32-year-old Eduardo Martins had a hell of a story to tell, and everyone was happy to gobble it up.

The Brazilian had survived childhood leukaemia, become a skillful surfer, and found his calling when photographing conflict zones around the world.

His photos had featured in Wall Street Journal, VICE and the BBC, and well as being picked up by the likes of Getty Images and Al Jazeera, and outlets were all too happy to throw him softball questions in glowing interviews.

If it sounds too good to be true that’s because it is, with a new investigation showing that Martins stole photos of a British surfer called Max Hepworth-Povey and passed them off as himself.

That picture up top for example – it’s actually a picture of Max photoshopped into war-torn areas.

Here’s one picture of Max that Martins was using as his own:

The Guardian reports:

The BBC’s Brazilian site first published an interview along with photos and videos supposedly shot by Martins in July, then revealed his scam after an investigation by a Lebanon-based reporter, Natasha Ribeiro. The scale of the deception, which emerged in recent days, has sent shockwaves through Brazilian photographic circles.

Once details of the scam emerged,  São Paulo photographer Ignácio Aronovich took a closer look at the pictures Martins had claimed as his own:

“They did not have any visual consistency. For me they had been taken by different photographers. Photographers have their own style,” he said. “For me it was clear that Eduardo Martins was using photos from more than one source.”

Aronovich said he had found one picture where a photographer was holding a camera that appeared to have no shutter button, and others that appeared to have been flipped. After searching on Google images, Aronovich discovered that Martins had been stealing images from other photographers, often from different places, doctoring them and placing them as his own.

Martins’ theft on the left, the original photos on the right:

Not cool, buddy.

It seems Martins was rocking 122 700 followers before things unravelled;

Head to that page, though, and you’ll see it’s unavailable.

Apparently that’s because Martins, in his own words, has gone off the grid:

As his story began to unravel, reporters made contact with the Brazilian photographer Fernando Costa Netto, who had been talking to Martins on the internet for over a year and had published an interview with him on the Brazilian surfing site Waves.

According to the BBC, Costa Netto inadvertently told Martins that suspicions were circulating that he was fake – he told the Guardian he had not warned Martins. He then received a final message, which he shared with Waves. “I am in Australia. I took the decision to pass a year in a van. I am going to cut everything, including internet. I want to be in peace, we will see each other when I return,” he wrote. “A big hug.”

Convenient timing, me thinks.

The Inertia aren’t holding back, calling this “one of the biggest cons in the history of photojournalism”. I quite like Max’s take on the whole saga:

In addition to posting photoshopped images of Hepworth-Povey in scenes of conflict, passing them off as himself, Martins also occasionally posted undoctored images ripped from Hepworth-Povey’s Instagram of him surfing and such to keep up the appearance that Martins was a real person that also loved surfing. Completely bizarre.

So how does Hepworth-Povey feel about his likeness being used to commit one of the biggest cons in photojournalism history?

“If I ever speak to the guy I’ll firstly applaud him for his efforts, secondly ask why the hell he went to all that effort to do something of absolutely no value to anyone and thirdly I’ll give him a backhand for dragging out ancient photos of me for the world to see!”

I suppose it’s like Facebook’s ‘On This Day’ feature, where you’re reminded about the horrors of years gone by, except the photos are broadcast to more than 100 000 peeps on Instagram.

You can also find more info over on the BBC.

As for the real identity of Eduardo Martins – that is still unknown, so for now it remains a mystery unsolved.

New mission for anyone in Oz – track down Eduardo Martins and that van.

[sources:guardian&inertia]