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Photographer's nightmare: 'friend' claimed Burmese images as his own

When Kevin German discovered that someone he considered a friend had entered his photographs for an international competition he felt personally betrayed as well as professionally ripped off.

But, it wasn't just for the purposes of the competition his images had been used. German told the story on his blog as a warning about trust to all photographers and has allowed us to republish an edited version, along with his photographs, below.

Originally posted by Kevin German at Wandering Light: Whenever a photography injustice surfaces in the news, I can't seem to figure out what the perpetrator was thinking. Digital manipulation, falsifying information and copyright infringement. Which comes to my current situation.

On April 27, 2008, I spoke of a random encounter that got me very excited. A new friend who just happened to be from the same town in the United States where I grew up....

In May, my friend and I traveled to Burma together in hope of telling the story of the people affected by Cyclone Nargis. We were both a little paranoid about the military and he suggested that we bring only one computer with us for downloading and filing. I had no reason to distrust the man and so I brought my computer - and left it and the images unguarded. While the trip was a tremendous learning experience, it seemed to leave a sour note between us.

Fast forward to October 28. I emailed the UNICEF Photo of the Year competition south east Asia nominator asking him about the submission deadline. The following morning I received a phone call from the nominator asking me if my name was Kevin German. He then asked me if my name was that of my friend's. I said no - that was my friend. He said my friend had submitted a story about children living on the Burmese border. And after looking at my website, one of the images my friend submitted appeared to be the same image (pictured below).

I immediately told the nominator that he must be mistaken. My friend and I often photographed the same subjects and he would never take an image from me.

The UNICEF nominator seemed unsure of my response so I asked him to email me the photograph in question.

When I opened up the image sitting in my inbox, my girlfriend gasped and immediately recognized the Burmese monk. I was still hesitant to rush to judgment however.

There was something just a little bit off that I couldn't pinpoint. So I went on to my blog back to the May 24 posting: 'Burma'.

And there it was: a slightly different crop and color correction of the image. It was undoubtedly my photograph. I forwarded the blog posting to the nominator and he called back and said the following image (pictured below) was also in my friend's submission.

Now I knew there was no mistake about this image. My friend was not around me at the time this image was made. And furthermore, I was never allowed outside the city of Rangoon/Yangon due to the military sanctions on foreigners so these two images were taken quite far from any border of Burma.

Later that evening I received another email from the UNICEF nominator informing me that I should look at a photograph posted in my friend's  portfolio on VII Visionairies.

That image was also posted on my May 24 blog posting. But another two photographs were not posted on my blog (visit Wandering Light for screen grabs).

In fact these photographs were never posted anywhere on the web, so he [my friend] retains my original files.

At this point, the UNICEF nominator sent emails notifying the proper officials at UNICEF and also contacted my friend directly. The nominator wrote that my friend had stated that he was the sole owner of the photographs in question and he could prove this as he has the RAW files.

I began researching my friend right away. I found yet another photo of mine [from Myanmar] on his Flickr account. What really upset me about this image was the caption he wrote underneath:

"So precocious, such character, such presence, so little hope. This young girl lives with relatives after they helped her escape from a brothel in the Yunnan province (China) where she had been 'employed' since the age of 9."

This is a complete fabrication. Neither my friend nor I could speak Burmese or any dialect of Chinese. She was simply a girl doing what children do in a small neighborhood in Yangon.

This is when I finally confronted my friend. Several phone calls and an email. Nothing. Finally he wrote back a convoluted email showing anger towards me while being sure to state that he does not admit any guilt.

This issue is still up in the air and at the time of posting, all of the links [on original blog post] were still active. Resident lawyer at LUCEO IMAGES, Matthew Slaby, has helped me draft a cease and desist letter that I have signed and sent to my friend.

I have only one camera: a Canon 5D. Every time a RAW image is taken with this camera it records the serial number of that camera onto the metadata of the RAW file. I also have the original receipt from when I purchased the camera showing the matching serial number.

As of today, I have officially registered my entire online portfolio along with my entire RAW shoot from Burma with the US Copyright Office. I recommend all photographers do the exact same thing today.

The copyright website is a little confusing but you can upload several hundred images in a zipped file for only $35 (US).

And sadly, I will soon be watermarking my blog images. Hopefully with something that isn't too distracting.

This posting is not meant as a personal attack on anyone, but merely publicly setting the record straight. My 'friend' put my character as a photographer and as a journalist into questionable light. Please let this serve as a warning to all photographers. You have to protect your images.

Kevin German blogs at Wandering Light and his images can be seen at KevinGerman.com. All photographs courtesy of Kevin German 2008.

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photography | freelance journalism | online journalism | photos | kevin german |

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