Nomadic Vision

Story Book Wolf (very cool title) was the overall winner for the 2009 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The image was taken by Spanish photographer, José Luis Rodriguez who specializes in how speed flash photography.

I was floored when I saw the picture in competition display and completely agreed with the judges decision.

It turns out, however, that José Luis Rodriguez has been stripped of his prize as he has been accused of using a tame, “model” wolf, in spite of Rodriguez claims to the contrary.

It turns out, fellow Spanish photographers recognized the wolf and claimed the winning image was unfair.

In my opinion, it is ridiculous that Rodriguez had his title taken from him. Rodriguez claims that the image was a result of months of following and documenting the wolf’s behaviour. If the wolf looks the same as a tame wolf, it is because of one of the following:

1. It is a tame wolf and Rodriguez cheated.

2. It is a tame wolf, but Rodriguez did not know. He thought he captured a great shot.

3. It is a wild wolf that looks like the tame wolf.

If Rodriguez claims not to have cheated, who can claim otherwise?

It really disturbs me how quick photographers are to bring down the work of another photographer. As a community, we should be rallying behind Rodriquez and insisting that his prize is valid until there is some undeniable evidence that he cheated.

I read this quote from PDN – “Although the photographer has been stripped of his title and prize, books featuring his work alongside that of the other competition entrants have already been published by the BBC, which leaves a lasting reminder of the deceit, another in a growing list of transgressions by photographers which undermine an already shaky public trust of photographs.”

The main reason photographers enjoy such a great reputation is because they don’t stand together to build a healthy community of photographers, but rather, they go out of their way to break other photographers down.

If you’re a photographer who celebrates the excellent work of competition winners, thank you for doing your part to build a healthy community, but if you’re a photographer who looks for fault/deceit/trickery in every photo – ask yourself what there is to be gained by your actions.

Which brings me to the opening picture. That picture came second in quite an important South African landscape photography competition. A few weeks before the winning images were published, I demonstrated to quite a few photographers, how to do a composite image (a technique that many of them went on to use in their own pictures). When the winners were announced, one of the photographers that I showed the technique to, phoned in the complain that the image was a composite.

In my case, I had carefully read the rules and there were none regarding photo manipulation, so the decision stood, but the story illustrates just how backstabbing fellow photographers can be.

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