Photographer harshly criticized for ‘shoddy’ Olympic portraits

I don't think it's right to slate someone that's not here to defend themselves.

I would ask what the rest of his portfolio looked like because I presume someone checked before asking him to shoot the Olympic team. It could genuinely be a quirky style that didn't quite pay off.
 
The quirky style isn't the problem. It's having the crappy bits of paper background visible. Even I'd do PP on those!
 
I doubt if he'd be allowed near these athletes if he wasn't good. I think he may have tried something different that didn't quite work. And as has been said, we haven't seen all his work.
 
Gosh. I'm not site about the comments "we haven't seen the rest of his work" ...this is the olympics, it's huge for England right now...this by many rights ought to have been his best work.

In my opinion, putting shots like that out there for everyone to see (ie no pp, poorly light, bad posing) is just laziness (assuming the photographer had the technical ability) and if he didn't, the fault is with the person that said yes to an otherwise unqualified person for the job to do it.

I've shot at music events with big names where the organiser hasn't seen my work, perhaps this was the same...?

Maybe his fault, maybe not...perhaps a bit harsh to publicise it though...
 
He's chief photographer for Agent France Presse so not likely to be rubbish. Doesn't seem to do studio portraits though which I think could be the issue.

He should have gone onto the TP lighting course first ;)
 
it is without doubt an intentional style and i can kind of see where he's coming from with it - don't like the OOF Michael Phelps though. Probably trying to convey a sort of 'elite athlete' against shoddy amateur surroundings. A kind of 'this is where i've come from' message :shrug:
 
srichards said:
He's chief photographer for Agent France Presse so not likely to be rubbish. Doesn't seem to do studio portraits though which I think could be the issue.

He should have gone onto the TP lighting course first ;)
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Well there you go. It's a bit easier to grab shots as a press photographer than it is to set up lighting to show your subject in his/her best light whilst judging angles, composition and on top of that being able to make your model feel comfortable and relaxed.

I'm not sure how much PP press photographers do but would.hazard a guess it's not as much as portrait guys...

A great bistro chef can most likely cook a nice meal but put him in a fish restaurant and you may find him doing the same things he's doing every day on his meat station.

Perhaps an award winning portrait photographer would have been better suited for the job...
 
Maybe he forgot his camera and had to use his Iphone.
 
I've had my Camera about 2 months and I could do a better job than that. It's not his fault though it is the idiot who hired him!
 
Phil Young said:
Well there you go. It's a bit easier to grab shots as a press photographer
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Thats a little harsh at best :thinking:. If you look at the majority of his work you couldn't really describe them as grab shots. I suspect there is something else going on here
 
Did the previous thread on these photos get deleted? - there was one up yesterday on this and I can't see it now.
 
The story has been out for just more than 24 hours now, and its gone viral, internet and mainstream TV news (in the USA).

You have to ask yourself weather it was just a publicity stunt?
 
I can't find any other thread on this, but have only just read the original story.

It is unbelievable that these pictures are so bad imho. I know we are not supposed to comment on other peoples work without them asking for critique and are here to stand up for themselves, but the Photographer has chosen this style for some reason :shrug: and has meant them to be bad. (one would assume) And has presumably done it to incite discussion. (though about what point is unclear)

If it was to show that most of that type of image is over produced, then you don't do any post processing, but you at least take the pictures well in the first place. There is no justification for an out of focus picture. :nono: What point could that be trying to make? :shrug:
 
redhed17 said:
I know we are not supposed to comment on other peoples work without them asking for critique and are here to stand up for themselves,

I
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I would agree if it was personal/amateur work but these are 'Professional' Photos released into the public domain. IMHO they should be criticised into the same way you would any song/film/book etc.
 
Since when should photography be "perfect" that's the glory of it, yeah creased American flag, shoddy lighting and ripped backgrounds who gives a ******!
The guy could have been wasted, could be slightly mental, might be just as normal and sane as you or i, but he did it his way. There are people quick enough to shoot the guy down because he is a professional and appears to have done a crap job but i bet half of you get all bent out of shape when you receive critique you don't want to hear.
And even though they seem technically incorrect or look bad there is one thing he has achieved that a high percentage of us will never achieve and that is world recognition.
 
Simon photo said:
Since when should photography be "perfect" that's the glory of it, yeah creased American flag, shoddy lighting and ripped backgrounds who gives a ******!
The guy could have been wasted, could be slightly mental, might be just as normal and sane as you or i, but he did it his way. There are people quick enough to shoot the guy down because he is a professional and appears to have done a crap job but i bet half of you get all bent out of shape when you receive critique you don't want to hear.
And even though they seem technically incorrect or look bad there is one thing he has achieved that a high percentage of us will never achieve and that is world recognition.
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Photography can never be perfect, however, that doesn't mean there aren't standards that we have to adhere too.

World recognition for what? Doing a bad job? yeah, that's really the type of recognition that everyone strives for.

I can fully understand him trying something new, however, it's obviously failed to meet the satisfaction of others. Granted, with some PP some could be usable but still aren't what you would want to see on a poster advertising your countries efforts.

As for critique, I always want to hear it, and by taking the risk and shooting in this way he must have known that he would get it.

On the other hand, perhaps these were test shots. The article makes it sound like there was several togs there and they were basically taking it in turns to shoot the athletes, so I would hazard a guess they were test shots. We really need to hear about this from the photographer as well as it could make an interesting read.
 
Simon photo said:
Since when should photography be "perfect" that's the glory of it, yeah creased American flag, shoddy lighting and ripped backgrounds who gives a ******!
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The image with the flag was an example of how that type of image usually looks, and is 'right'. :lol:

Simon photo said:
And even though they seem technically incorrect or look bad there is one thing he has achieved that a high percentage of us will never achieve and that is world recognition.
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If I were to want 'world recognition' I think I would want it for doing something well. :shrug: Especially if I were a professional whose business may depend on how well I was perceived at doing my job. :bonk:

I think the least a professional should be achieving is 'technically' correct, and the style they bring should be in addition to that technically correct base. And in focus, is step one imho. :shrug:
 
I think were all going to have egg on our faces rightly or wrongly.
But for now i think everyone's become so obsessed with sharpness, lighting, pose, exposure and post process that the essence of photography is lost to most.
To quote the great Ansel Adams "there is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept" maybe that's it, perhaps there is something were all missing with this set of images. Im not saying their right or wrong they are just.
Either way the photographer is probably laughing his ass off at how the world has received these images and as mentioned earlier, may be nothing more than reference images for a future shoot.
 
Simon photo said:
I think were all going to have egg on our faces rightly or wrongly.
But for now i think everyone's become so obsessed with sharpness, lighting, pose, exposure and post process that the essence of photography is lost to most.
To quote the great Ansel Adams "there is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept" maybe that's it, perhaps there is something were all missing with this set of images. Im not saying their right or wrong they are just.
Either way the photographer is probably laughing his ass off at how the world has received these images and as mentioned earlier, may be nothing more than reference images for a future shoot.
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I don't think anyone has said anything about sharpness they are just overall bad.
 
His concepts are fine. It's the execution that is lacking.

I'd have used gym floor mats instead of paper and had the background sheet flipping miles away so you couldn't see any creases.
 
Has any of you got in touch with the guy to express your concerns about his work?.. or just happy to do it behind his back?
 
treeman said:
The story has been out for just more than 24 hours now, and its gone viral, internet and mainstream TV news (in the USA).

You have to ask yourself weather it was just a publicity stunt?
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Surely not? :D
 
Simon photo said:
But for now i think everyone's become so obsessed with sharpness, lighting, pose, exposure and post process that the essence of photography is lost to most.
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they are essential parts of photography along with composition and whether a photograph just plainly looks right from an artistic point of view
 
Phil Young said:
I don't think anyone has said anything about sharpness they are just overall bad.
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No, you misunderstand me.
My point was that sometimes you don't need perfection if the concept is strong i wasn't referring to the images in question.
What i do get from this set is this...
The subjects are at the peak of fitness and as athletes are perfection, the photographer hasn't given them the usual candy coated, post processed to death, plastic sheen tacky look as the subjects speak for themselves and can stand out against any **** photographs. Sports fans really don't care about how the athletes look in photographs, they just want to see them perform at a world class level on the track and field. That is why i think he approached it this way.
And to note. I read that he is a wire photographer? In which case cbs were obviously not doing their job by running the images if they thought they were not good enough for the world.
 
KIPAX said:
Has any of you got in touch with the guy to express your concerns about his work?.. or just happy to do it behind his back?
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So to talk about a film you have to go back to the director/writer, to talk about a painting you have to go back to the artist?
 
KIPAX said:
Has any of you got in touch with the guy to express your concerns about his work?.. or just happy to do it behind his back?
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I might just e-mail him

Bloody disgrace, you all should be ashamed of yourselves
 
We don't know what circumstances they were shot under either. Perhaps he had 2 minutes with each person.
 
It is as obvious as the nose on your face that this is deliberate and unless somebody has the gumption to email and find out why it is all conjecture. Anyone who thinks he just screwed up is missing the point by about a planet's width.

Now, the point could be as noted above: show the elite in as unglamorous a light as possible, or it could be a fingers up to the Olympics. Or something else.
 
KIPAX said:
Has any of you got in touch with the guy to express your concerns about his work?.. or just happy to do it behind his back?
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So if someone asks you what you thought of Ashly Coles performance in the euro you will day what? ....."let me go and tell him first then I'll come back to that question".

And if Canon bring out a new camera, will you go to canon and express your concerns first?

He has a job, he has publicised it and should expect to be criticised for it.

Feel free not to participate in conversation if you feel it's inappropriate.
 
I thought the US flag shot was an example of his work too...
 
Forbiddenbiker said:
They look like a personal artistic statement which is strong in its aims. I can enjoy them for that, but I can also see how they might be deemed inappropriate or poor in comparison to the expected norm.
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Here here! I second this.
And i think the latter part of your comment rings true. A lot of media has become homogeneous, society has adjusted to this and when something such as this set of images is available for mass absorption many folks can't see it for what it is and attack it in favour of the norm and what they think is good when really, nothing is either good or bad, right or wrong.
 
Simon photo said:
No, i think your missing the point here
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What point? That he may have intended them to be like that? Doesn't stop them being rubbish.
 
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