French Master of Photography Accuses BTS of Plagiarism

The Snapshot of BTS MV 'Blood Sweat & Tears'. Photo from BTS MV.

'Le banquet(the banquet)' by Mr. Faucon's Les Grandes Vacances(The Summer Break) Series. Photo from Bernard Faucon.

Bernard Faucon(69), a French maestro in art photography who is deemed as a pioneer in the field of the 1970's has claimed that his work has been copied by BTS's album and music video.

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Mr. Faucon claims that BTS evidently got their idea for a number of scenes in BTS's photobook of The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever that was released in 2016 as well as a scene from their music video of their song Blood, Sweat & Tears from Le banquet(the banquet) of his photographic series, Les Grandes Vacances(The Summer Break) but they have been trying to conceal it. He pointed out that the outfits of the members and the background images in BTS's work offer a very close resemblance to what the mannequins wear and how the background looks in his work . Also, he asserts that their album title was also inspired by his project Le Plus Beau Jour De Ma Jeunesse(The Most Beautiful Day of My Youth) that he produced between 1997~2003.

A photo from BTS's Album 'The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever'. Photo from BTS

A piece of work by Mr. Faucon's Les Grandes Vacances(The Summer Break) Series. Photo from Bernard Faucon.

Mr. Faucon advanced his opinion on a Korean newspaper, Hankyoreh. He said, "I love BTS and I'm happy that they were inspired by my work. I'm not planning on taking legal action. But I'm asking them to publicly admit that my work was the source of inspiration". Mr. Faucon's Korean agency delivered,"We sent mails to BigHit Entertainment twice on August and September of 2018 in place of Mr. Faucon, demanding an apology and a compensation".

A photo from BTS's Album 'The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever'. Photo from BTS

A piece of work by Mr. Faucon's Les Grandes Vacances(The Summer Break) Series. Photo from Bernard Faucon.

According to the agency, Mr. Faucon first found out about BTS by his fellow duo artist Pierre et Gilles who worked with BigBang.

However, BigHit denied such accusation. According to Mr. Faucon's agency, what BigHit said is that they don't agree with the claim since their album's photos and videos don't share similarities with his work. BigHit indicated their stance by saying "The scenes in question are from ideas that can be commonly come up with. Therefore, they are not subject to legal protection". In response to this, Mr. Faucon sent a letter signed in his own handwriting to BigHit to ask them to give credit to him for the inspiration or specify that it's an hommage of his work, but hasn't received a response yet.

It has been announced that Mr. Faucon is planning to hold a press conference in Korea in April to clarify his position on this matter.

By Bongbong and Jay Yoo voomvoomk@gmail.com