Photos on hunger in India posted on World Press Photo's Instagram page sparks outrage

A photo series highlighting hunger in India that was shared on World Press Photo’s Instagram handle has been facing flak for its depiction of poverty.

The images, clicked by Italian photographer Alessio Mamo, show a series of undernourished, poor people standing in front of a table with food on it, with their hands covering their faces.

The photos, taken in villages of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, has a caption that reads, brought...a table and some fake food, and...told people to dream about some food that they would like to find on their table.”

Mamo, a well known photographer, had won the second prize in the People category of the World Press Photo of the Year Awards 2018, for his photograph of an 11-year-old victim of a missile explosion in Kirkuk, Iraq.

However, Mamo’s India photographs, from his series “Dreaming Food” – a “conceptual project about hunger issue in India” seems to have hit a raw nerve.

According to the photographer, the shots are from two of the poorest states in India. However, it remains unclear as to what metric he used to come to the conclusion.

There was severe backlash against Mamo and World Press Photo on social media, including from photojournalists, with many contending that the photograph had depicted poverty in a way that was exploitative and gimmicky, a portrayal that is known as poverty porn.

Taking to Facebook, one user opined that he could not think of a better example of someone casting ethics aside and pursuing their own selfish and distorted ideas by using people to gain recognition and awards.

Mamo’s post on Instagram too received many critical comments, with users calling it “ethically deplorable” and cruel.

Facebook users too made their point felt,

Mamo, on his part, responded to the criticisms, clarifying that the photos were not shot with the involvement of World Press Photo but with a local humanitarian organisation.

He also wrote, “My intention was exactly to represent in a stereotyped way these Indian landscape in order to reinforce the concept. This was the idea behind, maybe I did it wrong, or maybe just you don’t like or you think it’s unethical, but the concept was to problematize food waste in front of the hunger in this area of the world.”

In a statement released on Monday evening, World Press Photo pointed to its guidelines and said that these are kept “under constant review to learn from the debates about pictures and projects the photographers share”.

“Photo contest winners and digital storytelling contest winners are given the opportunity to takeover the World Press Photo Instagram account for a week to share work of their choosing...Alessio Mamo’s takeover started on 16 July and ended on 22 July. Other than his portrait of Manal, none of the photographs Alessio has shared were awarded prizes in the photo contest...”