Jill Greenberg, otherwise known as the photographer that literally makes babies cry, shot a portrait of the Republican presidential nominee John McCain for this month’s cover of The Atlantic. While the cover image itself is unremarkable, the Canada-born shooter has been embroiled in controversy over her treatment of the outtakes and comments made to Photo District News.
After the client chose the cover image, Greenberg—a staunch Democrat—retouched some of the outtakes in a less-than-favorable fashion and posted these on her Web site. Among these is a shot where McCain’s mouth has been replaced with bloody shark teeth, purportedly to portray the candidate as a bloodthirsty warmonger. Another shows a smiling McCain with lipstick on his face, under a headline that reads: “It was really fun to cheat on my car-injury-disabled first wife.”
In a PDN interview published on Friday, Greenberg said she purposely did not retouch the images in her trademark “manipulator” style, leaving McCain’s eyes red and his skin flawed—“looking bad,” in her own words. She also described using inappropriate lighting during the shoot and found it amusing that neither the candidate nor his team picked up on it. Finally, she said that The Atlantic was somewhat irresponsible to hire her, given that some of her artwork has been openly anti-Bush.
Given that the U.S. is in the final stretch of the presidential race, Greenberg’s comments to PDN were instantly picked up by the New York Post and are now circling the blogosphere. The general public’s reactions have been predictable: those on the political right are outraged; those on the left are having a laugh.
Among professional photographers and journalists, opinions tend to be less partisan. Many admit to sharing Greenberg’s political views; however, many also describe her actions during and after the shoot as unprofessional. Greenberg is unapologetic. She says she simply took the chance to make a political statement.
The Atlantic is understandably mortified; even its public-relations firm is working overtime. Though editor James Bennet told the Post that The Atlantic stands by the cover image, he also admitted to being blind-sided and outraged by Greenberg’s behavior. The author of The Atlantic’s cover story, Jeffrey Goldberg, writes on his blog: “Greenberg is quite obviously an indecent person who should not be working in magazine journalism. Every so often, journalists become deranged at the sight of certain candidates, and lose their bearings… What I find truly astonishing is the blithe way in which she has tried to hurt this magazine.”