I have been reporting on the whole saga of Tony Northrup making a video about Steve McCurry and his iconic Afghan Girl photo, where he implied that McCurry victimized the then 12-years old Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula when he took that iconic photo of her in 1984, and then profited from that image. After a massive backlash from the online community (his followers) and other Youtubers, he then deleted the original video. A few days later he made a new one with explanations as well as put the original video up again. He then purged over 1000 critical comments on both videos, and mainly kept the comments that are in favor of his opinion on there. He also went and commented on other Youtubers, complaining about them (such as to Ted Forbes). Now, in the last stage of this saga, he is liking very disturbing comments, that are not only agreeing with him, but also calling Steve McCurry and his iconic Afghan Girl "fake news, manipulation, blatant fraud". Check out these screen shots, these comments are now among the first that are seen on that video (check the original comments which Tony deleted).
Keep in mind, this isn't the story I wanted to tell, but I just can't help reporting on this saga, because I think it's just not right. It's not right to go back in time and taint someone's reputation for clicks and views. Tony said "the video wasn't a hit job" on Steve McCurry, but the way he is behaving after the video (attacking other Youtubers, deleting comments, liking comments that call McCurry "blatant fraud") is saying something else. Please spread the truth.
I love that you report the truth!
ReplyDeleteIn your screenshot, you show a comment which says "Tony, Your audio on this video sounds strange"... On his video, find that comment and click it, and look at Tony Northrup's response!
Now go to his sources list, and read the first page... Notice how he says the audio sounds bad because of the microphone? Yet in the comment, it's the software. This to me is highly relevant because in the sources list, he's trying to make it seem like he hasn't put much effort into the video. At least that's my interpretation, what is yours? In either case, it's a blatant contradiction.
On its own, this really wouldn't matter but I believe his message is that he wasn't expecting the video to have much impact, so he didn't put much effort into it. Yet when we weigh up the fact he's contradicted himself, and he's got an octabox reflection in the window (plus soft lighting on his face), is this really a video of low effort? It takes more effort to drag lighting equipment from a room to another room, than to just record it in a studio that's already set up. My BELIEF is that he put plenty of effort into the video, he recorded it in his room to appear more believable and it backfired.
Perhaps you don't find this important, but if you do, feel free to use my comments in a post of yours (please don't publish my IP though) if you ever want to.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvW8E78lP9B/
Check out this too! Plenty of girls showing their faces! Proof Steve McCurry did not "trample" over her cultural beliefs by asking her to move a bit of fabric.
Thanks for your comment.
DeleteYes, I believe he wanted to stage himself in a modest environment and talk with bad audio to evoke pity and solidarity for his bogus theory. Same as he put glasses on in his second video where he's trying to justify the first video and fails. The sad part is that there are people who worship him, and because he is deleting critical comments, it looks like everybody agrees with him. I want people to know the truth, hence I made screen grabs every day (I knew he will tamper). Please help me to spread the news about this and share my posts (I wrote a lot of them on this issue - Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4).
Yes I will let people know about your blog. You can see some photographs of the other girls not covering their face, and women showing their faces in the streets at this link - https://www.instagram.com/bugbugss/.
DeleteI don't actually speak with many people from the photographic community online. The level of discourse at dpreview is kind of sad, haha.
This shows how phony he is. Really poor character, attacking a legendary photographer from his virtual bully pulpit. I can only shake my head in disbelief. Disgusting.
ReplyDeleteI have read all your posts on this story, and I am lost for words.
ReplyDeleteWatching Tony channel is losing your time. He gets paid for everything he recommends. So sad because he looks honest and he is not. I stop watching most of the photography channels a year ago and I dedicated to photography instead. There are a couple of small channels with technics that I appreciate. Gear, what for???
ReplyDelete