BEFORE PHOTOSHOP

Unknown photographer, Composite portrait, Athens, c.1912

A three-part composite souvenir portrait of a young woman in a flying machine soaring over the Acropolis of Athens. It consists of a rather crude pen-and-ink drawing of an monoplane, a much older photograph of the Acropolis (or, more likely, its lithographic reproduction), and a contemporary photograph of the woman from the waist up, including her hands and a car steering wheel. This collage, quite sophisticated for its time, would have been the work of a photographic studio rather than a fairground photographer. The woman portrayed is Aikaterini Leftheri from Kythera (b.1889); around 1912 she was in Athens, working for the family of a retired admiral. The photograph must have been taken during one of her afternoons off, and she is depicted in her best walking-out clothes, including an elegant bonnet. Her expression seems slightly apprehensive and she is gripping the steering-wheel hard, as though imagining herself diving through the clouds.

Σύνθετο αναμνηστικό πορτραίτο μιας νέας γυναίκας που πετάει ο ψηλά πάνω από την Ακρόπολη. Αποτελείται από ένα κάπως απλοϊκό αεροπλάνο ζωγραφισμένο με μελάνι, από προγενέστερη φωτογραφία της Ακρόπολης (ή μάλλον, από τη λιθογραφική αναπαραγωγή της), και από σύγχρονη φωτογραφία της γυναίκας από τη μέση και πάνω βαστώντας τιμόνι αυτοκινήτου. Το κολάζ αυτό, αρκετά επιτηδευμένο για την εποχή του, θα πρέπει να ήταν έργο κάποιου φωτογραφικού εργαστηρίου και όχι πλανόδιου. Η γυναίκα ήταν η Αικατερίνη Λευθέρη το γένος Λουράντου, από τα Κύθηρα (γ.1889). Το 1912 εργαζόταν στο σπίτι κάποιου ναυάρχου στην Αθήνα· μάλλον φωτογραφήθηκε κατά τη διάρκεια απογευματινής εξόδου, αφού φοράει τα καλά της, συμπεριλαμβανομένου του κομψού καπέλου. Η έκφρασή της φαίνεται λίγο φοβισμένη, και τα χέρια της σφίγγουν γερά το τιμόνι, σαν να φαντάζεται τον εαυτό της να βουτάει μέσα από τα σύννεφα.

CRYING WOLF

Spanish photographer José Luis Rodriguez has been stripped of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year title by London's Museum of Natural History after the judges decided that his prize-winning photograph depicted a tame wolf called Ossian rather than a wild animal on its way to supper in a farmer's paddock. According to Chris Gomersall, a wildlife photographer involved in judging who was quoted by the Guardian, "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 denies the allegations, but apparently other Spanish photographers have recognised the wolf, while animal behaviourists have suggested that a wild animal would be far more likely to squeeze between the bars of the gate than indulge in balletic leaps.

In retrospect, the photograph really does look too perfect, too dramatic, as though Gregory Crewdson and a cast of dozens had spent a week setting it up. Maybe the image's original title, "Storybook Wolf", should have set alarm bells ringing. But is this really a problem? It is, after all, an extremely striking image. And as art critic Jonathan Jones asked in his blog, "Is José Luis Rodriguez's use of a tame animal for his award-winning wildlife shot really so criminal? At least he didn't use Photoshop".

The answer, as ever in issues of photographic authenticity, is that it depends almost entirely on context. In the very specific context of wildlife photography, the image is a lie, because it breaches the explicit understanding between photographer and viewer that images will involve the minimum possible artifice; while it is understood that the photographic depiction of a wild animal by a human is even more vulnerable to distortion of all kinds than most forms of representation, deliberate fraud cannot be countenanced here any more than it is, or should be, in reportage. On the other hand, had Rodriguez exhibited his image in a gallery, he would almost certainly be gathering plaudits and critical acclaim. Time for a paradigm shift, or just a career move?