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Singapore - Thirty-six pictures have been removed from a Singapore photography festival after an art collective admitted lying in claiming they were taken by a schizophrenic who subsequently killed himself, organisers said on Thursday.

 The reputation of the festival "is at stake," said director Shirlene Noordin.

 Phish Communications, the organisers of the ongoing Month of Photography, yanked the pictures submitted by the collective called A Dose of Light.

 It cited in a statement the "disclosure about the true background of their series of works."

   A Dose of Light had originally said the photos taken in a former mental hospital were by Wu Xiao Kang and even started an online petition for the return of Wu's roll of film from an unnamed German institute.

 The collective subsequently acknowledged the hoax and said the photos were part of a conceptual artwork to show viewers how schizophrenics experience the world.

 Noordin, who said earlier this week she would allow the exhibition to remain because of the good photography, said she had  reconsidered as the pictures "are just a hoax."

   Fierce debate was triggered by the deception between those claiming the photos depicted schizophrenics in the wrong light and others who found the work interesting anyway.//DPA