Hi @oceanbee, @uwelang @erikah @nathen007 and @livinguktaiwan
I understand your frustration, it's exactly the same for me. But if we are on this ship we must assume that if there is money at stake, there will be scammers and thieves. All of us here must be committed to the anti-fraud fight, it's not just about uploading good images, commenting and giving likes to other users, we have to analyze and track the slightest suspicion of scam or theft. It is the only way to have this space clean of greedy thieves.
In the specific case of this criminal, days ago I began to suspect his ultra retouched photos, reframes of reframes and saturations raised to the limit of horror. On the other hand, following his entries, I noticed that he had reports from almost everywhere in the world, and I found it strange that he had such a variety of scenarios and types of photography, which leads me to suspect that on one or more occasions, he has used images that are not of his authorship. This is laborious to prove, but with time it can be done. That time that almost nobody has and that these "artists" of theft take advantage of.
I have more than 35 years of experience as a professional photographer, as a professor of photography and I have been a judge in multiple contests and I do not understand very well how those responsible for photography contests have awarded images of him and his "alter egos" that are clearly horrendous. I have seen his photos awarded that should be in the museum of photographic infamy, and in some contests they have triumphed. That is not justice. If we are contest jurors, we should have a minimum of photographic criteria to simply not be unfair.
Finally, I would like to encourage all those who feel somehow hurt by this kind of dishonest actions. Let's not let ourselves be dragged by their negative force, to move forward is to improve.
Cheers and greetings to everybody.
Since English is not my mother tongue, I have chosen to translate my entry in this magnificent translator, with some small corrections from my authorship.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)