Australian photographer
Lisa Saad has been accused of using other people’s photos to compete in, and win, various photo competitions in in Australia, the United States and other countries.
The Australian Institute of Professional Photography recently disqualified an image from Lisa Saad’s winning portfolio in the 2018 Australian Professional Photography Awards (Commercial category). The American organization, WPPI, best known for its week-long annual event in Las Vegas, combining a major competition, educational seminars with an industry trade show, and networking events, has also taken action to strip Saad of all past awards.
This years event runs from 25 February through 1 March.
The recent post on the WPPI Facebook page indicated that they have decided to “rescind one member's past WPPI awards and Honors of Excellence points. She will not be permitted to enter any WPPI competition for 5 years.”
After their decision to rescind the awards last week, WPPI is taking a proactive approach with entries into its current competition, requesting that photographers provide additional support for their entries. A message posted on the WPPI Annual Facebook page, from Luke Edmonson, the current WPPI print competition director, indicated that entrants would have received an email from him requesting missing RAW or unedited JPEG files.
“There are over 300 entries that were able to submit through the website before it started to require the supporting files for vetting. Not your fault, we've just got to clean it up at this point,” Edmonson said.