We stand by the respectful image of John McCain that we used on our cover, and we expect to be judged by it. We were not aware of the manipulated and dishonest images Jill Greenberg had taken until this past Friday.
When we contract with photographers for portraits, we don't vet them for their politics--instead, we assess their professional track records. We had never worked with Jill Greenberg before (and, obviously, we will not work with her again). Based on the portraits she had done of politicians like Arnold Schwarzenegger and her work for publications like Time, Wired, and Portfolio, we expected her, like the other photographers we work with, to behave professionally.
Jill Greenberg has obviously not done that. She has, in fact, disgraced herself, and we are appalled by the manipulated images she has created for her Web site of John McCain.
Personally, I find her work grotesque, even when she isn't being overtly political.
Take a look at some of the grotesque photos of young children crying that she has created and this will show a deeply twisted look at children that should disturb anyone. They are almost pornographic in the harsh way in which these poor kids were depicted.
The Atlantic folks have definitely made the right choice, this time.
