© Copyright Not for reproduction or distribution in any ...€¦ · Not for reproduction or distribution in any format. Chapter 2, News 37 2 News CMAKING HEADLINES rime, whether

36 ■ P h o t o j o u r n a l i s m : T h e P r o f e s s i o n a l s ’ A p p r o a c h

You can predict some crime news. The photographer anticipated violence on the first day of World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle. Paul Joseph Brown, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

KOBRE (Photojournalism 7e) BOOK.indb 36 15/11/2016 11:17

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or distribution in any format.

C h a p t e r 2 , N e w s ■ 37

2

NewsMAKING HEADLINES

Crime, whether it’s a riot in Seattle, ashington, or

a hostage situation in Arlington, Texas, is costly

to society. Crime can be a deep human tragedy

for criminals and their families, as well as for victims and theirs.

Almost any kind of crime makes a printable story in newsrooms

across the country. The cub reporter soon learns that whether it’s

an atrocious murder or a $100 hold-up of a gas station, the event is

considered news in city rooms from coast to coast. Depending upon

a crime’s violence, its cost, the prominence of people involved, or

the crime’s humorous or unusual aspects, the news receives varying

amounts of emphasis.





New York newshound often gets off just one shot with his strobe. No need for a continuous shooting mode, either, he says. It’s got to be right. No second chances here.

Porter in California, though, cautions against using the strobe in some night news situations. The strobe light can be dangerous in a hostage situation, he cautions, especially when a confrontation involves guns. You can also blind the police with the strobe,” he says. During a tense hostage situation, Porter sticks to shooting available light with his long lenses even at night.

Police Sergeant Carl Yates, who works with the media in Louisville, Kentucky, agrees. Never underestimate the potential impact of a sudden ash of bright light at a night scene. It can anger officers in some cases, escalate the incident; or worse, light up officers and others, making them potential targets.

John Tlumacki, a veteran photojournalist for The Boston Globe, notes that if you want to remain discreet and not be thrown out of a crime scene or investigation, a ash can be intrusive. Most photographers covering the manhunt and capture of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects in atertown, Mass., did not use ashes that night, he recounts. Most scenes were recorded using available light.

GETTING ALONG WITH THE COPShen New York’s

Costanza approaches a crime scene at night, the first thing he does is shout “New York Post photographer. But he does not wait to begin taking pictures. By the time the New York’ comes out, I’ve fired

the first picture, he says. On the nighttime crime beat, Costan a must be within 15 to 30 feet of his subject to get a well-exposed picture. Otherwise, the light from his strobe just will not be bright enough.

hen faced with police at a crime scene, Costan a advances confidently but will walk away instead of confronting police if they are hostile. Bruce Chambers, a six-time Pulit er nominee who shoots for the Orange County Register says, Don’t ask cops. They will say, stand behind the yellow line.’

irefighters don’t care where you are. They are so busy doing their job.

Jim MacMillan, who at one time covered at least 30 murders a year for the Philadelphia Daily News, says that he goes

ARMING FOR ACTIONMost spot news photographers have worked out the exact combination of cameras, lenses, and strobes that they need to work in the particular area they cover. Those who mainly shoot mayhem at night carry differ-ent hardware than those on the day shift. Photographers covering murder in the big city pack differently than those covering wildfires in the countryside.

DAYTIME ARSENALShen covering spot news for the

Philadelphia Daily News, Jim MacMillan never left home without three cameras, including one mounted to a 500mm f/4 lens and connected to a monopod plus a 1.4X and a 2X tele-extender. In Philly, the police keep us far away from the crime scene,” explains MacMillan. I’ve gotten some of my best pictures from a block away.

To carry all three cameras and lenses at one time, he would hang his wide-angle zoom around his neck, sling a telephoto zoom over his right shoulder, and haul an extreme telephoto, pointing backwards, over his left shoulder. I could put two hands on any one of the cameras at any time,” he points out. (See Chapter 11, Photo Story, for more on MacMillan’s work.)

On the fire watch for most of the dry season in Northern California, Kent Porter of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, uses a full complement of lenses. At a working fire I try to get pictures of the weary firemen. I use an extreme wide angle so I can get close to my subjects and incorporate the area the people are working in. I use a long telephoto quite a bit, he says.

Aside from their standard cameras, many photojournalists covering spot news also carry a dedicated video camera. These can record video in relatively low light as well as capture the sound of firefighters’ voices as they yell for more water or taller ladders.

Smartphones are another essential tool for photojournalists for their video capa-bility as much as for calls, texts, and Internet access. Short video clips shot with a smart-phone can be transmitted almost immediately. These 10 20 second video clips are often the first news images to reach the public.

NIGHT ON THE STREETSSam Costanza, shooting mostly at night for the New York Post, rarely gets to use a long lens. He sets up his camera and strobe like a point-and-shoot so that he can concentrate on the scene and not worry about technical details. sually working around a hostile crowd, anxious police, or upset relatives, the

Jim MacMillan, Philadelphia Daily News




C h a p t e r 2 , N e w s ■ 39

A LISTENER’S STORY

The hour was sneaking up on midnight in Manhattan. Sam Costanza was

sitting behind the wheel of his 1976 Ford Maverick, casually listening to the crack-ling sound of his scanner radio. So far, the evening was business as usual for the veteran contract photographer for the New York Post. Then he heard the New York City Police Department’s special operations dispatcher: “10-10 shots fired on Wheeler Avenue in the Bronx.”

Costanza did not move, but he continued listening. A shooting on Wheeler Avenue was not news. Just another of many weekly shootings in that rough section of the Bronx—definitely not page-one news for the next day’s Post. There was no payoff for Costanza, a freelancer, to cover “another routine shooting.”

But, the next transmission from the special operations dispatcher alerted Costanza that a “newsworthy condition” was shaping up.

The disembodied voice on the radio said, “Three men to Jacobi Hospital for trauma.”

From years of listening to the police department, Costanza knew that the second transmission meant that three officers were involved in a situation involving the death of a civilian but that no officers had been injured. According to police procedure, a New York officer always goes to a city hospital following situations involving the death of a civilian—“trauma.” Putting the first and second transmissions together, Costanza figured that police had been involved with the “10-10 shots fired.”

“Now my wheels are turning,” Costanza recalls. “I head for the Bronx from my current position on the upper West Side of Manhattan.”

Pushing his powder-blue Maverick at 80 miles per hour down the Sheridan Expressway, the photographer heard the crucial third transmission by the Special Operations Division, but by now the dispatch-er’s voice was tense. “Perp down. DOA, 1157 Wheeler Avenue, Bronx.”

Costanza’s experienced ears translated. At least three officers had been involved in shooting another person. That person was now dead at 1157 Wheeler Avenue, Bronx.

The photographer arrived at Wheler Avenue, parked, jumped out of his car, and slung his two Nikons, mounted with Vivitar 283 flash units, over his shoulder. Starting

toward the crime scene, which was halfway down the block, he was accosted by no fewer than four officers who, seeing the cameras, told him he could proceed no further because an active crime scene had been set up.

Faced with tough, big-city cops attempting to block his access to crime scenes nearly every night of his working life, Costanza was not discouraged. Rather than waste time, he returned to his car, and drove around the block. This time, he knew he’d need a ruse to get near.

Now, wearing a black military fatigue jacket, he left the car and headed out with just one Nikon and flash unit tucked under his arm and out of view of the officers. He placed his hand radio, cranked up to full volume, in his upper jacket pocket. Perhaps, he hoped, the uniformed cops on this end of Wheeler would mistake him for a detective.

The ruse worked. The uniformed cops, he recalls, “neglected to accost me.” Costanza got to within 25 feet of the crime scene, where he noticed Styrofoam cups, at least 30 at first count, placed upside down on the sidewalk. From past experience, he knew that the police use the cups to mark the location

of spent bullet rounds or bullet casings. The number of cups indicated that an incredible orgy of gunfire had taken place. He had never seen so many cups at a crime scene.

“As soon as I spotted the cups, I knew this was the picture,” Costanza says. “The cups would immediately show that multiple rounds had been fired in this area no larger than 40 square feet.”

Costanza also knew that once he pulled out his camera and shot, the cops would shut him down. He knew he could get off one—and only one—shot before he was out. Costanza

picked up the camera and flash. He had pre- focused the camera on infinity, set the f-stop at 5.6 on his 35mm lens, the shutter speed at 1/60 sec., and the strobe on auto. Just as a pair of plainclothes investigators walked by the overturned cups, he fired off three frames.

“All hell broke loose,” he says. The police surrounded him and “escorted” him away. The first thing Costanza did when he got back to his Maverick was to call the city desk of the New York Post. “At least 30 shots appear to have been fired by NYPD, and there’s a dead perp in the vestibule at 1157 Washington Avenue,” he reported.

The editor responded, “I’m only interested if it’s a cop that gets shot, not a perp.”

Despite the editor’s bad call, Costanza had left the scene with incredibly impor-tant pictures. Four members of NYPD’s elite Street Crimes Unit had fired 41—not just 30—bullets at Amadou Diallo, an unarmed immigrant from Guinea, West Africa.

Nineteen bullets riddled the man’s body. Diallo’s death set off an intense racial conflict in New York and a review of New York police policies. When the four officers were found not guilty of second-degree murder, a new round of protests erupted—not just in New York but also around the country.

While the Post never ran Costanza’s picture, his agency, Sipa Press, sold the image to publications around the world. For Costanza, it was just another night in the life of a spot news photographer.

Sam Costanza could fire only three quick frames before the police hustled him away from the scene where they had shot an unarmed man.Sam Costanza, Sipa Press

Medics frantically try to revive one of two drowning victims. To arrive in time to cover this kind of spot news, Costanza carefully monitors two scanners in his car as well as a portable scanner that he carries with him.Sam Costanza, New York Post





in with confidence. If I am going to get in a dispute with them over my rights, I have already lost, he says.

Like Costan a, MacMillan will try to find the path of least resistance, but he has still faced everything from special treat-ment to harassment. The cops are espe-cially protective of the scene if children are involved or if a cop has been hurt, he says. nder those circumstances, I know I am going to run into problems, he notes. hatever happens, my advice to photographers is to leave the baggage of any dispute when approaching your next scene.

One cop may have been abusive one day, while another may lay out the red carpet the next.

WHEN THE POLICE SAY NO PICTURESThe police cite a number of reasons for pushing the media away from crime, acci-dent, or disaster scenes. They sometimes feel (mistakenly) that they must protect the privacy of citizens from the press, say Donald Middlebrooks, Clarence Jones, and Howard Shrader in an article for News Photographer Magazine on access to news. Sometimes police claim to be pushing the

After a high-speed chase into the center of Philadelphia, a triple-murder suspect bailed out of his car and led police on a brief foot-chase. As officers closed in, guns drawn, the suspect took a hostage (the taller man in the checkered shirt), and placed the barrel of his gun into his own mouth. Jim MacMillan shot this part of the sequence with a 500mm lens plus a 1.4X tele-extender, giving him an effective 700mm telephoto. The long lens allowed him to stay back and avoid the possibility of taking a bullet himself. All photos, Jim MacMillan, Philadelphia Daily News

The hostage wrestles away the suspect’s gun. Police carry the wounded suspect to the paddy wagon. After the hostage pulled the gun away, police opened fire and hit the suspect twice. Using a second camera body, MacMillan rushed in and shot this photo with a wide-angle lens.

The relieved hostage gives thanks while police arrest the gunman. The hostage was unharmed, and hailed as a hero by police for his cool demeanor under pres-sure. MacMillan, using an 80–200mm zoom on his third camera body, took this candid portrait. The entire incident lasted 30 seconds.

HOSTAGE HERO




C h a p t e r 2 , N e w s ■ 41

by stepping on a bullet, for example. Kent Porter recounts the time he arrived before police when a man had been bludgeoned with a tire iron 27 times. My shoe prints got all over the crime scene, he recalls. I had blood on my shoes. e have to make sure you are not the murderer,’ the cops said. And then they took my shoes. The only thing I had to wear were my spiked baseball shoes.

The outer perimeter is designed to keep away curiosity-seekers. Photographers with media credentials should be able to cross the outer perimeter but not the inner perimeter. Inside the yellow tape is where the crime scene is located.

The Boston Globe’s John Tlumacki says one of the hardest things he had to learn as a beginning photojournalist was how to deal with the yellow tape and a perimeter at a crime scene. He recommends photographers remain cordial to the police or highway patrol but still try to get closer. I like to take it to the limit when I arrive at a roped-off scene, whether it is a fire, crime scene, or natural disaster. It does nobody good to feel

media away to prevent interference with rescue efforts or to avoid pretrial problems that will prevent them from successfully prosecuting their case.

Too often, these reasons are an easy dodge for getting reporters and photographers out of law enforcement’s hair at a time when the police are excited and sometimes overwhelmed by the disaster or crime scene at which they are working. But that does not mean you can ignore the police when they do not want you around.

KNOW YOUR BOUNDSMany police agencies use a two-perimeter system to deal with the media, says Sergeant Yates of the Louisville, Kentucky, police department. They first establish an outer perimeter as a barrier for the general public. Once the scene has been secured, they create an inner perimeter for the news media.

One way to avoid some problems is to be aware of the crime-scene perimeter. If you get there before the police put up the yellow tape, you do not want to contaminate the scene—

The attacker was part of an anti-busing group that had just recited the pledge of allegiance during a demonstration at city hall. The unfortunate African-American man just happened to be walking by. Stanley Forman, Boston Herald





In the rare instances when you arrive at the scene of a crime in progress, the police do not have the right to eject you even for your own safety. Of course, stay out of their way. They definitely have enough problems without trying to protect you.

Finally, Yates cautions, do not argue with a police officer. You can argue until you’re blue in the face,” he says, “and all you will usually be left with is a blue face.

ON THE SCENEOnce the police have set up their perimeter, you often have to shoot with a long lens and even add the tele-extender. Jim MacMillan’s 500mm lens and extenders come in handy at times like this.

Sometimes the problem is not the length of lens but of time. You just have to wait.

New York’s Sam Costan a has done a lot of waiting in his time. He puts it this way:

ait for the chief medical examiner to get there. ait for the crime scene detectives to arrive. ait for the medical examiner to check the wounds. ait for the police photographer to photograph the body. And, finally, wait for the crime scene detectives to look to see if there are any weapons on the ground. hile shooting spot news can produce an adrenaline rush, it can also result in fallen arches and tired legs.

Kent Porter in Santa Rosa says he tries to be as thorough as the detectives themselves. I check to see if I have all the evidence, he

says. Do I have all the names I need If it is a

defeated when you arrive at a scene and just give up when you get there.

Tlumacki recalls covering a tornado in Brimfield, Mass. Although stopped by a trooper blocking a road deemed dangerously littered with trees and debris, Tlumacki convinced the trooper he would approach the town carefully and turn back if the situation was too dangerous. He allowed me to pass through, and I was able to squee e by debris. I was one of the first photographers there to show the destruction to the area and some rescues that were still happening.

Sergeant Yates of Kentucky suggests that photographers look for an officer (preferably a commanding officer), identify themselves, and then ask, “Could you direct me to where you want the news media If this fails, ask if there is anyone on the scene in charge of public information.

Do not violate the inner perimeter. You have no more legal right of access than the general public. hat you do have, and what you hope the police will know, is a more significant reason to be there than the general public does. (See Chapter 16, Law. )

Yates recommends that unless an immediate photo is necessary, you take time to talk to officers before taking pictures. Try to get a feel for the mood of the scene. Police are particularly on edge when a fellow officer has been injured or killed and may overreact. These are times to ask first and shoot later,

Yates points out. Express regrets and ease into the situation.

A fan hoists a life-size cutout of the LA Lakers’ Shaquille O’Neal outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The team had just defeated the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals. In the back-ground is a burning news media truck, set ablaze by out-of-control fans. The photographer combined flash and a slow shutter to expose for both the rioter and the burning truck.Stan Lim, Inland Valley [California] Daily Bulletin




C h a p t e r 2 , N e w s ■ 43

On what had been a routine assignment in Boston, the well-trained photojournalist over-came every natural self-protective instinct and instead ran toward danger. ithin a few short moments of doing so he made iconic images that will be remembered for decades to come.

I had been covering the Boston Marathon for the last 20 years,” Tlumacki told Donald

inslow for a story in News Photographer Magazine titled A Bombing in Boston.

My assignment was the same as it has been for the last five: Be in the street posi-tion at the finish line of the race, covering the winners as one of the six selected pool

shooting, do I have a picture of the gun Do I have the picture of the main investigator Do I have all the players the reporter has talked to? Do I have a photo of the surrounding scene Did I get low and shoot the tape To ensure complete coverage, Porter says he always shoots the crime scene as if it were a picture story with a beginning, middle, and end.

OVERCOMING YOUR NATURAL INSTINCTSNormal people run from danger. Based on thousands of years of conditioning built into our genes, we ee when faced with a life-threatening event.

Not John Tlumacki, a 30-year veteran of The Boston Globe photo staff.

Sydney Corcoran from Lowell is helped by Matt Smith (left) from Boston and Zack Mione from Portland, Oregon, at the site of the first Boston Marathon bombing. They saved Corcoran’s life by wrapping T-shirts around her legs and applying pressure to stop the bleeding. A piece of shrapnel about the size of a cell phone from the pressure-cooker bomb severed her femoral artery. Her mother, Celeste, lost both legs. John Tlumacki, The Boston Globe

continued on page 50 ▶




44 ■ C h a p t e r 1 , A s s i g n m e n t44 ■ P h o t o j o u r n a l i s m : T h e P r o f e s s i o n a l s ’ A p p r o a c h

COVERING THE CRISIS IN FERGUSON

Overnight, the eight- member St. Louis

Post-Dispatch photo team found itself at the epicenter of

a national news story, providing unprecedented coverage of a tragedy that thrust race relations in America into the spotlight.

Their stunning images of the rapidly escalating tension over the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, graced publications and websites across the world.

“HE’S TAKING PICTURES OF US! KICK HIS ASS”Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson was shop-ping for school supplies with his wife and eight-year-old daughter when his iPhone lit up with a flurry of tweets on the afternoon of Saturday, August 9, 2014.

As his third-grader mulled over notebooks and rulers at Target, Carson learned that an unarmed black teenager had been gunned down by a white police officer in a nearby St. Louis suburb. As the online chatter grew angrier and more intense, Carson grew restless. After touching base with his boss, the photographer grabbed his gear and headed to Ferguson, a 20-minute drive away. When he arrived at 6 P.M., Michael Brown’s body had been removed, and firefighters were hosing his blood off the street.

Edward Crawford returns a tear gas canister fired by police who were trying to disperse protesters in Ferguson, Missouri. Four days earlier, unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was shot to death by white police officer Darren Wilson. The killing ignited riots and unrest in the St. Louis area and across the nation.Robert Cohen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A member of the St. Louis County Police tactical team fires tear gas into a crowd of people in response to a series of gunshots fired at police during demonstrations in Ferguson. For more than two weeks, police and protesters clashed nightly.David Carson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Sherry Ricchiardi(Excerpted from “Ferguson,” News Photographer Magazine)





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Helped by a stranger, Cassandra Roberts has tear gas cleared from her eyes as she sits outside a McDonald’s. “We thought it could be a peaceful night,” said Roberts, who was marching in Ferguson for the first time. “What the hell is going on in this world?”Robert Cohen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A protester shields himself from exploding tear gas canis-ters. On this night protesters attempted to throw Molotov cocktails, rocks and bottles at police. It was the fourth con-secutive night police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.David Carson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch





By 8 P.M., police with semi-automatic rifles and German Shepherds arrived, and for the first time, Carson heard protesters chanting, “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Word spread that Brown had raised his arms before being gunned down by Officer Darren Wilson.

Carson wasn’t working the next day. When he learned police had fired tear gas canisters into the crowd, he told his wife, “Things are out of hand. I’m going.”

Post-Dispatch chief photographer J.B. Forbes was already on the scene and welcomed the backup.

Carson stopped in the newsroom to collect helmets, body armor, and gas masks from the “war closet,” as he describes it. He also grabbed 400mm and 500mm lenses. When he arrived, demonstrators were looting a small, QuikTrip convenience market about a half-mile from the original shooting scene. He debated with himself about going inside.

Carson stuck his camera through a broken window shooting in both directions so “I’d know what I was walking into.” When a looter rushed in through the door, Carson followed close behind and began making pictures.

While inside the QuikTrip, a heavyset man, his face covered with a bandana, demanded, “What are you doing?” He pulled up his shirt and displayed a gun in his waistband. Carson explained he was a photographer from the Post-Dispatch. He told him, “Your face is covered. You’ll be fine.” The man replied, “OK,” and returned to looting.

“I was in the store exactly one minute and 43 seconds,” Carson later recalled. He ran to the edge of a nearby wooded area and filed 15 pictures of the looting, using a laptop to transmit.

As more police in riot gear arrived, Carson trained his camera on groups gathering near the QuikTrip that was being set on fire. Suddenly, someone shouted, “Hey, he’s taking pictures of us. Kick his ass!” As Carson ran toward the police, he was struck in the head from behind. He hit the ground hard, shattering his wide-angle zoom lens. He rolled over to see a foot coming at him.

Just then a local pastor he had interviewed minutes before ordered the attackers to back off, giving Carson time to get away. The next day, he sent out a message

A looter armed with a gun in his waistband steals items from a QuikTrip after riots broke out at the end of a candlelight vigil for Michael Brown. The store was later set afire.David Carson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch







Ferguson protester Cheyenne Green struggles to hold onto an American flag while a football fan makes a grab for it outside the Edward Jones Dome follow-ing a St. Louis Rams game.David Carson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Asher Kolieboi operates a puppet of Michael Brown as thousands of people march against police vio-lence in downtown St. Louis during a weekend series of demonstrations called “Ferguson October.”Robert Cohen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch





on Twitter and Facebook: “Got assaulted, a few bruises, tore my pants, broken camera, glad I was geared up.”

During periods when he was embedded with police tactical units, Carson used a Canon WFP-E6A, a WIFI module that attaches on the side of the camera, allowing him to transmit directly to the newspaper. He also used an Eye-Fi wireless memory card to file images moments after taking them. “We scrambled around to buy those after Ferguson started,” he says.

“I did drink plenty of water. I didn’t want to get dehy-drated and pass out. That’s a fine line, too. If you drink too much, you have to pee while you’re out there. It’s a balancing act,’ says Carson, who lost ten pounds covering Ferguson on sweltering hot August days.

“NO PICTURES. THAT’S THE LAST WARNING!”On Sunday, J.B. Forbes made his way to Canfield Drive in Ferguson and began photographing a crowd near the spot where the teenager was killed. Suddenly, a stranger con-fronted Forbes and ordered him to stop taking pictures. “You are not wanted here,” the man shouted. Forbes noticed that he was wearing a necklace with the symbol of a gun dangling from it.

“I tried to tell him I was there to document what was going on and show the world what was happening. He wasn’t listening,” Forbes recalls.

Nearby, an angry crowd had surrounded a tow truck attempting to drive down the street near Michael Brown’s makeshift memorial. As Forbes raised his camera to record the scene, the man accosted him again.

“I told you, no pictures. That’s the last warning,” he said, placing a hand over Forbes’ lens. As the photogra-pher tried to reason with him, an elderly black woman stepped between them. “He’s just trying to do his job. Leave him alone,” she scolded, staring the man down. He turned around and walked away.

“I thanked her profusely over and over again,” says Forbes. When he looked around, he saw only two other white faces in the crowd of several hundred.

As it drew closer to the 11 P.M. deadline, he headed to the car to transmit photos. The bright light of his com-puter caught the attention of three men walking by. One of them looked into the car, pointed at him and said, “Bang, bang, bang.” “I took that as a sign to leave,” Forbes says.

As he searched for a safer location to send photos, he saw the looting of a tire and auto shop. He pulled close to the building, shut off the lights and began shooting from inside the car with the windows up. A woman passed by and yelled, “Hey, there’s a guy in here taking pictures.” She pointed at the Post-Dispatch photographer.

As he jammed the gear into drive and pulled away, a looter slammed an object into the door on the passenger side, leaving a large dent. When Forbes glanced in the rear view mirror, he saw three men jump in a car to chase him. He “zigzagged” his way along Florissant Avenue to make an escape.

Forbes decided against wearing a helmet. “I didn’t want to look like military,” he says, but. “I was grateful for the gas mask.”

On one occasion, standing amid a group of protesters, Forbes spotted a police sniper on top of a truck with a high-powered rifle aimed directly at him. He remembers thinking, “Why is that guy pointing his gun at me? Could I be imagining this?”

He took a couple steps to the right. The rifle barrel clearly followed him. A thought crossed his mind. Maybe the rifleman was peering through the scope trying to read the press pass he was wearing. Forbes didn’t flinch; he photographed the police officer aiming his gun at him. He describes the police presence in Ferguson as “extremely intimidating.”

“I was far more worried about them than the protesters. They had the numbers and all the guns. There was a feeling


▶ Lesley McSpadden is comforted by her husband, Louis Head, hours after the fatal police shooting of her son Michael Brown in the Canfield Green Apartments in Ferguson.Huy Mach, St. Louis Post-Dispatch





The casket of Michael Brown exits Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church at the end of Brown’s St. Louis funeral. Thousands of mourners filled the church and lined the streets for the farewell. Robert Cohen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

that if you got in their way, they were going to let you have it—and they did,” says Forbes. Along with protesters, the police also arrested and threatened dozens of journalists.

ICONIC IMAGE OF FERGUSON UNRESTRobert Cohen almost missed the picture of a protester, wearing a shirt with an American flag down the front, tossing a tear gas cylinder back at police.

Around 11 P.M. on August 15, Cohen and fellow Post-Dispatch photographer Chris Lee were stationed at the QuikTrip, which had become ground zero for demonstra-tions. Police were lined up nearby.

“I don’t know if it was provoked or not, but the police fired probably half a dozen tear gas and concussion grenades,” Cohen recalls.

That’s when a young man carrying a bag of chips emerged out of the darkness and reached down amid the sparks for the canister. Cohen aimed his camera, hoping he was in focus. He got off nine shots using his 70-200 mm lens.

Cohen rushed to his car to transmit. At that time, “I had no idea of the shirt he was wearing. I didn’t see it when I photographed him or in the crowd earlier.”

He took the photo at 12:25 A.M. and had it back to the newsroom minutes later. It immediately was posted on

STLToday.com and shared on Twitter. “It’s the arm motion combined with the flag shirt that makes it. Without the shirt, it’s just another picture from the week-long event,” says Cohen.

Is this his most famous picture? “Yeah, it probably is,” says Cohen, 48. “They are making T-shirts out the wazoo, and a graphic image of the photo graces a building in Cambridge, Mass. No photo I have ever taken has been reproduced like this one.”

On August 24, the Post-Dispatch published a profile of the canister throwing man in the picture—Edward Crawford, 25, a waiter and father of three. After throwing the canister, he was dragged out of a car, handcuffed and jailed. It was his first protest.

For Cohen, covering violence was a new experience: “I’d never had rocks thrown my way. I’d never been tear-gassed. I’d never heard shots fired in my direction.”

Once they jumped on the story, the photo department didn’t miss a beat, rotating shifts and working 16–18-hour days when protests, looting and clashes with police heated up. All eight photographers worked the scene; all eight were tear-gassed. “Thank goodness nobody was seriously hurt,” says Lynden Steele, director of photogra-phy at the paper.





PHOTOGRAPHING A CRIME IN PROGRESSUnlike reporters who can reconstruct the details of a mugging from police reports and eyewitness accounts, the photographer must be at the crime scene to get action pictures. Robbers, kidnappers, rapists, and murderers tend to shy away from the harsh glare of public exposure.

PREDICTING VIOLENCEA photographer with a good news sense, however, can learn to predict some situations that might erupt into violence. or instance, tension was running high during the National Basketball Association Playoffs in Los Angeles. Stan Lim of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin knew, based on fans’ behavior after previous tight games, to expect rowdiness after the sixth game of the series.

Lim’s news sense led him to stick around after the game rather than going straight back to the newsroom.

hen the final horn signaled a win by the Lakers, Lim headed for the streets. The crowd went wild, even torching a media truck parked outside the coliseum. sing a strobe and slow shutter speed, Lim photographed one of the rioters carrying a cardboard cut-out of the Lakers’ Shaquille O’Neal as fire consumed the truck in the background. Anticipating what was about to happen had put Lim in the right place at the right time.

Be aware that demonstrations and marches can also become crime scenes. Even the police can overreact. Paul Brown was covering protests against the orld Trade Organi ation for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer when police began firing rubber bullets at point-blank range into a group of demonstrators (see page 36). Seattle police initially denied doing so, but Brown’s photos clearly showed police bearing down on the crowd with the menacing weapons. The photographer himself was hit by one of the bullets. After one of Brown’s photos appeared on the newspaper’s front page, the police were forced to admit that they had been firing the weapons. The picture eventu-ally ran on the cover of Time maga ine.

WHY SHOOT FIRES?Reporting fires is an important part of the photojournalist’s job. More than 1,300,000 fires are reported each year in the .S. ires destroy apartment houses, stores, office buildings, and factories. ires sweep through schools where children are having classes. Autos and trucks burn up, and fires devour forests in all parts of the country.

Altogether, fires cost more than 11 billion in property damage, according to the

photographers. I had my laptop there and was continuously transmitting from this position back to our website.

The top runners had finished long before, and Tlumacki recalls that the event was becoming boring as stragglers crossed the line. Standing on the finish line, he can remember hearing the announcer say, Let’s cheer them on” as runners crossed the yellow tape to meet their families and loved ones.

I was waiting for something unusual. As I stood in the middle of the street, there was a middle-aged man holding the hand of a little girl and a woman… and then boom!

The first bomb went off and right in front of me a runner was knocked down by the blast, and police reacted by drawing their guns.

or an instant, Tlumacki’s camera went up in the air, too. Then he reacted instinctively and started taking pictures. He began running toward the blast, not away from it.

hen I got to the fence I did not realize how extremely bad it was, but by the time I got close enough, the people who were lying on the sidewalk—there were maybe 20—were already being helped by bystanders.

“A Boston policeman looked me right in the eye and said you shouldn’t be here, there might be another explosion. I thought, well I’m here, I may as well photograph.

The policeman was right about another bomb. hen the second bomb exploded, Tlumacki was already at the site of the first.

Tlumacki saw that arms and legs of victims had been blown off, and there was a lot of blood. He photographed a man who was kneeling over a severely injured woman, comforting her and whispering to her. The photographer still isn’t sure whether she was one of the victims who lived or died.

irst responders were doing CPR as she was carried away.

There were images that I captured that I saw only through the camera, Tlumacki told Kenneth Irby for Poynter Media News.

nless I was walking around, I never took my eye away from the viewfinder. Things were happening so fast, and I knew that my time was limited. There are some images that I am so upset by. I cropped some things because there were bodies, legs dangling, and limbs missing. It took me a few minutes to comprehend the carnage and devastation.

Everything that I learned in life, in high school, in college, from my parents came into play in those brief seconds when the bomb exploded at the Boston Marathon less than 60 feet away from me, and caused me to react the way I did.




C h a p t e r 2 , N e w s ■ 51

Because of the speed at which the rescue team arrives, getting pictures of their life-saving efforts is difficult. But ultimately, these are the best pictures possible from a fire or accident scene.Randy Trabold, North Adams [Massachusetts] Transcript





LEAP FOR LIFEA FIRE IN BOSTON

Stanley Forman, three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, knows Boston like the back of his hand. In this instance, he was cruising

when he actually smelled smoke and pulled up to the burning house along with police. Trapped on the roof, the man in the pictures first tossed down the child. When the woman froze, the man pushed her off before he jumped. The woman suffered minor injuries, but everyone else was okay. Forman approached the fire as if shooting a picture story. He takes the reader through the danger to the trapped residents on the roof, follows up with pictures of the rescue, and comes in tight to end with a close-up of the officer holding the child. Photos by Stanley Forman








“that could be my house… that could be me in that building.

FINDING AND FLEEING FIRESScanner radios, of course, provide one key means of learning about fires, but you can also develop a sense for when fires might occur. Kent Porter of Santa Rosa, California, has become an amateur meteorologist. By watching for low humidity and high winds, he is aware of the kinds of days when Northern California will be susceptible to wildfires.

These fires might start in a field of dry grass, a grove of trees, or in someone’s backyard. hen conditions are right, such fires escalate quickly which is exactly what happened in Oakland, California.

Porter described it this way. It was windy and really warm. The humidity was

National ire Protection Association. Still more serious than monetary loss, some 3,000 people die in fires each year.

A photo can show not only the emotions of the participants but also the si e of a fire better than words can. If a fire erupts on the 23rd story of a building from which an occupant might jump, a photo can indicate just how high 23 stories really is. Readers can quickly grasp the danger of jumping. If a wooden warehouse catches fire, requiring four companies to halt the spread of the

ames, a photo can give the reader an idea of the vastness of the bla e.

After the fire has been extinguished, a photo of the charred aftermath carries impact beyond a mere statistical description of the loss. A photo of a house burning or an office worker trapped in a building ignites an empa-thetic reaction in the viewer, who thinks,

Forest fires raged in the National Park of Cilento and Vallo di Diano in the province of Salerno, Italy.Antonio Grambone, Caters News Agency




C h a p t e r 2 , N e w s ■ 55

Additionally, Ellison recommends carrying plenty of water or Gatorade in a camelback backpack. Carry extra in your car as well as easy-to-carry food bars, he says. You may be on the lines for an extended period of time. You will dehydrate quickly and heat-stroke is a real concern while walking the fire lines.

Don’t forget to bring eye protection and carry a tiny bottle of eye drops to clean your eyes, and have on hand a couple of bandanas that will help filter acrid smoke.

Keep an eye on the firefighters in the area. If they’re looking calm and confident, you

should feel the same, Ellison says. Don’t hesitate to ask them about current conditions. Since you are there with proper safety gear and a camera in hand, they will consider you a professional and somewhat knowledgeable. You will not be their first concern. If you need help ask for it. Stay out of their way and if they leave in a hurry, do the same.

Plan for Traffichile experienced news photographers know

their hometowns extremely well, they also use GPS (Global Positioning System) to locate fires, plan their route, and find alterna-tives if the main roads are blocked.

Jim MacMillan in Philadelphia advises locating the ames by following the trail of water that fire trucks leave. At night, he

down. I told my girlfriend, There’s going to be a fire today.’ I called my boss while I was driving down the road. I knew I was supposed to cover the football game, but I knew there was going to be a big fire. I turned on my car radio and heard the first reports coming from Oakland: Oakland Hills on fire.’ The Oakland Hills fire turned out to be the biggest urban fire in history more than 3,000 buildings and 25 lives were lost.

Covering Wild FiresMike Ellison of the Santa Barbara (California) News-Press has covered a lot of wild fires in his 21 years on the paper. He recommends owning a complete set of

ame-resistant Nomex brand fire-fighting clothes, and a good pair of thick-soled, leather, ankle-high boots. Nylon hiking boots aren’t ideal because the high heat can melt the shoes when you are walking in burning areas. A helmet would be your best head protection, but any hat will help prevent heat absorption through the head.

I picked up a young student photogra-pher walking in the middle of the fire one wearing shorts, a T-shirt and ip ops, Ellison recalls. I loaned him my other set of Nomex clothing and kept him with me until I left the fire one.

A close-up perspective adds intimacy to this photo of a fire captain comforting a woman trapped beneath a pickup truck in which she had been riding. Rick Roach, Vacaville [California] Reporter





Watch for the Human SideOnce you have your overall shot, look for the human side of the tragedy. Are people trapped in the building ill the firefighters bring up ladders to rescue the occupants, or have they already escaped Do the fire-fighters have to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or other kinds of first aid

Look for people’s reactions, advises Jim MacMillan. Play their ordinary lives against the crisis they are going through.

Meanwhile, do not overlook the efforts of the firefighters to put out the bla e. ithout interfering, shoot the ladder and pump companies as they spray water on the ames. Keep an eye out for people overcome by smoke or exhaustion. Kent Porter recom-mends using a long telephoto lens to get tight on the firefighters’ faces.

ires attract people. hether in a big city or a rural town, a fire brings out an audience whether they are neighbors or just passersby. Try to capture this psychological attraction.

LOOK FOR THE ECONOMIC ANGLEShow the dimensions of the incident so that the reader learns whether the fire was a minor one or a major con agration. Take a picture that indicates the kind of structure burned—single-family home, apartment house, busi-ness, or factory. Show how near the burned building was to other threatened structures in the neighborhood.

As the fire subsides, seek out a location where you can shoot a summary photo showing the extent of the damage. If you can accompany a fire inspector into a building, you might be able to photograph the actual cause of the bla e. hen the fire marshal suspects arson, detectives will be called in to investigate. Investigators at work supply additional photo opportunities.

You might return to the scene of the fire the following day to photograph the remains of the charred building. Often, residents return to salvage their property. The next day’s photo of a woman carrying out her water-soaked photo album might communicate more pathos than the pictures of

ames and smoke of the night before. You also can follow up a fire story by

checking to see whether there has been a series of fires in the same area over the past year. If you find that certain blocks of houses or stores tend to have an unu-sually large number of fires, suggest that the editor run a group of fire pictures on one page or as an Internet photo gallery to demonstrate the persistence of fire ha ards in that neighborhood.

says, smoke will be evident in the glow of streetlights if a fire is in the area. To avoid the possibility of colliding with fire trucks, shut off your radio, open your windows, and listen for fire engine sirens. hen you arrive, find a parking spot that does not block fire hydrants and plan for your escape.

Unless you can transmit your images from the scene, park carefully to avoid being blocked, and get out before the firefighters start leaving. If they’re parked in back of you,” observes The Boston Globe’s George Ri er, you’ll be stuck until the fire is over and they’ve packed up their equipment, and you’ll miss your deadline.

OVERALL SHOT SETS THE SCENEOnce you have arrived at a fire and parked, start taking pictures. The first thing I do, says Kent Porter, whether it is a house fire or brush fire, is to take a picture through the car window. I always shoot an overall of the whole scene, at the moment I drive up.

hen you first see a fire, take a record shot since you do not know if the fire will

are up or die down. Later, to establish the size of the blaze, the location of the trucks, and the type of building that is burning, you might look for a high vantage from which you can shoot another overall.

Remember to shoot video clips as well as stills. hile it may be difficult to juggle both simultaneously, you can’t go back and reshoot the fire later. iewers want to see how big the fire is and if it is threatening people or property. Shooting all the material for a well-edited video story may not be possible under the tight pressures of a raging fire (see Chapter 13, ideo ), but short clips that catch the essence of the scene will provide valuable images and information for news outlets.

Do not let your exposure be thrown off by the bright flames at a night fire. While the flames engulfing the house will come out in the final picture, a longer expo-sure is needed to bring out the building and surrounding areas. Dan Lassiter, Fort Morgan [Colorado] Times




C h a p t e r 2 , N e w s ■ 57

Photographically, night fires pose difficul-ties. or night fires, Ri er puts his camera on manual, uses a slow shutter speed, and adds

ash. At faster shutter speeds, the ames still appear in the image, but the building goes black. Ri er is balancing the light from the strobe with the available light from the fire, the streetlights, and the portable working lights set up by the fire department. ithin 50 feet, the ash also helps light up the building.

Kent Porter uses the same basic technique. He puts the ash on 1/8 power and uses a 20mm or 24mm lens at 1/30 sec. He warns against using this technique with a long lens, though, lest the ash give subjects red eye.

Besides lighting up the foreground, the strobe has an additional benefit. Any portable tungsten lights brought in by the firefighters are likely to give off an orange cast, which the strobe light will counterbalance. (See Chapter 9, Lighting. )

Boston’s John Tlumacki also shoots fires on manual exposure. He finds that digital cameras are excellent at recording available light. He does check the back of his camera to determine if the exposure is accurate. Sometimes he avoids using ash in order to remain less intrusive. There is nothing worse than popping a strobe to blind the eyes

FEATURES HIGHLIGHT THE SIDELIGHTSBesides spot news, photographers can find good material for feature photos at fires. A picture story about the Red Cross worker who attends every fire might provide a sensitive sidebar. A small town may have an all-volunteer company, including a dentist who drills teeth and a mechanic who repairs cars when not battling ames.

Capturing this split life in pictures offers your readers a unique photo feature story.

GET THE FACTSAlways try to get facts such as the firefighters’ names and companies. Interview both the fire and police chiefs for caption information: the exact location of the fire, the number of alarms sounded, the companies that responded, an estimate about the extent of the damage, and the names of the injured and what hospitals they were taken to.

NIGHT FIRES ARE DIFFICULTNight fires tend to are up between midnight and 6:00 A.M., when people are sleeping and smoke goes unnoticed. Arsonists choose nighttime for this reason. Because nighttime fires are not reported quickly, they tend to be larger and more frequent.

A bicycle accident might not merit photographic cover-age–except when Sidewalk Santas come to the aid of the cyclist. This minor acci-dent takes on the properties of a feature photo.Marty Lederhandler, Associated Press





mends resting the camera on a car, a fire hydrant, or holding the camera tightly and leaning against a lamppost to reduce camera movement.

Philadelphia’s Jim MacMillan finds he can even use his longer lenses at night if he braces himself carefully. He can shoot at 1/15 or 1/8 sec. with a 200mm lens when he is leaning

of a firefighter climbing a ladder a night, he warns. nder these circumstances, he recom-mends using a high ISO like 6400 or above to shoot with the available light unless it is so dark that using ash is unavoidable.

Keep in mind when using slow shutter speeds to avoid even slight camera move-ments during the exposure. Ri er recom-

Remarkably, no one was hurt in this freak accident. Often a report on the scanner radio will provide the first tip of a news event.Craig Hartley, Houston Post




C h a p t e r 2 , N e w s ■ 59

wounds, poisonings, and work-related acci-dents.

Accidents make news. If one million Bay Area residents drive home safely on the freeway riday night, that’s not news. But if two people die in an auto crash on the Golden Gate Bridge, viewers want to read a story and see photos or video of the accident scene.

PHOTO POSSIBILITIES: FROM TRAGIC TO BIZARREIf 100 accidents take place daily in a typical big city, no two will be identical. However, all accidents have certain points in common for the photographer.

Check Human Tragedy FirstConcentrate on the human element of any tragedy. Readers relate to people pictures. Rick Roach of the Vacaville Reporter knew this when he came in close to photograph an emergency worker attempting to comfort a woman trapped beneath her car (see page 55).

securely against a car or utility pole. He tries to wedge the camera lens against a stationary object and then hammer off a number of frames to try to get one that’s sharp. But he puts away the strobe when ames start shoot-ing out of every window in the building. If it looks like a Christmas tree,” he says, “you can shoot in available light, and you’ll get great, action-packed fire pictures.

COVERING ACCIDENTS AND DISASTERS: GRIM BUT NECESSARY(Dateline Baltimore) One Dead, 21 Hurt in Steel Mill Blast(Dateline Houston) Fatal Pileup on I45So read the daily headlines, as accidents take their toll of more than 130,000 lives and 43 million injuries each year (accord-ing to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention). Almost half the accidents in the nited States involve cars. But people also die from falls, burns, drowning, gunshot

The oil tanker Argo Merchant went aground and broke up off the coast of Nantucket. Thousands of gallons of heavy fuel oil soiled the water. The Coast Guard provided journalists transportation by helicopter to the wreck site. Ken Kobré, Boston Phoenix





Feature One AspectNotice how people adapt to their misfortune. Record the kinds of items people save from their wrecked vehicles. Note whether they act angry, sad, or frustrated.

Catch the distress on the face of an owner of a new Mini Cooper as she views for the first time her crumpled fender. See if an owner of a 13-year-old Saturn reacts the same way when he sees the damage to his clunker.

Do not become hardened, however. No matter the size of the mishap, the accident usually is still a tragedy, or at least a trau-matic experience, to the people involved. Even a bicycle accident can result in a telling picture, especially if several Santas stop to aid the victim (see page 57).

Follow UpIf accidents keep occurring at one particular intersection, you might follow up to see if the highway department does anything to correct the ha ard. A time exposure showing the traffic congestion might help to spur the highway department into action.

WEATHER: NEWS EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUTPhotographers cover blinding snowstorms or raging hurricanes on every shift. However, even the slightest change in weather, from sunny and hot to cloudy and cool, interests and affects readers and viewers. The weather forecast is one of the most highly read sec-tions of a website or newspaper.

On a slow news day, editors often call for weather art regardless of the forecast.

GETTING THERE MAY BE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGETaking pictures at the scene of a spot-news event requires a photographer with a cool head, someone who can work under pres-sure and adverse conditions. You need no unusual equipment or techniques just nerves of steel and an unruf ed disposition. However, before you arrive at an accident scene, you must be prepared. Charge your camera and electronic ash so you will be ready to start clicking the minute you get out of the car.

In fact, getting to an accident in time is often the biggest challenge for the spot news photographer. If you are stuck on the North Loop when two cars crash on the South Loop, you might find only a few glass shards from a broken windshield by the time you get to the scene. The ambulance has come and gone. Removed by the wrecker, even the smashed vehicles are already on their way to the garage.

Make a RecordMake a straightforward record of what hap-pened. iewers, who do not know how cars hit one another or where they landed, want to see the cars’ relationship to one another and to the highway.

Symbolic pictures imply rather than tellIn some situations, an accident story is better told with a symbolic rather than a literal picture. A bent wagon lying in the street carries its own silent message. There is no need to show the body of the dead child.

Photograph the CauseIn news events such as riots or murders, there is no way to photograph the cause. At an accident, however, you can sometimes show clearly what caused the collision. If a car failed to stop on a slippery street, you might show the wet pavement in the foreground and the damaged vehicle in the background.

On a dry day, you might photograph skid marks left by the car as it screeched to a halt. Perhaps the accident was caused by the poor visibility of street signs. In that situation, a picture that showed the confusing array of

ashing lights and uorescent billboards that distracted the driver would be effective.

Show the ImpactAccidents affect more than the drivers of the involved vehicles. Look in both direc-tions for long lines of blocked traffic and drivers slowing down to gaze as they pass the site.

Just one month before a tornado ripped the roof from this home, it had been featured in an architectural magazine. Including the magazine in the photograph helps show the before as well as the after of this disaster. Robert Cohen,for the Memphis [Tennessee] Commercial Appeal




C h a p t e r 2 , N e w s ■ 61

In hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, a man watches as a helicopter tries futilely to extin-guish an out-of-control house fire. Because of the extensive flooding caused by the city’s broken levies, fire trucks were unable to reach burning homes. In some cases whole blocks burned to the ground in the days following Hurricane Katrina. Craig Warga, Daily News [New York]

Weather is a constant news topic, and photographers are often assigned to find “weather art.” The photographer cap-tured this brilliant rainbow at sunset as fast-moving showers were leaving the area.John Tlumacki, The Boston Globe

Consequently, a news photographer’s three most important pieces of equipmentafter camera gear and a car, of course—are a scanner radio, a cell phone, and a GPS device. The radio provides the first report of the accident, the cell phone allows the photographer to check the location, and GPS shows the quickest way to get to the scene.

However, Stanley orman attributes his success in winning three Pulit er Pri es to old-fashioned, low-tech brainpower—knowing his city like the back of his hand. (See orman’s dramatic fire coverage on pages 52 53 and on page 423.)

Bruce Chambers of the Orange County Register keeps it simple. If two news events





happen at the same time, he says, “The best choice is the one closest at hand.

A spot-news photographer finds hardest to cover the story in which all forms of trans-portation are down. During a ood, hurri-cane, tornado, or blizzard, you often cannot drive a car or take public transportation.

aced with a major natural disaster, you can sometimes get assistance from one of the public agencies such as the police department, fire department, Red Cross, civil defense headquarters, or the National Guard. In case of disasters at sea, you can telephone the Coast Guard. Each of these agencies has a public information officer who handles prob-lems and requests from the media. hen a major disaster occurs, many of these agencies provide not only facts and figures but trans-portation, as well, for the photojournalist.

hen the oil tanker Argo Merchant ran aground, cracked in half, sank off Nantucket Island, and leaked thousands of barrels of oil into the sea, this author contacted the .S. Coast Guard on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The Coast Guard arranged for the author to

y in one of its planes to take pictures over the site (see page 59).

In another case, when all of New England was buried under four-foot drifts during a major bli ard, this author contacted the National Guard, which provided a four-wheeled-drive vehicle and driver so he could photograph outlying areas.

As Dave ur el, a former New England photo bureau chief for nited Press International ( PI), once said, hen a big storm breaks and everyone else heads for home, that’s when the spot news photogra-pher goes to work.

DON’T SHOOT THE LAST FRAME News photographers use multiple camera bodies so that they do not have to change memory cards when the action is coming down. Some carry two or three bodies. Smartphones can be valuable backups for news photographers.

One piece of advice worth repeating: do not shoot to the last megabyte. Memory cards’ seemingly endless capacity can still come up short at a critical moment, espe-cially if you are shooting in RA mode (see pages 189 191).

Annie ells, working for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat at the time, attributes her Pulit er Pri e to conservative shooting while photographing the heroic rescue of a young woman in a ooded river (see page 1). The last thing you want is to have to replace a memory card at the most dramatic moment.

THE IMPACT OF COVERING TRAGEDY

Photojournalists have always worked on the front lines of tragedy—from covering the loss of life in

local fires and accidents to recording the sweeping devastation of natural disasters and the bloody reality of international conflicts. In 2005, the American Psychological Association identified journalists as “first- responders,” people who rush in toward a disaster at personal risk when all others are rushing away.

Psychiatrist Anthony Feinstein, who has researched and written extensively on the subject of journalists and trauma, has concluded that photojournalists are the most affected by traumatic experiences.

The camera is no shield to the emotional trauma of bearing witness to horror.

The Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma, based at the University of Washington, together with the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, has published Tragedies and Journalists: A Guide for More Effective Coverage, reproduced in part on the opposite page. The full report is available for download at dartcenter.org.

“We are working within a new age of war, terrorism, and coincidental natural disasters that no longer affect just spot news specialists like myself—who may be somewhat more prepared—but also the newspaper photographers who happened to be in New York for Fashion Week and found themselves covering the 9/11 attack, those who returned to find their own homes destroyed after covering Katrina, any parent who covers a school shooting, and all of us who learn that war and death don’t cease—and that our new acquaintances will continue to die—after the comple-tion of a combat assignment.”

— Jim MacMillan, Philadelphia Daily NewsPulitzer Prize

Associated Press Team Coverage, Iraq War




C h a p t e r 2 , N e w s ■ 63

Covering any tragedy, from terrorist attacks like those on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 (above), to fatal car accidents, can take a psycho-logical toll on photojournalists. Photojournalists, considered first-responders in times of disaster and tragedy, need to recognize their potential vulnerabil-ity and must not be fearful of seeking help. Jim MacMillan, Philadelphia Daily News

TRAGEDIES AND JOURNALISTS

TIPS FOR PHOTOJOURNALISTS WHO RESPOND TO TRAGEDIES1 Understand that you may be the first to

arrive at any scene. You may face dangerous situations and harsh reactions from law enforcement and the public. Stay calm and focused throughout. Be aware that a camera cannot prevent you from being injured. Do not hesitate to leave a scene if it becomes too dangerous. Any supervisor or editor should understand that a person’s life is more important than a photo.

2 Treat every victim that you approach at a tragedy with sensitivity, dignity and respect. Do not react harshly to anyone’s response to you. Politely identify yourself before requesting information.

3 You will record many bloody images during a tragedy. Ask yourself whether these are important enough for historical purposes or too graphic for your readers or viewers.

4 Do everything possible to avoid violating someone’s private grieving. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t record photos of emotion at public scenes. However, do not intrude upon someone’s private property or disturb victims during their grieving process.

5 Realize that you are a human being who must take care of your mind. Admit your emotions. Talk about what you witnessed to a trusted peer, friend or spouse. Write about it. Replace horrible images with positive ones. Establish a daily routine of healthful habits. Dr. Elana Newman, a licensed clinical psychologist who conducted a survey of 800 photojournalists, told a National Press Photographers Association convention: “Witnessing death and injury takes its toll, a toll that increases with exposure. The more such assignments photojournalists undertake, the more likely they are to expe-rience psychological consequences.” If your problems become overwhelming, do not hesitate to seek professional counseling.

TIPS FOR TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF1 Know your limits. If you’ve been given a

troublesome assignment that you feel you cannot perform, politely express your con-cerns to your supervisor. Tell the supervisor that you may not be the best person for the assignment. Explain why.

2 Take breaks. A few minutes or a few hours away from the situation may help relieve your stress.

3 Find someone who is a sensitive listener. It can be an editor or a peer, but you must trust that the listener will not pass judgment on you. Perhaps it is someone who has faced a similar experience.

4 Learn how to deal with your stress. Find a hobby, exercise, attend a house of worship or, most important, spend time with your family, a significant other or friends—or all four. Try deep breathing. The Eastern Connecticut Health Network recommends that you “take a long, slow, deep breath to the count of five, then exhale slowly to the count of five. Imagine breathing out excess tension and breathing in relaxation.” All of these can be effective for your mental and physical well-being.

5 Understand that your problems may become overwhelming. Before he died in April 1945, war correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote, “I’ve been immersed in it too long. My spirit is wobbly and my mind is con-fused. The hurt has become too great.” If this happens to you, seek counseling from a professional.

Excerpt from the Dart Center report Tragedies and Journalists: A Guide for More Effective Coverage




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