#ritpj2018

Well. We’re all home now, and after a week of reflections I finally feel ready to write about this experience. I still feel very overwhelmed by all of the information that was presented to me by the 13 organizations we visited, and even more overwhelmed by the fact that I now need to make decisions on my own career path.

The people that really stood out to me are Dave Burnett , Brad Smith, Olivier Laurent, and Marguerite Schropp. We met Dave Burnett and Brad Smith at Reuters, Olivier Laurent at TIME, and Marguerite Schropp at Sports Illustrated. Dave Burnett spoke to us about his experience shooting many olympics, and his time shooting at the Rio olympics this past summer. I enjoyed that he uses gear such as a Speed Graphix and a camera with the IR filter removed to produce his images, as I also enjoy using methods other than traditional digital photography. Brad Smith spoke to us on the fact that he was newly a freelance editor, and in general was just a overwhelmingly entertaining person. His newfound goal of never having to tuck his shirt in really resonated with me, especially after this week in New York City. The next person who spoke to us was Olivier Laurent, editor of TIME's lightbox, and he spoke on some of the hardships of being an editor. One of those being how difficult it is seeing a piece that would work great for a more international audience, but since TIME's lightbox is a mostly American audience, those same works may not work as well. He also emphasized timing to us, giving us the example of an Easter story, and how it worked that the photographer had waited until the following Easter holiday to present the story to him. The final person we spoke to was Marguerite Schropp, director of photography at Sports Illustrated. Although we didn't have a lot of time to speak with her, she gave us really helpful advise including what Sports Illustrated looks for in its interns. Marguerite said they prefer interns who are more like sponges, not people who are already set in their ways, and that their internships are more on the photo editing side of things rather than the shooting side.

New York Times - 14:00

This afternoon started with the New York Times, talking with James Estrin, the photo editor for LensBlog. He talked a lot about how in the past you had to solely be a photographer to make a living, but now you can be a photographer and something else, such as an educator, or coding websites. There are also a greater number of opportunities today, such as self-publishing, either online or in book form. In the past you would have had to take your book around places hoping that somebody would like it, and like you. Now you can just direct those same people online to view your work. James also said that the most successful people were those that were the hungriest, those that wanted it more than others. He said that we should all strive to do what excites us, as that excitement drives us to differentiate ourselves from other photographers. He also recommended that we have two major skills; One we are great at, and one we are good at, as now photographers are more likely to be hired as specialists, unlike in the past where you were more likely to be hired as a generalist. At this point, Rochester Institute of Technology alum, Heather Casey, popped in as we were beginning to talk about picture editing. Heather’s main piece of advise was to make your own fortune, and not to be passive about things. Both Heather and James commented on the fact that in breaking news situations, if the New York Times was physically there, they would usually beat the wire services to publishing an image due to the equipment they use. The final piece of advise we received from this pair was about our senior capstone projects, and that is that if you do the process right, the product will take care of itself.

Esquire - 16:00

After visiting the New York Times, we hustled over to Esquire to meet with Michael Norseng, director of photography. He opened with a piece of advise from his grandfather, which was that no one has a monopoly on truth. We should be accumulating our own knowledge for truth, and not letting others ideas of truth carve out our paths. Michael gave us tips on how to promote ourselves with examples of what other photographers do. These included new promo cards every few months, and sending those to people you have worked with in the past, or that you would like to work with. Also to do email blasts bi-annually (or more frequently!) as an update to have people keep you on their radar. Michael still prefers a printed promo, and equated it to his own record collection. He mentioned how other publishing companies have consolidated their photo editors, and pulled them away from working on only one publication. He’s also always happy to hear criticism, as long as it is done in a respectful manner, and he welcomes it from all members of his team.

Overview

CNN - 09:30

This morning kicked off with a visit to Twanda Scott Sambou at CNN. Twanda started out as a photojournalist, which at CNN means being on-call, ready to go at any time, and later decided to become a Digital Media Producer. She was an amazing host, having us meet many individuals here at CNN. Quentin Dunn was our first stop, and he explained to us the process of editing a video for broadcast. They typically only get one hour to edit for every one minute of video. At CNN, there are 25 staff editors, like Quentin, and five freelance editors. If a transcript is needed, they send it out to a transcription service, however they also can do it in house using producers and interns to get it done. As Quentin put it, “Interns make the world go round”. Next, we spoke to Bernadette “Bernie” Tuazon, the senior photo editor at CNN. Currently she is working on the 100 Most Important Images of Barack Obama’s presidency, as well as the upcoming presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Bernie said that stakes are higher in a place like CNN, since their images go directly out to their audience, unlike Associated Press where they send their images to their members, who then distribute it to the audiences. CNN also accepts any photographers pitch for stories, which then can be placed on their special features section.

Magnum Foundation - 12:30

After our visit at CNN, we ventured down to the Magnum Foundation to meet with Rochester Institute of Technology alum, Alexis Lambrou. Magnum Foundation was founded in 2007, and is a 501c3. We learned about many of their programs, including their Photography and Human Rights fellowship, where they invite six to seven non-western photographers to New York City for six weeks to create a photo essay on a local issue. Magnum Foundation also has a program exploring collaboration between artists of different mediums called Photography, Expanded. In the past, they have started with the photographer and then added on an additional contributor, such as a poet. However, this year is the first year that the photographers were expected to already have a contributor ready to go. The stories have always already been started, and this year all of the stories will be on religion.

Getty Images - 15:00

Our final stop of the day was at Getty Images, where we met with Hilary Markiewitz, Pierce Wright and Sandy Ciric. Both Hilary and Pierce are Rochester Institute of Technology alum, classes of ’14 and ’98 respectively. The editorial side of Getty Images, to my surprise, is split into three sort of groups; News, Entertainment and Sports. They also only have 11 staff photographers, but have a network of over 200 freelance photographers that they work with. Getty Images also has no writers, which was surprising to me, so photographers have to do more research on their own when learning about new subjects. They also gave us all some very good advice as far as freelancing is concerned. One piece of advice was that we should always have honest, good communication. They would rather someone just admit that they screwed up, rather than pretending that they will never find out.

Overview

Associated Press - 09:00

We started off this morning with the Associated Press, sitting in on their morning staff meeting, and afterwards met with Santiago Lyon to talk about what the AP does. I was surprised to find out that a majority of what AP does is the United States sports imagery, and that they do not really have enough photographers pitching their own ideas for stories, rather, a photographer waits for a story to be assigned to them.

Human Rights Watch - 11:30

After visiting Associated Press, we walked five blocks over to Human Rights Watch, located inside the Empire State Building. Here we met with Emma Daly and Veronica Matushaj. I was surprised to learn that they publish between 80 and 100 reports each year, and while their reports can range between 10 and 200 pages, most are between 40 and 50 pages. They also distribute all of their content to the media for free, with the ability to also download things such as a dope sheet and a pre-captioned video. Here they really emphasized the fact that we should all learn a second language, as it helps to break down one barrier between you and your subjects.

Buzzfeed - 14:30

After a quick lunch break, we were back on the streets again walking up to Buzzfeed’s offices, where we met with Kate Bubacz, a Rochester Institute of Technology Photojournalism alumni. Here I learned that Buzzfeed uses Blink and LinkedIn to search for freelancers, so it’s best to keep those updated of where you currently are or where you are going. Kate also suggested, that at least for Buzzfeed, that we keep photo story pitches short, with main keywords right in the subject line so that it’s easier for her to search through them. Also, unlike most publications, Buzzfeed publishes between eight and ten images with their stories. Kate also suggested that when we write captions for an editor, that we write a short and sweet version first, then place a longer, meatier version just below that, so that the photo editor can choose which one they would like to use.

Reuters - 17:30

After another quick break, we were off to Times Square to visit the Thomson Reuters wire service. Here we met with Carlo Allegri, Mitch Koppelman, Hal Buell, Dave Burnett and Brad Smith. Each of these men had different points that they talked about, however, I was most surprised at Dave Burnett and Brad Smith. I was surprised to learn that Dave Burnett shot this past Olympic games with a Speed Graphix and a Canon 5D with the IR Filter removed, and even more surprised that he was a photographer for the International Olympic Committee itself. Brad Smith surprised me due to the fact that he is a freelance photo editor, something I never even thought of as being an option. I also enjoyed Brad’s new goal in life of never having to tuck his shirt in (I agree).

Overview