Beyond the Blog: Lisa Saad Part One
It all starts with a Runner
Whenever I’m around photographers there are two cases that are consistently brought up: Billcie and Lisa Saad. So it is only fitting I start opening up the case file on Lisa next.
However, this one is probably going to be longer than the Billcie saga so I may intermix other stories so this doesn’t get too boring/drawn out for those who could not care less about Lisa and to keep it fresh.
From my understanding of the backstory before the blog post on Photo Stealers, Lisa had gained some attention for her compositing work and wins in photography competitions. Some traditionalists were angry that she was winning awards with images that were clearly not photos but she would swear up and down that everything was originally a photograph she took but manipulated it into what you saw entered into the competitions. She would teach in classes for a black background she would take a photo of a dark room and so forth. There are composite categories but Lisa consistently used the photograph categories which is why dander was raised. I don’t know for sure, but I think that some of those people that were upset were searching and waiting for something to pop on Google Images and eventually something did.
In January 2019 I attended the Imaging USA photography convention in Atlanta, GA. While there, a photographer in Australia was blowing up my phone wanting me to write a PS post about a photographer there who had been caught using a photo that wasn’t hers. The twist this time was that she was also an award winning photographer and this photo in particular had won awards starting in 2018.
I told the person at the time that I was out of town and didn’t have the time to deal with it so I’d look into it when I got home. He hit me up as soon as I was home but I got the usual “convention funk” and was down for a few days with the illness. Eventually I gave into his hounding and started to dig in.