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wildlife photographer of the year stripped
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/20/wolf-wildlife-photographer-award-stripped
The Natural History Museum’s wildlife photographer of the year has been stripped of his £10,000 prize, after hiring a tame Iberian wolf to stage an image which purported to capture the rarely seen species in the wild.
The judges of the award, which attracted more than 43,000 entries from 94 countries, said they were convinced José Luis Rodriguez hired a wolf called Ossian from a Madrid wildlife park, contradicting his claim the image was taken in the wild after months of patient tracking of the dwindling species.
Competition rules prohibit the use of animal models and this morning organisers took down Rodriguez’s image from the exhibition at the museum in London, banned him from entering the contest again and announced they were “saddened” by his apparent duplicity. Apparently without irony, he had titled his image The Storybook Wolf, but headline writers have since dubbed it the “loan wolf”.
“I remember thinking, my God, this really is a wild wolf, what an achievement,” said Mark Carwardine, chairman of the judging panel. “I don’t understand the mentality at all. People feel very disappointed with the photographer.”
The organisers said they were planning to erect a notice at the Natural History Museum explaining to visitors their belief that the photo was staged, although it is too late to remove the image from the thousands of books that have been published by BBC Worldwide.
The controversy is thought to be the first time the competition’s expert judging panel have allowed an animal model to win a prize and there was concern the revelation could damage a contest which has a reputation as the most prestigious of its kind in the world.
“The wildlife photographer of the year is the one institution that has pushed us [animal photographers] to be more creative, so it is very sad it has happened to this competition,” said Chris Gomersall, a wildlife photographer who was involved in judging.
“In wildlife photography there are ethical guidelines and there has always been an explicit understanding that if you take pictures of a captive subject, you declare it on your caption.”
Rodriguez had told the judges he had sketched the shot he wanted to get on paper, but “couldn’t quite believe it when he got the shot of his dreams”. He said his main fear had been that the wolves “would be too wary”.
Jim Brandenburg, a judge and a wildlife photographer with 45 years experience of taking pictures of wolves, marvelled at the image of the animal, captured so clearly and apparently hunting a farmer’s livestock. He declared it “a masterfully executed moment”, but having studied pictures of Ossian and Rodriguez’s image, he is now “99.9%” sure it is a tame wolf, according to Carwardine.
Rodriguez could not be contacted, but the competition organisers said he continued to strongly deny the wolf was tame.
The organisers were alerted to suspicions about the image by Spanish photographers who recognised the wolf and the location as the Cañada Real wildlife park. Wolf experts also questioned why the wolf would jump the gate when a wild animal was more likely to squeeze between the bars.
The judges said they asked Rodriguez for corroboration of his story and if there was anyone who could act as a witness to back him up, but his answers were inadequate.
I’ve just read elsewhere that he was never given the prize, just the title as judges were suspicious.
Now who’s fooling who here??
Alan
I thought that it was a great photo. However, if you establish rules for a competition, you need to enforce them consistently.
Looking elsewhere it’s amazing how many feckin experts there are on how a wolf would tackle a gate and how many experts there are to follow a herd in trying to defame a winner. He didn’t conform to the rules if you believe those who stripped him of his crown so in their judgement it doesn’t comply with the rules and rightly should be excluded but why so long after it was announced? But it’s still a damn good image. Sort of puts our own efforts in Dublin Zoo into perspective.
Alan
The issue is not that the rules were treated loosely or that tamed/captive animals are unworthy subjects, the problem is that he seriously misrepresented how the image came into being and did so with the full intention of deceiving the judging panel. The terms of the competition clearly state that animals captured in the wild will be given preference over those from managed enviornments so in deceiving the judges he gave himself a huge unfair advantage over the thousands of others who entered.
This was fully investigated and the photographer was given plenty of time to back up his story but was unable to do so, I think they dealt with it very well and timely given the circumstances and variables involved.
The tip of the iceberg so!……Do you believe every image you see to be genuine?
He broke the 11th commandment “Thou shalt not be found out” :lol:
Having stripped José Luis Rodriguez of his title, does that mean that everyone else down the line moves up a notch or is the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year up for grabs again? It’s an awful shame as the image was a good one and it would have been great to believe that it was genuine. However, as Alan said, rules are rules and are there for all to conform to.
Having said that, where is the line drawn in respect of photographer influence on the final image. When I read the article about the title being stripped, I browsed through the book again to see how other images could be interpreted, keeping in mind how the wolf shot appeared genuine and to be honest, a lot of shots could equally have been misrepresented as being the real McCoy. I’m not implying that they were but the message here is that this photographer’s misdeeds has cast a slur on a lot of the other excellent photos and I think this is a sad thing. How will this issue be dealt with for the next round of this very popular competition.
I have many copies of the book from over the years and it makes you wonder about the aunthenticity of previous entries and winners. I still like the photos though and will still be buying the book every year as it draws out a lot of exceptional talent which deserves recognition.gezza wrote:
“The wildlife photographer of the year is the one institution that has pushed us [animal photographers] to be more creative, so it is very sad it has happened to this competition,” said Chris Gomersall, a wildlife photographer who was involved in judging.
If thats the goal of that competition, surely he should win that hands down. Very creative
I have more of a problem of the guy who set up all the remote cameras to get the photo of a snow leopard – he wasn’t even in the same area, and had several cameras set up all over the place…
Training an animal to jump over a fence and then taking a photo of it, doesn’t do it for me tbh.
It now seems to me that the training required more skill than the photography in this case.Disappointing really and will only server to cast doubt over other entries and people’s honesty
in these matters.Is there a question that he trained the Wolf?
Impressive if he did, watched a documentary recently where a group of people (all had experience training dogs) were given very young wolf cubs, initially they were very much like dog pups with similar behaviour, but once they reached a certain age their behaviour changed I think by the time they were something like six months old they were all taken back from the handlers, they were tame, but it wasn’t possible to train them in the way we can train dogs. They were still wild, and the handlers homes were a mess.
I wouldn’t say it’s not possible to train them, but it might take several generations of breeding.
The same documentary showed a radical experiment in the breeding of a particular breed of Fox, I think it’s in Russia.
Anyway, it’s been going on for 50 years.They only breed tame Foxes, any that show signs of aggression or fear are culled, as a result, they have tame (or sometimes not) foxes, that look a lot different to how they looked when the experiment began.
Uncomfortable viewing.
How about this for training a wolf?
I adopted a fox cub when the vixen was killed by dogs & a friend adopted his sister. For about nine months he would act the same as a pup, but after that, he became snappy. His sister who lived in a separate home developed the same behaviour. I think a wolf would be similiar & would be almost impossible “to train”. The cub was tame, but was never controlled. When they were released back into the wild, they stayed around for a few weeks, hoping to get fed, but soon went away to fend for themselves.
I think that the photograph in question was excellent, as photos go,but the photographers honesty was not up to scratch. I would be delighted to get a photograph of a wolf (tame or not) of that quality, but to state that it was taken in the wild, that’s where the problem lies. Does the prize go to the first runner up? If so, was theirs shot in the wild?
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