Today’s Boston Globe has a brief item on a group of Indonesian monkeys who grabbed wildlife photographer David Slater’s camera and started taking pictures of themselves. The print edition includes a wonderful self-portrait. Unfortunately, the online version is text-only. What struck my funnybone, though, was the photo credit: “David J. Slater.” Well, uh, not exactly.
I see that the Guardian carried the same story last Monday, and made the same questionable decision. The full caption reads: “A monkey takes an image of photographer David Slater. Photograph: David J Slater/Caters News Agency.” I guess intellectual-property disputes are cast in a different light when the photographer can’t speak up for himself.
The Globe item cites the Daily Mail, whose very first picture is the self-portrait I refer to above. The Mail shows better sense than the Globe or the Guardian, crediting Caters News Agency but not Slater himself.