Some of the pictures from Eduardo Martins? Instagram page, which has since been deleted. Photograph: Eduardo Martin/Instagram

 

Eduardo Martins ? the man who captured the world?s worst war zones in pictures ? is a fake, an investigation by BBC Brasil disclosed.

Over 120,000 of Martins? Instagram followers and countless people around the world were shocked that the 32-year old Brazilian surfer, who survived leukaemia, was using stolen photos from a fellow surfer and Photoshop to create dramatic images of war zones.

Some of the biggest media outlets in the world including the Wall Street Journal, Vice, and the BBC published ?Martin?s work.?

The compelling photos that earned Martin a glowing reputation, glowing interviews and space in some of the world?s biggest media outlets were stolen from British surfer Max Hepworth-Povey.

An investigation by a Lebanon-based reporter, Natasha Ribeiro revealed Martins? scam. The Brazilian photographic circles are still absorbing the shock at the scale of the deception, which emerged in recent days.

As his story began to unravel, reporters made contact with the Brazilian photographer Fernando Costa Netto, who had been in contact with 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 alerted Martins that suspicions were circulating that he was fake. Martins sent a final message to Costa Netto, which the latter 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.?