I recently looked through this year’s winning and highly commended images when I paged through Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Portfolio 19. By looking through the images in this coffee table book you can see why the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year is the ultimate competition for wildlife photographers around the globe.  The wildlife photography  Academy Awards.

It seems, however, that there is a bit of a controversy brewing about the overall winning image.

The image on the right by José Luis Rodríguez from Spain, entitled ‘The StoryBook Wolf’, won the Animal Portraits section and went on to also be announced as the overall winner.  It now seems that the image and how it was captured is being investigated  for fraud.  The short version of the story, thus far, is that the image is being looked at with regards to whether the animal was in fact  a wild animal and whether the image was captured in the wild.

At this stage I believe it would be unfair to point fingers at anybody until the judges and competition organizers have completed their investigation but for now you can check out these links.

• Click here to read the photographer’s description of how he managed to capture the image.
• Click here to read more on the allegations and questions that are being asked about the image.

If you look through some of the comments on the various websites you will see that there a quite a few questions that has been raised and that needs answering.  The outcome of this very contentious matter will bring a lot of answers but will it help to more clearly define what is considered wildlife photography?

During the last few days I have found some truly amazing and inspirational wildlife images on the net.  The problem is, that when you read and look deeper, that some of these images were taken in zoos.  Ok, small problem.  Yes, the photographer might have been able to capture a technically brilliant image of a wild animal in captivity but is it truly wildlife photography?  Would it make a difference if the photographer was to be honest and disclose the real facts as to how they managed to create such a stunning image?   You see, the fact remains that whether the above image was taken in the wild or not and whether the animal was tame or wild – it is still an absolutely brilliant image.

For me wildlife photography is the genre of our craft where a wild animal is photographed in it’s natural habitat.  Again, there is a problem.  Some zoos have beautiful, and quite large,  enclosures for animals which mimic it’s natural habitat.  Does that mean photographing an animal in a large , natural looking zoo enclosure constitutes wildlife photography?  It just does not seem right.  That then leads to the next question.  Does natural environment mean the environment where a specific animal would have been found, naturally,  before humans started intruding on their territory?  One question just keeps on leading to the next.

A lot has been written about the ethics in wildlife photography.  (You can check out two posts on Photo-Africa here and here and another by Shem Compion by clicking here.)  I feel the most important thing in all of this is honesty.  The ultimate goal in what we do is to create beautiful and thought provoking images of wildlife in their natural habitat.  That is true and honest wildlife photography.  There is nothing wrong with photographing animals in a zoo or enclosure.  It can actually be a fantastic way to train your eye and create portrait images of shy and seldomly seen animals as long as those images are not portrayed as sold as wildlife images, because it isn’t.  Beautiful animal portrait.  Great mammal photograph.  But not a wildlife image.

I guess this is something that is not going to go away but as long as there are still photographers out there who have a passion for wildlife photography there will still be people who create truly authentic images of animals in the natural world.  Even though there have been, and probably will be many more, instances where it would be so easy to get involved to create better images I am proud to say that all my images of wild animals have been taken in the wild.  I feel very strongly, and this goes for both wildlife photography and guiding, that the moment you influence the behavior of the animal your are photographing you have failed.  Simple as that but no doubt the debate will continue.

Whatever the outcome of the investigation into the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition winner, I will keep you posted. If  you have any thoughts on this matter please feel free to comment!

Bye 4 now and keep it honest!

Gerry