+ all of the above

Photographer Jill Greenberg is a freelance photographer who was hired by The Atlantic to photograph Presidential hopeful John McCain. Greenberg has an iconic, Photoshopped style and creates vivid portraits of people and animals. It’s almost guaranteed you’ve seen her work in an advertisement somewhere, and if you ride the NYC Subway you are well acquainted with her Monkey Portraits. When photographing McCain however, Greenberg has created controversy by boasting about deliberately casting him in harsh light and also by denying him the photo-retouches which is the customary post-production for magazines.

“I left his eyes red and his skin looking bad … Some of my artwork has been pretty anti-Bush, so maybe it was somewhat irresponsible for [The Atlantic] to hire me.”

Apart from the Atlantic accepting and running with the Cover Shot (click to see), which I think is actually quite a good picture, Greenberg also took another few shots, the most notable of which involved a bloody shark’s jaws super-imposed on top, which is the picture you see below.

Without casting judgment on any of the parties involved, I think that this is only the beginning of a renewal of the debate of the role of Artists in politics. Remember the Dixie Chicks? And after seeing how the brawl over Bill Henson’s work was handled (Kevin Rudd thinks Henson’s work is revolting? So what?), I am a little fearful. However at the very least, and putting aside any moral incursions which may or may not have happened here, I’m glad there’s a debate going on. Especially since I happen to agree with Jill Greenberg’s opinion. This is game-changing, it’s guaranteed they’ll be talking about this for years. Jill Greenberg has cemented her position as political discontent and this picture will be referenced for many years to come. If it was hard taking photos of politicians before, it will be impossible now. We’ll be seeing it on Illegal Art soon enough, pending a court case of course.

Finally, watch the hysteria unfold at Fox as the Atlantic’s editor is put in the hot seat (no matter what your persuasion, alignment, leaning or inkling I think we can all agree that Fox gets it wrong, on purpose, every time). One interesting thing to come out of this interview however is that photo re-touching now appears to be an expected right. Much different from the Kate Winslet fiasco of yesteryear. Aaaah, simpler times.

Read more at Gawker and at Digital Journal (which also has a full gallery of all of the manipulated shots, including the one with the monkey and the you know what…)