 |
 |
Questions raised over the winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year06/01/2010 14:41:38
There are questions about this image, taken by Spanish photographer Jose Luiz Rodriguez If you designate a competition as a 'Wild'life, photographs should be taken in the wild. Period. This particular image has so many questions hanging over it regardless of whether it was a wild one anyway: it took ages for the animal to get used to the flash and then it was seduced by food thrown down by the photographer. Some people have even questioned whether the wolf was a wild animal at all. Jose Luis Rodriguez, a Spanish photographer, beat more than 40,000 entries to claim the £10,000 prize. He said that the wolf was wild and that he had laid some meat as bait to tempt it over the fence. If the wolf is genuinely wild what happens when it tries this stunt at a nearby farm whose proprietors are not as accommodating to an animal many regard as vermin. It is wrong at so many levels and should never have been short-listed; and it is demeaning to all the incredibly hard work put in by people sweating to get genuinely wild images - not dubious ones taken by controversial remote cameras. To avoid this unseemly situation prizes should never be awarded for animals taken in zoos or under captive circumstances.
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Read the comments about this article and leave your own comment
Well, an interesting debate and although this is not great publicity for the competition I think it is a wake up call that was needed. There are plenty of photographers prepared to lie about the provenance of their pictures just to be published. Those of us in the profession know who they are yet obviously the public and many picture editors etc have no clue and if they are not photographers then why should they.
The results of this competition always stirs emotions, fact is photography like any art form is so subjective, we all look for and like different things in images. I concur with some of Steve McQueen's comments I think the judges often do shy away from going for the more creative images we see similar styles of images being chosen year after year, just look at the last two overall winners, the Snow Leopard and this Wolf are so similar in style and feel. Perhaps this is part due to wanting to please the public with something they think they will like, note the public voting on the competition run on the NHM website always tends towards the cute or humorous. The really creative stuff get few votes.
That said it is a great competition and we all have different ideas on what is good photography and I do believe the overall selection of images each year is made with much thought and care.
As for wildlife photography never being taken seriously in the wider world of art, well by its very nature much of what we see published is for illustration but there is plenty of wildlife photography that can be classed as art being seen and appreciated and times are changing. You could argue that it is the art establishments failure to embrace it because they are too stuck in the cliche ridden world of what is good photography to them, and which has not really changed since the Buffy, Donovan, Bailey days of the 60's - our photography magazines are full of the same boring old stuff week in week out. My thoughts.
David Tipling Professional Wildlife Photographer
Posted by: David Tipling | 20 Jan 2010 10:00:01
It's unconscionable that this photo should have scooped the WPTY prize, when other wildlife photographers have worked long and tirelessly to bring us TRULY wild images. The photographic community MUST have an ethical code that forbids this kind of behaviour. In these days of remote cameras and digital trickery, almost anything is possible, and Jose Luis Rodriguez's photo demeans the true art of capturing a wild creature's behaviour in its natural habitat, where whatever you're photographing is unaware of you, the photographer. How is it that he is allowed to keep the prize? It should be stripped from him. What does Chris Packham think, I wonder?
Jonathan P. Tyler, wildlife artist & photographer
Posted by: Jonathan Piers Tyler | 11 Jan 2010 08:38:16
The inclusion of this image, nevermind that it was overall winner says much about the judges of the competition and reflects a similar lack of aesthetic understanding in Wildlife Art in all its forms. This photograph is so 'staged' that even if it wasnt actually its pure kitsch. Just look at the gate for heaven's sake! Its also utterly lifeless. Annually, among selected images this is a prevalent failing. There are many images which suffer from cliche side by side with real photography. Photographs, like drawings/paintings/sculpture/writing should work on various levels so that in theory a very good photograph that happens to be of a wolf or a walnut can stand alongside any of The Great Themes. I would urge the judges to look at Gary Winogrand's photographs of animals. He was no wildlife photographer but his pictures are more informed and of greater breadth than most people working in that category. He took photographs with similar empathy and visual demand, of people and environment too. Which is why 'Wildlife Art' will never be taken seriously in the wider world of Art.
Steve McQueen, Artist and Art Lecturer,Glasgow
Posted by: Steve McQueen | 07 Jan 2010 20:57:43