Roby Lazar asks to what extent can a photographer import sections of external imagery into their own work, so that the resulting image becomes a completely new work in its own right?

Writes Roby, Recently, the organisers of a major photographic competition reaffirmed a rule that photos with a ‘dropped in sky’ were not acceptable, because the sky may not have been originally photographed by the entrant.

When entering any competition, the photographer submits their work in accordance with the T & Cs of that particular competition, but what about the big picture? What if I dropped my own sky into the composition? Is it not my photograph? How can this be demonstrated when entering the competition?

It is also noteworthy that a number of national and international photographic competitions have dropped their nature sections for a similar reason, because it’s so difficult to know if the entry is totally of the maker’s creation and complies with the rules. Has the image been altered, even though the competition’s T&Cs are very clear that it shouldn’t have been?

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