“Wild art” is a photo unaccompanied by a news story. For example, a photo of the first snowfall of the year can be newsworthy, but usually doesn’t require a news story. The term “wild art” dates in print to at least 1979; photographers usually prefer a similar term such as “standalone.”
 
 
Google News Archive
29 April 1979, The Ledger (Lakeland, FL), ‘Telling the story with more than words,” pg. 4, col. 4:
Other pictures, called “wild” art or “stand-alones,” are shot at the photographer’s discretion and are unconnected with any news event. These are pictures that tell a small story by themselves—a boy and his dog, a workman replacing a traffic light, a new road under construction, things that a good photograph can lift out of the ordinary and give you a fresh look at your world.
   
Google Books
Electronic Age News Editing
By Harry W. Stonecipher, Edward C. Nicholls and Douglas A. Anderson
Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall
1981
Pg. 130:
... story, standing alone as “wild art,” as a two-column photo, as a three-column photo, etc.).
 
Google Books
Images of Our Times:
Sixty years of photography from the Los Angeles Times
By Iris Schneider
New York, NY: H.N. Abrams
1987
Pg. 10:
These photographs, many of them humorous, often find their way into the paper (we call the category “wild art” because the pictures are unrelated to news events or other feature stories), and they ...
 
Google Books
Visual Editing:
A graphic guide for journalists
By Howard I. Finberg and Bruce D. Itule
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub. Co.
1990
Pg. 219:
Wild and Stand-Alone Photos Newspapers often use photos without stories; such pictures are called standalone photos or wild art. The use of these photos can provide additional news to the reader and make for a more pleasing visual ...
   
Google Books
The Dream Job:
Sports publicity, promotion, and public relations
By Melvin Helitzer
Athens, OH: University Sports Press, in cooperation with the Graduate School of Health and Sports Sciences, and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University
1992
Pg. 195:
Years ago, a photo run with a story was known as art. When a free-standing photo ran without a story, it was called wild art. Those terms are rarely used today. A photograph is a picture or a photo, not a pix.
 
Google Books
Journalism Today
By Donald L. Ferguson and Jim Patten
Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Co.
1993
Pg. 268:
The first snowfall on campus or an unusual-looking car owned by a student are possible subjects for wild art.
   
Google Books
Strategic Copy Editing
By John Russial
New York, NY: Guilford Press
2004
Pg. 208:
Some full captions are written for photos that run without stories. Those photos are known as “standalones” or sometimes “wild art,” a term that many photographers shun.
 
You Don’t Say
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Our vanishing heritage
Posted by John McIntyre at 9:37 PM
You asked for it: some terms — hardly an exhaustive list — retrieved from newspaper lingo before these endangered print artifacts vanish like the passenger pigeon and the copy editor.
(...)
COMMENTS
Old Word Wolf
Aug 26, 2009 08:00 PM
“Wild art:” a photo unaccompanied by a story.