reflecting a simple reality. But this is far from being the case: the falsified and misleading captions, the travesty of reality.”

World Press Photo carried out an investigation into the claims and at first supported Troilo. They’ve now performed an about turn on that support and withdrawn the award from Troilo.

“The story was not in compliance with the entry rules and therefore the award must be revoked,” a statement last night said.

World Press Photo say they had discovered that one of shots was actually taken in Brussels.

“Troilo confirmed over telephone and email that the image had not been taken in Charleroi, contrary to what he submitted to the contest. This falsified information is a violation of the 2015 photo contest entry rules,” it said.

“Questions were raised about Troilo’s work that led to an investigation of the circumstances and the photographer’s work methods regarding a number of pictures,” said World Press Photo managing director Lars Boering.

The second-prize story about ‘Chollywood’, or ‘China’s Bollywood’ has been bumped up to first place.

With reporting from © – AFP 2015

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