A fake wolf in any other clothing is...

... still, apparently, a fake wolf, at least according to the judges of the 2009 BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.

In an article published on the BBC website Wildlife photographer stripped of award photographer Jose Luis Rodriguez was the recently crowned winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award has been disqualified after judges ruled that the featured wolf was probably a "model".

Despite the panel's decision Rodriguez strongly denied that the wolf was a trained animal, according to a statement from the competition organizers. His photograph was selected as grand prize from more than 43,000 entries in October 2009.

The panel stripped Rodriguez and decided this year will be the first in 43 that no grand prize winner will be awarded.

I'm deeply saddened by this "problematic photo". Since the photographer denies the wolf is fake and the panel has ruled otherwise it resurfaces the question of what I refer to as the "covenant with the image". There has long been fakery in photography - since virtually its inception. In fact the miracle of photography is its ability to capture many things our eyes can not, and in so doing reveal worlds, emotions, perspectives that can awe, amaze, motivate and inspire. The one thing that we have had is a long standing agreement, that is photography, inclusive of the creator, when the image being shared is from realms of wildlife, nature, and journalism, respects a covenant with the image. That covenant allows all viewers to engage, rely, depend,... simply put, to trust, and in turn make valued decisions about our world based on that trust. Tear the covenant and you tear the trust.

Whether that trust is broken by a would-be contest winner or a trusted publication as in the mysterious moving pyramids in National Geographic (No one might have noticed had Gordon Gahan [the photographer], not voiced a complaint) the fallout becomes a source of controversy and erodes if not murders our trust. Some say all photographs are a lie, since they freeze a moment, but that's a comment of sheer stupidity. Is Henri Cartier-Bresson's leaping man frozen moment a lie? Is Eddie Adams' Vietnam execution of Nguyen Van Lem photo a lie? Is a memory a lie because it's frozen in our minds? In each we trust the source.

I have no idea if Rodriguez is pulling the wolf over our eyes. The leaping wolf photo is a wonderfully executed image, and if his covenant with us is indeed intact, I am saddened for him, if not then bravo the panel, regardless, the covenant with the image has been tarnished.

remembering that life is fun

Why is it we forget that - after the age 12?
What's amazing is, when we are having fun, like a kid, all the horrible things disappear.

No one laughing ever invented a war
No one playing with finger puppets ever committed a murder
No one practicing hula-hoop ever engaged in bigotry
and
No one playing stair piano does it with hate in their heart.

More Fun @ the Fun Theory dot com

A year in review worth watching

By years end I'm certain everyone was sick-n-tired of yet another top ten this, and best of that, so it begs the question - was there anything worth seeing, hearing or thinking about one more time before the New Year and New Decade race away with us in such frenetic craziness that what was wasn't?

One man did find a way, a simple way, a lovely way, to consider the essence of what has past. His name is Eirik Solheim


Eirik is very generous and open to sharing what he did and how he did it - more here on his website/blog @

eirikso.com

"The end is where we start from." - T.S. Eliot

When we least expect it life begins living and we are washed ashore in the joy.

I love cycling up hills on my bike, this past year I have begun enjoying the downhills equally (almost) and that has as much to do with becoming as skilled at descending as I am ascending. Confidence.

As the year/decade has concluded and another opened I'm starting to get the hang of it again, my photography and my writing. It's beginning to feel right, the "feeling" is returning. I'm exploring more photography and writing of others and much further afield than I did a decade ago when I boxed up one life and opened up another. I now see those new clothes were only partially mine, the rest I was trying desperately to make fit.

Most of the past half year I have been trying to unpack that old box, retry thoughts, notions, ideas, and see what still fits. It's taken a while, but surprisingly I discovered that I gained no weight, yet grew; didn't shrink, yet have a smaller footprint; and most importantly, never lost my curiosity appetite for the world explored through words and images and sounds.

Growing up we are told there are no short-cuts to success, and on some level I've paid my dues to that credo, but this past year the decade has come more sharply into focus and I've concluded living a life is about learning short-cuts, and more importantly they exist and every well lived life has them.

I'm discovering a strange new attraction to the web and ironically it has increased my enjoyment of reading and writing - both things all its critics rioted against it for destroying. Blogs in particular are becoming ever increasingly a part of my daily/weekly reading agenda. I'll try and share more of them here, and those of consistent interest I'll also post to the new blog section I have started in the right column.

The following I found on a blog by photographer Sean Gallagher that I have enjoyed for what he connects me to as much as what he says. The following quote he posted, found via the NY Times photography, video and journalism blog LENS - well worth checking out regularly. It hit me in a particularly wonderful way today, as I just purchased a range of new cameras and lenses to launch 2010, both new year and new decade, rededicated to images and words.

“What kind of typewriter did Hemingway use?” Jim Estrin, photographer at the New York Times for the last 20 years, asked his news photography class by way of an introduction this morning.

Nobody knew.

“That’s because it doesn’t matter,” said Estrin.

Short-cuts keep surprising me, but come more anticipated by the day.