Thursday, December 11, 2008

Oh So Fake!


Digtial Art by Rod McLean
Article excerpt from Amory Ross Blog:
Outside Magazine is one of my favorite reads. While there is very occasional sailing coverage, I find just about everything they publish to be adventurous, enjoyable, and often educational. Outside begins each issue with a double-page spread titled EXPOSURE. It is a rare spot these days where a magazine publishes an outstanding photograph without any authored story. As a photographer this is pretty special.

With two months this Fall spent out of the country I have only now gotten around to catching up on my reading and I was flipping through the early pages of the August 2008 issue when I fell upon Rod McLean's sailing photo in the EXPOSURE slot. Only, it wasn't a photo.

I don't know Rod McLean, but I don't need to to know that his story and his photo are absolutely fake.

The caption, including a quote from McLean, went like this: Last September, McLean landed a coveted spot on a chase boat during the Rolex Big Boat Series, in San Francisco Bay. But he almost missed the shot. "When I got out, there were beautiful blue skies and no wind. I just about went home," says the San Francisco-based photographer. "I was really hoping for rough seas and sailors battling the elements." Luckily, McLean stayed, and in the afternoon the wind picked up. He snapped this shot just after the lead boat jibbed and was preparing to deploy it's spinnaker. THE TOOLS: Canon 1Ds Mark II, 28-70mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 100, f./2.8, 1/2500 second...

After reading the above quotes, it is fairly reasonable to suggest McLean did not inform Outside of his pictures' many components, instead creating a ridiculously misleading backstory that is insulting to all of us that strive day in and day out to take real photographs, in the very purest nature of the word. Capturing a rare moment on film and not just creating one.
Read in full at http://amoryross.blogspot.com/