Riot kiss 'conspiracy' lights up the web after more pictures emerge

It’s the kiss that’s grabbed the world’s attention, but was the seemingly spontaneous smooch planted by Australian Scott Jones on the lips of his Canadian girlfriend Alex Thomas during last week’s riot in Vancouver actually a contrived copy?
That’s the allegation that has lit up cyberspace as astute observers point to the similarity between the ‘‘Vancouver riot kiss’’ photo and a photograph taken in the French city of Lyon last October.

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Australian Scott Jones plants a kiss on his Canadian girlfriend, Alex Thomas, during a riot in Vancouver. Photo: Getty Images

The Canadian photograph was taken on June 15 by Getty photographer Richard Lam during riots that followed the Vancouver Canucks’ loss to the Boston Bruins in the final game of the seven-match Stanley Cup ice hockey series.
As thousands of Canadians took to the streets to trash the city, riot police moved in, advancing in surges of 20 metres at a time. After one such wave, a couple ended up on the street in a clinch, and Richard Lam caught them on film, thinking he was shooting an injured woman and a man attempting to comfort her.
The first Lam knew of his ‘‘kiss’’ photo, he told the website popphoto.com, was when ‘‘another photographer came up to me and said, ‘Nice frame with the couple kissing on the street’.’’

Proof? ... A picture claiming to be of the now-famous Scott Jones- Alex Thomas riot kiss as posted on Twitter.

‘‘I didn't know what she was talking about,’’ Lam said. ‘‘I never shot a kissing couple. I shot someone who was hurt on the street. I went back to the room and checked it out and my jaw dropped when I saw that they were kissing.’’

That account tallies with the version offered by Scott Jones, a West Australian and aspiring stand-up comedian. Speaking to Channel Nine on Saturday, Mr Jones, who has been working in a bar in Vancouver, said Ms Thomas fell over after police charged, and he ran back to protect her.
‘‘I went back for her, they kept hitting us with shields, I was talking to her, just trying to calm her down, kissing … helps to calm her as well.’’

Worldwide attention ... Alexandra Thomas and Scott Jones.

But the similarities between Mr Lam’s photo and the Lyon photo, taken by Reuters photographer Gonzalo Fuentes, have prompted some observers to wonder if the whole thing was a set-up.
The Lyon photo features an unidentified couple kissing while lying on the street as riot police advance. It was taken on October 21, 2010 during protests against French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposal to lift the retirement age in France from 60 to 62 as part of that country’s austerity measures.
The similarities have prompted many commenters in online forums, Facebook and Twitter to suggest the more recent photograph — which Esquire online has declared ‘‘certainly the greatest photo from Wednesday night, and maybe ever’’ — a deliberate copy.
‘‘It’s not original or spontaneous,’’ wrote commenter Jack Lang (presumably not the former French minister for culture), in a post that was typical. ‘‘A photo of a couple in France during the riots in oct 2010 looks mighty similar.’’
On Twitter, a user called @balsac posted an image purportedly of the couple on the street, taken from a window a couple of storeys above. They are shown surrounded by several other people. While it’s far from obvious what is going on, there’s little suggestion of spontaneity.
The conspiracy theories have been fuelled further today by news that celebrity agent Max Markson is now representing the couple.
But the Sydney-based Markson, who is bringing the couple to Australia next month, insists that while Mr Jones is keen to capitalise on his instant fame if it helps further his comedic ambitions, there is nothing fake about the photo.
‘‘It’s absolutely genuine,’’ Markson insisted. ‘‘I wish I’d have thought of it though. The next time there’s a riot, I’m going straight down there with a girl, saying, ‘Let’s lie on the ground, we’ll get a load of money out of this’.’’
Arguably the most famous photo of a public kiss — for now at least — remains Robert Doisneau’s 1950 photo for Life magazine, Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville. Better known as The Kiss, it was long celebrated as a perfect example of the opportune becoming art.
But in 1992, a couple who mistakenly believed Doisneau had profited from taking their image without their permission sued him, seeking a share of the proceeds. Only then was it revealed that in fact the photographer had posed the shot, asking real couple Françoise Delbart and Jacques Carteaud to restage a kiss he had witnessed moments earlier for the camera.