Is there plagiarism?

Questioner

In order to present himself as a professional and to attract clients (read: young models) and impress his visitors, a mediocre amateur photographer takes professional photos from the internet and places them slightly edited (mirrored) on his social media accounts. He adds the copyright symbol © and his own name. Plus a description such as: Photo shoot on location with model X. He therefore suggests in various ways that he took the photo himself, while this is demonstrably (search engine) not true. My question is: Is this plagiarism or is that no longer the case when a photo has been edited, even if only minimally? And in extension: He does the same with photos that can be downloaded for free. Is this (also) plagiarism? In none of the cases is the source mentioned, let alone the name of the photographer, if this is known at all because the photos often come from Eastern Europe or China.

Lawyer

There appears to be a violation of the original photographer's copyright. Photographs can also be subject to copyright, and there may also be portrait rights of the person in the photo (depending on what agreements have been made). The fact that a photo is mirrored does not mean that the original photo is no longer subject to copyright (this may be different if the original photographer has released the rights). Besides the fact that there is probably a violation of copyright, possibly of portrait rights, a situation is also presented that is contrary to reality. The photographer pretends that the photos are his and also tries to sketch a certain image.