Art Attack

Old Word Wolf isn't a page designer, photographer, illustrator or artist -- but she knows what she likes. She likes photos in the morning paper to tell a story ("stand-alone art") or enhance the reporter's effort. This morning's front page art does neither.

In fact, it's been doctored beyond recognition. Somebody at the Charlotte Sun took a perfectly adequate (if trite, by now) picture of NYSE brokers and dropped out the background. The doctoring eliminated context, created fuzzy black halos around everyone's heads and hands, and left one guy making an obscene gesture at the empty sky while the middle man watches the finger -- is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it art? It certainly isn't journalism. And what's with the black patch? What's supposed to be a snapshot of the Big Board's Dow-Jones rally, looks like it's about to fall painfully into the right figure's forehead. No one's safe.

SUN PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AMORETTE ZINDLE Specialist James Denaro, left, handles trades at the post for Morgan Stanley on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday.

All other AP photos describe the guy on the left doing his thing, and none say he did it Monday. In fact, based on the number and variety of similar photos of Denaro released by the AP, I suspect it was taken last week. What the AP cut line says is: "Specialist James Denaro, left, handles trades at the post for Morgan Stanley on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Monday, stocks rallied..."

Bad editing -- on so many levels.