The Swiss-Photo jury revises its decision to award the prize
It is not Roshan Adhihetty but Christian Bobst who wins the prize in the Reportage category. The jury’s original decision from January had to be revised because Roshan Adhihetty’s work was subject to a significant degree of artistic manipulation. The jury was not aware of the extent of this manipulation in January, and had they been, the result would have been different.
Every year, before the Opening Night, the organizers of the award invite photographers to present each other's works. Roshan Adhihetty elaborated on the artistic manipulations to his story about nude hiking. These range from staging, to specifying the exact pose of the hikers, to digital interventions involving the removal and insertion of people.
The jury in January was not aware of this extent of manipulation of the outstandingly coherent, artistic documentary work. An ad-hoc committee headed by juror Melody Gygax, Bildchefin Basler Zeitung and further consisting of Reto Camenisch, lecturer at MAZ; Gian Vaitl, photographer vfg; Romano Zerbini, head of Photobastei and Swiss Photo Award - vfg.selection realized Wednesday evening and after in-depth discussion that this work would have been judged differently and not awarded as the winning work with knowledge of the extensive artistic intervention in January.
Roshan Adhihetty's work, with its interventions, does not comply with the basic journalistic principles that must be self-speakingly demanded of a work entered in the category of reportage.
The prize has therefore been awarded by the juror to the work "Der Fels von Gnor" by Christian Bobst, Zurich. In his classic reportage work, Christian Bobst brings the world of this sport, its connection also to Woodoo rituals, its social embedding in the city quarters and its star cult and economic background closer along the main character, a Senegalese wrestler. In addition, it shows an Africa of heroes and thus sets itself pleasantly apart from the otherwise usual view of the continents.
You can find the awarded pictures here.
