Some people might recognize this photo. If you look around the internet you might have seen it somewhere, it has become quite popular over the years. I made this picture on a hot night in August 2003 on the shores of Okanagan Lake in West Kelowna as people stood and watched while homes burned that eventually consumed over 230 homes. At the time I was employed as a staff photographer for the Kelowna Daily Courier newspaper. The photo was carried by Canadian Press and was used extensively in many newspapers, magazines, and online news outlets. The photo went on to win the Canadian Press 'news' picture of the year for 2003.
Despite the fact that my newspaper career ended when I was laid off from the paper in January of 2018 the fire photo lives on as a popular photo. A news photo becoming a meme photo. I honestly have not paid too much attention to the photo over the years, I have a framed copy of the photo in my home.
Recently I was alerted to a newspaper, The Epoch Times that had used the photo. The newspaper and their online version had published an article on August 11, 2021, about the current state of wildfires burning in British Columbia including the gigantic White Rock Lake fire.
Accompanying the article both online and in the print edition of the paper was my photo, a picture I made 18 years ago. I couldn't understand how this could be, why would they run such an old photo with a breaking news story that was still unfolding? Even more bizarre was the photo caption with the picture described "Evacuees watch as the White Rock Lake Fire in B.C. burns in the vicinity of their homes." The photo byline was attributed to someone by the name of Kelsey Fortin. Who is Kelsey Fortin? I have never heard of this person. I hope she or he got paid well.
Is this what current photojournalism has come to? News media resorting to digging up decades-old news photos and making it seem current?
To be fair the Epoch Times did remove the photo in question from their website when the editor of the Courier newspaper and myself contacted them, they updated it with a current photo from Canadian Press. The photo also appeared in the August 12 - 18 print edition with the same caption and photo credit. It's not like they can recall thousands of print copies. But there should be a proper correction to tell readers of the print edition of the newspaper.
Not to single out the Epoch Times, I found that there are literally dozens of other online publications that have used the photo with no proper credit (Gary Nylander/The Kelowna Daily Courier). I did a reverse image search on Google and found 7 full-page listings where the photo has been used, almost all without credit. It has turned into a meme photo that I can not control. I have attached some screenshots from these publications, they are from all over the world and include everything from blogs to government write-ups and other online news outlets.
UPDATE: Looks like the Epoch Times published a correction in their print edition see the screen grab below.
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