5 ms·

Extremely beautiful photo! But am I the only one that thinks this was also chosen for a political statement?

by eric4smith 5y ago

BuyMyBitcoins 5y ago
That is 100% why this was chosen.
haihaibye 5y ago
I think that's a fair assumption when the winning bird photo is ~0.25% bird (by pixels)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
perl4ever 5y ago
Roadrunners can fly, can't they? "flying is limited to gliding from a nest or perch to the ground, or between perches" "Male roadrunners perch atop fence posts and rocks" https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Greater_Roadrunner/lifehistory https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Greater_Roadrunner/lifeh...
- jws 5y ago
  Roadrunners lack a keel on their breastbone and have relatively small pectoral muscles. They can fly a little, but my 4 minutes of internet research say it is unlikely that bird can fly over that wall.
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    I don't claim to have done more than 4 minutes of research myself, but supporting a negative proposition is a lot harder than finding evidence for the existence of something.
- atatatat 5y ago
  That was the political message — right?
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    The political message is bound to be either that the border wall is an insurmountable barrier with devastating consequences, or that it's trivial to get past and a complete useless waste of money. It's logically possible for it to be both at once, depending on context but it's an interestingly contradictory aesthetic.
annexrichmond 5y ago
Maybe, but I wouldn’t be able to say for certain what that statement is. I think anyone would enjoy this photo no matter their political stripes
epse 5y ago
I assume in bird photography circles, they would be more concerned with the ecological impact (which is in a way also political)
aw1621107 5y ago
> But am I the only one that thinks this was also chosen for a political statement? For what it's worth, the competition site says [0]: > Typically, an awarded photo will: > Be properly in focus, > show good use of exposure and lighting, > display technical excellence in its execution, > and capture a unique moment, behaviour, or story. The last criteria seems like it could answer your question. The announcement page also has this blurb [1]: > The image tells an important story of habitat fragmentation, and how structures such as the border wall can prevent wildlife from migrating and moving into other areas. The wall dominates the image, with the roadrunner seemingly powerless and small in the frame. [0]: https://www.birdpoty.com/news/judging-bird-poty-how-we-decide-the-winners https://www.birdpoty.com/news/judging-bird-poty-how-we-decid... [1]: https://www.birdpoty.com/2021-winners https://www.birdpoty.com/2021-winners
chipotle_coyote 5y ago
The description for the photo on the organization's web site (linked in the Petapixel article) reads, > The image tells an important story of habitat fragmentation, and how structures such as the border wall can prevent wildlife from migrating and moving into other areas. The wall dominates the image, with the roadrunner seemingly powerless and small in the frame. So they're not really being coy about this being a statement. The Petapixel article also has longer quotes from the artist about how disruptive he feels the border wall is for wildlife. I don't think it's a statement about immigration politics, per se, as much as a statement about unintended consequences of the way our actions affect the environment.
- Splognosticus 5y ago
  Yeah, the statement is literally just "the exact specific thing we said this project would cause happened." Lamentably the people listening already knew that, and the people who need to hear it won't listen. Honestly the wall doesn't even need to be political to be a bad idea. We could stipulate that every single reason given for needing to build it is true and it'd still only keep out roadrunners. :\
Nicksil 5y ago
>But am I the only one that thinks this was also chosen for a political statement? A lot of notable and iconic photographs are political.
Exmoor 5y ago
As someone who pays a decent amount of attention of wildlife photography, and this contest, amazingly detailed photos of birds end up being a dime a dozen in contests like these. What really gets you noticed is something that tells a story beyond "I'm a bird." Not necessarily political, but something that really tells a story in one single frame.
ncmncm 5y ago
If anybody cared about the wildlife, the wall could have had holes big enough for roadrunners to get through. The jaguars and bears would still be SOL. Unless we took it down. We got along without for a damn long time, and the reasons to put it up in the first place always turned out to be entirely made up and contrary to well-established fact. Is observation of stupidly, massively overpriced construction that has, objectively, no desirable result, but is massively disruptive for wildlife, political? Only through an implicitly political lens.
RappingBoomer 5y ago
not exactly strange that the media loves immigration and hates anti-immigrationist people...after all, the media is funded by big corporations that hire Labor...It always was Capital vs Labor...always...

Extremely beautiful photo! But am I the only one that thinks this was also chosen for a political statement?

BuyMyBitcoins 5y ago

That is 100% why this was chosen.

haihaibye 5y ago

I think that's a fair assumption when the winning bird photo is ~0.25% bird (by pixels)

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

perl4ever 5y ago

Roadrunners can fly, can't they? "flying is limited to gliding from a nest or perch to the ground, or between perches" "Male roadrunners perch atop fence posts and rocks" https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Greater_Roadrunner/lifehistory https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Greater_Roadrunner/lifeh...

jws 5y ago
Roadrunners lack a keel on their breastbone and have relatively small pectoral muscles. They can fly a little, but my 4 minutes of internet research say it is unlikely that bird can fly over that wall.
- perl4ever 5y ago
  I don't claim to have done more than 4 minutes of research myself, but supporting a negative proposition is a lot harder than finding evidence for the existence of something.
atatatat 5y ago
That was the political message — right?
- perl4ever 5y ago
  The political message is bound to be either that the border wall is an insurmountable barrier with devastating consequences, or that it's trivial to get past and a complete useless waste of money. It's logically possible for it to be both at once, depending on context but it's an interestingly contradictory aesthetic.

annexrichmond 5y ago

Maybe, but I wouldn’t be able to say for certain what that statement is. I think anyone would enjoy this photo no matter their political stripes

epse 5y ago

I assume in bird photography circles, they would be more concerned with the ecological impact (which is in a way also political)

aw1621107 5y ago

> But am I the only one that thinks this was also chosen for a political statement? For what it's worth, the competition site says [0]: > Typically, an awarded photo will: > Be properly in focus, > show good use of exposure and lighting, > display technical excellence in its execution, > and capture a unique moment, behaviour, or story. The last criteria seems like it could answer your question. The announcement page also has this blurb [1]: > The image tells an important story of habitat fragmentation, and how structures such as the border wall can prevent wildlife from migrating and moving into other areas. The wall dominates the image, with the roadrunner seemingly powerless and small in the frame. [0]: https://www.birdpoty.com/news/judging-bird-poty-how-we-decide-the-winners https://www.birdpoty.com/news/judging-bird-poty-how-we-decid... [1]: https://www.birdpoty.com/2021-winners https://www.birdpoty.com/2021-winners

chipotle_coyote 5y ago

The description for the photo on the organization's web site (linked in the Petapixel article) reads, > The image tells an important story of habitat fragmentation, and how structures such as the border wall can prevent wildlife from migrating and moving into other areas. The wall dominates the image, with the roadrunner seemingly powerless and small in the frame. So they're not really being coy about this being a statement. The Petapixel article also has longer quotes from the artist about how disruptive he feels the border wall is for wildlife. I don't think it's a statement about immigration politics, per se, as much as a statement about unintended consequences of the way our actions affect the environment.

Splognosticus 5y ago
Yeah, the statement is literally just "the exact specific thing we said this project would cause happened." Lamentably the people listening already knew that, and the people who need to hear it won't listen. Honestly the wall doesn't even need to be political to be a bad idea. We could stipulate that every single reason given for needing to build it is true and it'd still only keep out roadrunners. :\

Nicksil 5y ago

>But am I the only one that thinks this was also chosen for a political statement? A lot of notable and iconic photographs are political.

Exmoor 5y ago

As someone who pays a decent amount of attention of wildlife photography, and this contest, amazingly detailed photos of birds end up being a dime a dozen in contests like these. What really gets you noticed is something that tells a story beyond "I'm a bird." Not necessarily political, but something that really tells a story in one single frame.

ncmncm 5y ago

If anybody cared about the wildlife, the wall could have had holes big enough for roadrunners to get through. The jaguars and bears would still be SOL. Unless we took it down. We got along without for a damn long time, and the reasons to put it up in the first place always turned out to be entirely made up and contrary to well-established fact. Is observation of stupidly, massively overpriced construction that has, objectively, no desirable result, but is massively disruptive for wildlife, political? Only through an implicitly political lens.

RappingBoomer 5y ago

not exactly strange that the media loves immigration and hates anti-immigrationist people...after all, the media is funded by big corporations that hire Labor...It always was Capital vs Labor...always...