French magazine Paris Match was the victim of a hoax, as this year's winners of its Photojournalism Award revealed they had faked their images.

Every year Paris Match, which remains one of the last weekly magazines to give predominant space to photography, organises its 'Grand Prix Paris Match du Photoreportage', dedicated to photojournalism projects. This year the award, which comes with EUR5000 cash prize and ten pages in Paris Match, was awarded to two students attending Strasbourg's university of decorative arts.

won with reportage chronicling the harsh poverty some students encounter while studying at university. Their images showed students living in basements or offering sex to pay their rent. Another image portrayed a young man falling asleep in a bus as he embarked on a two-hour commute to his university.

But as the two photographers received the coveted prize, they announced that the images had been faked. 'We thought it was a bit caricatural,' says one of the students to Le Monde newspaper. 'We thought it would never win.'

The contest's terms and conditions don't forbid faked reportages - something likely to change next year. However, Paris Match has withdrawn its cash prize, offering it to the two students' university instead. The weekly magazine, which is now warning readers that the images have been faked, has also announced that next year's cash prize will be increased to EUR10,000 as a result of this year's 'fraud'.

© Incisive Media Ltd.
2009

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