Pixiq

Well, it has happened again. Remember ‘Wolfgate’ back in 2009 when Spanish photographer José Rodriguez was stripped of his title in the prestigious Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition? Welcome to the latest saga -  ‘Lynxgate’ where a top Swedish wildlife photographer  Terje Helleso has admitted cloning wild subjects into his winning wildlife pictures.

Helleso was named Nature Photographer of the Year by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency in 2010 but now admits to adding subjects to his nature scenes. His website is not currently available…but you can see the pictures here on PetaPixel.

Oh dear, what a silly Faker …as the Irish would say, for whatever he does in future, this will be his ‘epitaph’.

The sleight of hand was spotted by Gunnar Gloerson a conservationist working with the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management who noticed that the Lynx still sported its winter coat when the shot was purportedly taken in July...and that angle of the paws was wrong and there were odd things about its reflection in a pool…

There is nothing wrong with composites and other forms of Photoshop manipulation when the photographer is open about it – it’s a matter of taste after all. Unfortunately, Terje Helleso made this 'saintly' statement last year:

 “ We nature photographers should never forget the responsibility we have with our images, from both a documentary and artistic perspective...”

 Oops, it’s that old “don’t do what I do, do as I say” maxim. Only politicians can get away with that one - fall in faeces and come up smelling of rosebuds!

So, what makes people do it….how can winning be worth the risking of ridicule? Well, I know from personal experience on judging panels that judges often look at a picture strictly in terms of its photographic merit - as far as they are concerned, that is.  Too many judges are neither expert photographers nor do they have real wildlife knowledge. In the 'Wolfgate' saga the legendary Jim Bandenberg, who had been one of the judges expressed his doubts after an internet storm started to swell…for he had watched wolves for decades and authored truly iconic wolf images. If the odds tempt you then realise that out there are the eagle-eyed who really do know their subjects and the internet is a powerful weapon when it comes to truth and humiliation.

Whereas lying (or should we say “economy with the truth”) is the very life-blood of politicians, bankers and other sub-humans -  with nature photography it is a no-no. To have any voice, nature photographers need to be whiter than white – any chink in the armour is going to be picked up and whatever is said is invalidated. So what… well, those of us who have having made a life out of being honest about what we do get just a bit pee'd off at being tainted by association.

José Rodriguez was not primarily a wildlife photographer (his wolf image is superb judged on merit alone ) but Terje Helleso set himself up as a paragon of virtue … hypocrites, especially should beware standing on columns for they can topple.

If you’d like to revisist Wolfgate we covered it extensively on the More than Just Nature Photography (Images from The Edge) blog.