"There was nothing in the rules of the competition to say that rigged photos were banned. We pushed the clichés to the limit."

June 26, 2009 8:14 PM

This year's winner of the Grand Prix Paris Match du Photoreportage, a stark B&W expose of student poverty in Strasourg, is a hoax.
posted by grounded (31 comments total)

The two students, from the Strasbourg School of Decorative Arts, were handed their €5,000 cheque, which was later blocked by Paris Match.

That seems to really be tacky, you know?

Applause to the students. The main stream media is corrupt and incompetent, and they need their noses rubbed in it every once in a while. They're far too comfortable and need to be afflicted. (As the old saying goes.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:22 PM on June 26

Looking at the photos, and knowing they're staged, you can almost hear the kids laughing, going "gosh, we're putting it on too thick -- they'll never fall for that!"
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 8:26 PM on June 26

I'll bet there's a little addition to the rules next time around.
posted by echo target at 8:40 PM on June 26

Oh, le snap.
posted by uosuaq at 8:42 PM on June 26 [15 favorites]

"We pushed the clichés to the limit. We thought the whole thing was so hackneyed that it could never win

Heh.
posted by delmoi at 8:55 PM on June 26

The main stream media is corrupt and incompetent, and they need their noses rubbed in it every once in a while.

Seriously, I can't stand the phrase "mainstream media." Who are we talking about here? News Corp? The New York Times? Washington Post? New Orleans Times-Picayune? Anderson Cooper? Or just everything that isn't some random blog on the Internet?

And the students who faked photographs are the vanguards of good journalism?
posted by Garak at 8:59 PM on June 26 [3 favorites]

And the students who faked photographs are the vanguards of good journalism?

No, they're at the vanguard of making fun of Paris Match; not exactly rocket science, but good for a chuckle.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 9:01 PM on June 26

In Paris they call it "Le Royale with cheese."
posted by GuyZero at 9:50 PM on June 26

And to see why one might want to have a bit of fun at the expense of Paris Match: I give you Carla "No, I haven't been a French citizen for years, I swear" Bruni (slightly NSFW; the more risqué ones are from before her mariage to Sarkozy), French first lady and perpetual cover subject.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 10:04 PM on June 26

Not being able to read the captions, I would say some of those images could have been real, based on my experiences in college. I knew architecture students who lived in their lab spaces, taking showers in the gym and keeping all their possessions in a little footlocker. If you spend the majority of your days in the lab, and you take naps in the lab furniture, why pay for rent and utilities? You pay tuition for the facilities, right?
posted by filthy light thief at 10:17 PM on June 26

Applause to the students. The main stream media is corrupt and incompetent.

Chocolate Pickle:

Mainstream is one word and you should have written that the media are corrupt. Media is a plural word, if you want to talk about competence.

What do you mean by corrupt? Is it that they accept money for their work? That's not always an indication that people who are earning a living are "corrupt." Workers deserve their wages.

posted by longsleeves at 10:28 PM on June 26 [1 favorite]

To give our non-French speaking friends some context, here's my translation of the first few captions.

*shot of a building*
Strasbourg in 2008: the largest university in France, where study is sometimes a synonym for insecurity.

*student in a class, looking out of a window*
"Often, at night, closing, I've had to throw students out. I know it's not easy for them, but I have no choice" -- Gérard, agent de service

*Student sleeping at the back of an auditorium*
"Don't let appearances fool you: it's not necessarily those we'd think suffer from insecurity that do. When, by happenstance, I saw one of my students walk the streets, I was shocked." -- Pierre, member of the faculty.

*Man sleeping in a car.*
I've been in conflict with my family since I was 16. I have no scolarship nor help from my parents. I've always known how to get by" -- Armin, 23, socioly MA.

*Man doing push-ups.*
"I'm a night watchman, so I've had to give up boxing; I keep training wherever and whenever I can. Thankfully I just got an intership in the US, as long as I can get my sociology MA" - Armin, 23, sociology MA.

*Men "dumpster diving"*
I can't go to the restaurant universitaire (food court) every day, and I don't like going to the Restos du Coeur (soup kitchens). So I take leftovers from supermarkets and give some to friends who let me cook at their place" -- good old Armin.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 10:42 PM on June 26 [1 favorite]

As for the rest: the guy in the sleeping bag lives in an apartment so small, they take turns sleeping on the ground. One of the three girls with hands in their faces is pregnant. The girl in boots in a corridor is a prostitute. The sleeping man works as a bouncer in Germany for 50 Euros a night. The man looking in a mirror works as a waiter to send money home. The men studying are "working with brothers from the country". The woman in the basement hasn't found a place in student housing, so she and her friends are renting the basement. A shape in the shadow and a man on a toilet: they realize some kids are far far worse off than they are: no job, no education, no hope.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 10:53 PM on June 26 [1 favorite]

So does this mean we can print these out at billboard rez and use them to decorate our apartments?

bien fait les mecs!
posted by mwhybark at 10:58 PM on June 26

"j’ai eu un choc," meme comme Plastic Bertrand, n'est ce pas?
posted by mwhybark at 11:00 PM on June 26

Also, the choice of theme (besides being easy to do for students), may be related to the fact that the 1966 situationist pamphlet On the Poverty of Student Life (fount of all easily accessible knowledge) originated the University of Strasbourg, where this was shot.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:04 PM on June 26 [1 favorite]

"sans boulots ni études. Sans espoir." seriously, the captions are funny!
posted by mwhybark at 11:08 PM on June 26

Là zing (is that how you say it?)
posted by mattoxic at 11:11 PM on June 26

Good insight, Monday. Is the banner in the last shot a Situationist reference? This whole thing would have Debord (and maybe Malcolm) denouncing and analyzing like a maitre de philosophie.
posted by mwhybark at 11:11 PM on June 26

The students said later that their teachers had approved the fake reportage. "There was nothing in the rules of the competition to say that rigged photos were banned," M. Hubert told Le Monde.

You're entering a photojournalism contest, I'd think ethical reporting of events as they actually happened would have been implied.
posted by Mitheral at 11:15 PM on June 26 [1 favorite]

Yeah, but the contest is sponsored by the French equivalent of Us weekly. (Ok ok there are some more serious articles; but look at the covers!)
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 11:20 PM on June 26

Well, they're still good photographs, right?
posted by Afroblanco at 12:09 AM on June 27 [1 favorite]

What do you mean by corrupt? Is it that they accept money for their work? That's not always an indication that people who are earning a living are "corrupt." Workers deserve their wages.

Corruption is not earning money, but being guilty of dishonest practices, as bribery; lacking integrity; crooked. If a reporter or news agency is paid how and when to report (or not report), they are corrupt. They are then an ad agency, not reporters.

There's corruption, then then there's media laziness: reporting what they are told is the truth, without doing background checks and the like. But US Weekly is not a news outlet, but a way for celebrities to share their feelings with the world. If Paris Match is similar, then there probably aren't any in the staff who consider themselves investigative journalists.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:12 AM on June 27

Paris Match is slick magazine of pictures of celebrities, so I guess that one could say they don't do investigative journalism.

But can't investigative journalism include investigating what celebrities do in the summertime?
posted by longsleeves at 12:29 AM on June 27

Media is a plural word, if you want to talk about competence.

err...

Media, like data, is the plural form of a word borrowed directly from Latin. The singular, medium, early developed the meaning “an intervening agency, means, or instrument” and was first applied to newspapers two centuries ago. In the 1920s media began to appear as a singular collective noun, sometimes with the plural medias. This singular use is now common in the fields of mass communication and advertising, but it is not frequently found outside them: 'The media is (or are) not antibusiness.'

posted by delmoi at 12:59 AM on June 27 [1 favorite]

I'd think ethical reporting of events as they actually happened would have been implied.

Well, at least the pictures were only staged, not retouched. (Just to say that "ethical reporting" and "Paris Match" don't go well in the same sentence.
posted by Skeptic at 2:28 AM on June 27

Strasourg? It's German, for "a whale's vagina."
posted by hypersloth at 2:48 AM on June 27

> Mainstream is one word and you should have written that the media are corrupt.

You're taking someone to task over typos? You should be ashamed of yourself.

Media is a plural word, if you want to talk about competence.

You're wrong, and should avoid discussing other people's competence.
posted by languagehat at 6:16 AM on June 27 [1 favorite]

Dumb hoax or post-hoc justification for lazy work.. Either way, these photos are boring.
posted by Nelson at 7:46 AM on June 27

"There was nothing in the rules of the competition to say that rigged photos were banned," M. Hubert told Le Monde.

"There was nothing in the rules of the competition to say that riding the subway to the finish line was banned" Rosie Ruiz told The Boston Globe.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:34 AM on June 27

The main stream media is corrupt and incompetent, and they need their noses rubbed in it every once in a while. They're far too comfortable and need to be afflicted. (As the old saying goes.)

FTFY. A week where internet "news" sources helped propagate a number of hoaxes probably isn't the time to have blinders to the flaws of non-mainstream sources.
posted by Amanojaku at 5:33 PM on June 27