Visit our 2008 Beijing Olympics Blog

Today marks the end of the second week of my Beijing adventure, and it’s been quite the ride so far. I’ve experienced near collisions in taxicabs, great food, entire days of dense smog, fakes galore, and citywide anticipation for the Olympics — just over three weeks away. China has spent nearly the last decade preparing for these 16 days in the global spotlight, and excitement is certainly growing as the opening ceremony draws near.

Many say the Beijing Olympics will be the most spectacular to date, and officials are doing everything possible to make sure the party goes off without a hitch. The language barrier makes communicating very difficult for Westerners, but the government has recruited tens of thousands of English speaking volunteers to provide assistance to visitors and journalists covering the games. On a good day, I run into fewer than a dozen Beijingers who speak my native tongue, but volunteers dressed in blue collared shirts will help guide the way once visitors begin to arrive for the Games.

Western retailers have embraced the Olympics as an opportunity to enter the Chinese market — making American food and conveniences prevalent in Beijing. Officials have begun to deal with smog by reducing emissions, and Beijing’s infamous gridlocked traffic will hopefully be a thing of the past (and future, unfortunately) once Olympic lanes and even/odd license plate driving days go into effect early next week. Construction projects are winding down in what was once one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Visitors will enter a changed Beijing — if merely a city treated with an enormous band-aid — when they pass through Terminal 3 in the coming weeks.

There’s no question that residents are proud of what they’ve built, what they’ve accomplished — I’ve taken thousands of pictures since I’ve arrived and not once has someone ordered me to turn off my camera. The city and the country of China as a whole are ready to welcome you into their home.

I’ve created a blog documenting my daily experiences and providing information that I’ve only been able to gather from first hand experiences and talks with officials. Behind the Lens at the Beijing Olympics should be used to help guide your Beijing experience, and to provide information about the city not found anywhere else. Beijing has been extremely photog-friendly so far, and is without a doubt an amazing place to visit be that now or years after the 2008 Olympics have faded from memory.

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The photographic community is incredibly diverse, made up of photographers who shoot from the sky to the sea and everywhere in between. Each month we look at a different segment of the industry, interviewing top professional photographers about life, their careers, and what sets their piece of the photographic industry apart from the rest.

This month we focus on Robert “Bert” Hanashiro, 53, a staff photographer with USA Today since 1989. Known worldwide for his online sports photography community, SportsShooter.com, Hanashiro will join thousands of other journalists in Beijing this August for what will be his sixth Summer Olympics. In anticipation of the 2008 Olympic games, Hanashiro talked with American Photo about the Olympic experience, which can often include 15- to 18-hour workdays and covering four events in a day.

American Photo: What led to your career as a newspaper photographer? How did you end up at “The Nation’s Newspaper”?

Robert Hanashiro: To borrow a line from fictional TV anchorman Ted Baxter, “It all started in a 5,000-watt radio station in Fresno, California…”

I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and my father Seico Hanashiro ran a small newspaper just outside of Fresno. So some of my earliest memories of my dad involved newspapers and his love for sports. I guess I’ve always had it in me to be a “newspaper man.” I wanted to be a sports writer and went to college with that in mind. But somehow I took a left turn at California State University, Fresno in the ’70s and followed one of my best friends Barry Wong into photojournalism. Maybe being a horrible speller had something to do with it — there was no spell check back then.

As far as becoming a staff photographer at USA Today, it was a case of being in the right place at the right time. In 1987 while I was the chief photographer at the Visalia Times-Delta (near Fresno, California), I temporarily worked on the news picture desk at USA Today as part of its loaner program — other Gannett newspapers “loaned” staffers to USA Today as a part career-building, part staff augmentation thing. I guess I made a good impression on Paul Whyte, USA Today’s director of photography at the time and Richard Curtis, the managing editor of the photography and graphics department.

They took me to the Seoul Summer Olympics in ’88 and I was offered several positions after that, but they were all on picture desks. In late 1989 they created a new staff photographer position in Los Angeles and I was fortunate enough to be offered the job. So I went from a 20,000 circulation newspaper to a 2 million circulation newspaper! And the rest, as they say, is history.

AP: What type of assignments have you photographed for USA Today? Have you always photographed sports? Do you approach a sporting event or athlete portrait session differently than other assignments?

RH: I cover whatever assignments come up. People think I only shoot sports, but really a majority of my work involves the other sections of the newspaper, particularly the Life section. I cover all of the major entertainment awards shows — and NO I do not do the paparazzi-thing — I generally shoot the actual show inside the theater. So basically I’ve covered every Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, and Grammy Awards show since 1990. I can’t say the same with the World Series or the NBA Finals.

I do a lot of portrait work and I take a lot of pride in that, especially lighting. Most people don’t know that I’ve covered a couple of international “conflicts” in my career, in Kosovo and Haiti. But most of my work involves the daily assignments in the other three sections of the newspaper as well as a growing number of video stories. But obviously my favorite assignments involve sports and working with athletes.

AP: With only five staff photographers at USA Today, do you find yourself traveling a lot? Are you ever required to cover multiple assignments in several distant cities in the same weekend?

RH: We travel when the need requires it and once in a while we have to move from city to city for assignments. I think the most I was on the road in one year was 169 days, but I haven’t been close to that in a while. I think now it’s probably around 75 or 80. Olympic years are higher because we’ll be gone for the three weeks of the games plus assignments covering Olympic qualifying trials and athlete profiles we ordinarily wouldn’t be doing in a “normal” year.

I will say that travel these days takes a lot more patience and fortitude than it did just five or six years ago. Travel by air is tiresome and frustrating most of the time. I’ve really come to hate air travel, while just a few years ago I used to love to travel.

AP: You’re well known in the industry not only for your work as a photographer, but also as the founder of SportsShooter.com. Why did you decide to create an online community for sports photographers? Did you have any help with developing the site? How has the response been from the community over the years?

RH: Sports Shooter started out about 11 years ago as simple emails I sent out to a few friends and colleagues like Bob Deutsch, Brad Mangin, Peter Read Miller, Ron Taniwaki, Jack Gruber, Wally Skalij, Robert Seale and Rod Mar. From there it somehow morphed — for a lack of a better word — into a regular newsletter.

The first official Sports Shooter Newsletter went out because I wanted to rant about a new credential policy the NFL had instituted. Those early Sports Shooter emails got passed around, were posted on newspaper photo staff bulletin boards and all of a sudden I started getting messages from photographers wanting to “subscribe.” I said to Brad at one time, “Subscribe to what?” But now we’re at issue # 111with 7,500 subscribers and hopefully more to come.

The SportsShooter.com website came along six years ago when Brad, Grover Sanschagrin and Jason Burfield decided to develop my concept of a community for sports photographers and photojournalist into a website. They showed me a prototype and we began serious discussion on different features and services. The entire site is custom designed and programmed by Jason and Grover and it keeps getting better and better. If it were not for the genius of Grover and Jason and the dedication of Brad, there would be no SportsShooter.com.

The response to the website was been wonderful. The diversity of photographers that are members is a tribute to that. Where else can you find a photography community like SportsShooter.com that has David Burnett, Vincent Laforet, Peter Read Miller, and Donald Miralle mixing with photographers from small newspapers, newbies and students?

To me the best thing that Sports Shooter has done is given me the opportunity to give a little something back to a profession that has been pretty good to me. It’s exciting that we’ve also been able to take this Sports Shooter concept and develop it into various educational programs like the Sports Shooter Academy and the Sports Shooter Boot Camp. The workshops are where we do a lot of great things with students.

AP: How does covering the Olympics compare to other major sporting events, such as the Super Bowl or World Series?

RH: NOTHING compares. Period. There is no other sports event that I have covered that extends over 17 days involving multiple events. The Super Bowl, the World Series, the Final Four and the World Cup — these are events that are just one sport. The Olympics has numerous sports, spread over an entire region.

A typical day for me at an Olympics would be fencing and wrestling in the morning, gymnastics in the afternoon and beach volleyball in the evening. I also edit and transmit images during and after each event. Often just getting from venue to venue is more hassle than you would have for an entire weekend at a Final Four. Olympic transportation is often the weakest link in anyone’s coverage.

Most of the time we have to get to a venue four or five hours in advance — sometimes more — just to secure a shooting position. The travel between cities when covering a World Series or an NBA Finals is a hassle. But having over two weeks of 15-18 hour days — there is NOTHING like the Summer Olympics. I love it. But it definitely takes a toll on you physically and emotionally.

AP: Which sports do you prefer to photograph? Will you choose what you’ll be shooting in Beijing?

RH: For some reason I became USA Today’s boxing expert. I guess it’s because Porter Binks (former USA Today sports picture editor, now at Sports Illustrated) assigned me to cover the U.S. Olympic Boxing Trials in 1988. Before that, I had shot exactly four bouts in my life. So I usually cover boxing at a Summer Olympics and it is actually one of the things I look forward to. I also enjoy the grace and beauty of gymnastics and was fortunate to cover a lot of that sport in 2004 in Athens. I know a lot of the beach volleyball athletes because I live and work in Southern California, so that’s something I look forward to as well. Variety is something I like, so a mix of a few different sports is good for me. I don’t know how some wire service photographers take having to shoot the same sport every day during the Olympics. But they do it and they do it well.

The “minor” sports like wrestling, softball, fencing, weightlifting and taekwondo are just as compelling to cover as track and field or swimming and often make great photographs. As far as choosing what I cover, it’s up to the assigning editors. In Beijing it will be sports picture editor Michael Madrid and director of photography Mick Cochran. I am at their beck and call! (Note to Mick and Michael: Boxing, badminton and taekwondo would be great — but how about a few days of gymnastics with Bob Deutsch this time?) However, what I enjoy most is the 10 to 12 months or so leading up to the Olympics because USA Today does a lot of advance features and previews. This gives me the opportunity to really get to know the athletes because I spend a lot of time with them working on portraits and picture stories.

We do a wonderful series of features before each Olympics called “10 To Watch.” We run one big feature on an athlete every day starting ten days out from the Opening Ceremony. Four years ago Michael Madrid and I came up with a great concept for the “10” series. I flew around the country photographing 14 Olympic athletes wearing traditional Greek robes on large format black and white Polaroid film. It was one of the most time consuming but most fulfilling assignments I had done in while.

Our final portrait was of boxer Andre Ward shot in front of the Acropolis in Athens. The hassles and finagling Michael had to go through to get us the access to the Acropolis was unbelievable — but his work paid off and we were the only U.S. organization that was able to shoot a portrait there. It was a great example of teamwork with Michael handling the logistics and access and my USA Today colleague H. Darr Beiser helping me with the shoot.

AP: I always enjoy reading the “In the Bag” feature in the Sports Shooter newsletter — what gear do you have in your bag? What equipment do you use on a daily basis? What do you plan to bring to Beijing?

RH: It’s funny you should ask because it seems to be topic number one among friends of mine that will also be covering the Beijing Olympics. Restrictions on how many pieces and the weight you can bring on a flight is a huge concern. You want to bring everything, but you really can’t.

There is also the concern about getting all of your gear not only through the airport once you arrive, but also on the buses going from the Media Village to the Main Press Center and to the various venues to work every day. Carry more than you can handle and you’ll bash someone on the head with a misplaced monopod — as I’ve seen a New York photographer do on a couple of occasions — and have trouble boarding and departing buses. If you don’t bring enough gear you might find yourself missing something you really needed.

I put a lot of thought into what I am bringing and what I am packing for this trip. So you’ll get a little sneak preview of the next Sports Shooter “In The Bag” column. We recently switched to Nikon, so [with the full frame D3] the 600mm becomes a more important lens than it did when we shot with cameras that had a 1.3x crop.

I think my everyday gear will be:
• 2 Nikon D3 bodies
• 1 Nikon D300 body
• 600mm f/4
• 200-400mm f/4 zoom
• 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom
• 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom
• TC-14 1.4x converter
• TC-17 1.7x converter
• SB800 Speedlite

I will have a 400mm f/2.8 plus various remote gear, including Pocket Wizard MultiMax transceivers and various mounting rigging. Also, a MacBook Pro laptop will be with me at all times with the various accessories I use to edit and transmit from the field.

AP: What challenges do you expect to face in Beijing? Will you cover assignments not directly related to the Olympics? How much time will you have to familiarize yourself with the city before the Opening Ceremonies?

RH: I think anytime you’re working in a different country there are a lot of challenges. Language is always a concern, as are customs and culture. I am hoping that politics isn’t going to be an issue as many journalists predict. I’ve tried to study as much as I can about China, but you can only learn so much from reading. I’ve seen so many “ugly American” incidents while covering the Olympics; I try to stay as alert and sensitive to the customs and rules of the host country.

I have been looking forward to these Olympics since it was announced that Beijing was going to host the 2008 games. I think the Chinese people and the government want to put on a good show for everyone at the games in Beijing and watching at home.

I have been to China a couple of times; the last was a trip with the U.S. Gymnastics Men’s National Team several years ago as they trained at the Beijing National Training Center. I know there have been a lot of changes since then and I am looking forward to seeing what has happened in Beijing during those years. I hope they haven’t built more T.G.I. Friday’s, but I’m sure they probably have. I read somewhere they even opened up a Hooters in Beijing and I hope that isn’t true.

Unfortunately I fly into Beijing just a few days before Opening Ceremony and leave a couple of days after Closing Ceremony. So I won’t have much time to really see China, which is my only regret about this trip.

AP: Besides the obvious SportsShooter.com, what websites or workshops do you suggest for photographers interested in becoming better sports shooters?

RH: I am a voracious reader and read a lot of books, magazines, and newspapers. That’s where I get a lot of my inspiration and ideas. I’d rather look at a good book (or newspaper or magazine) rather than go to the web to look at photographs.

Any sports shooter should read as many of the behind-the-scenes books by John Feinstein, particularly The Last Amateurs, The Majors and A Civil War: Army vs. Navy. Checking out any of the books by SI’s Walter Iooss for inspiration is always fun. There are a few lesser known nuggets I can suggest, but you may have to look through the used bins for these: The Fights by Charles Hoff; The Sports Photography of Robert Riger; and Photographing Sports, John Zimmerman, Mark Kauffman and Neil Leifer (Masters of contemporary photography series).

I’m a creature of habit, so I tend to look at the same websites all of the time for technical things. Here are a few that I look at:
• Dave Hobby’s wonderful strobist site for using small flashes in portrait work.
• Rob Galbraith’s site to keep up on what’s happening with digital camera technology.

And a very cool site I look at all of the time to see some of the best newspaper sports photography and how it is used: http://sportsdesigner.blogs.com/.

Editor’s note: Follow Robert Hanashiro and photographers from around the world as they journey to Beijing to cover the 2008 Summer Olympics. PopPhoto.com’s Zach Honig will travel to Beijing from July 1 through August 28 to blog about the Games, the Chinese capital of Beijing, and the city’s photographic culture. His blog entries will also cover topics of interest to photographers and journalists traveling to the Olympics, including logistical information about the venues, top spots to photograph in the city, restaurants, and more. The Behind the Lens series will continue after his return in September.

Read other interviews from the Behind the Lens series
• May 2008: Steve Winter
• April 2008: Preston Gannaway
• March 2008: John Moore
• February 2008: Martin Schoeller
• January 2008: Brian Skerry
• December 2007: Jasin Boland
• November 2007: Norm Barker
• October 2007: Cameron Davidson

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Balancing work with a social life can be a challenge even for single photographers, but adding a husband and two kids to the mix can lead to disaster, or worse, a desk job.

Annie Griffiths Belt found the perfect solution, bringing her family along for the ride. After 20 years of marriage and 18 years of parenting, the 55-year-old National Geographic photographer’s plan is a proven success. Her daughter Lily, 18, is about to begin her freshman year of college with plans to become a physician and Charlie, 15, is attending high school.

Lily and Charlie Belt spent much of their childhood away from home, living for months at a time on every continent but Antarctica. Griffiths Belt says that spending all that time away from school, while difficult, was a positive influence in her children’s development. “I think it enhanced both their education and their social lives,” she said. “They’re very flexible kids; they’re very open to new cultures and new experiences.”

As her kids developed open minds and a level of flexibility many parents could only dream of, Griffiths Belt continued to develop as a photographer. She explored the world with her camera, while Lily and Charlie explored with their nanny, never far from their parents.

A year before her first child was born, in 1988, Griffiths Belt married National Geographic correspondent Don Belt. As a family the Belts travel together whenever possible, often working on the same assignments. But now that her children are growing older, missing school is no longer an option. Staying together is no less a priority now, however, so Griffiths Belt says she’s adjusted her schedule to accommodate those of her children, traveling for long periods of time only during the summer.

While school is in session, Griffiths Belt travels for a week or two at a time. Reserving large international assignments for the summer, she often participates in speaking engagements and other projects while her children attend classes, and is currently traveling around the country on tour for her new book.

With more than 200 pages of text and images from the assignments that have taken Griffiths Belt and her family around the world — including suicide bombings in Israel, weddings in Australia, and wildebeest in Tanzania — A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel draws a rich portrait of a life lived equally as a photographer and a mother.

The words in A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel tell of Griffith Belt’s experience as a world traveling mother; however, the majority of her photographs are anything but family pictures. “The book certainly includes a lot of information about my family, but it’s really about my life working for National Geographic,” she said.

The portrait of a Pakistani girl on the book’s cover emphasizes its role as a record of Griffith Belt’s work rather than a collection of family portraits. “I wanted it to be clear that it was a book about photography,” she explains of the decision to leave a portrait of her husband and children for the back cover.

And a photography book it is, with more than 100 full-size images, many spanning double pages. The majority of Griffith Belt’s photographs appear in full color accompanied by long descriptions. While many of the images are from her assignments with National Geographic, the photographer includes several family images as well, captured in the field.

Griffith Belt’s photographs live up to the National Geographic standard, but just as impressive is the story she tells of balancing a very successful photography career with her career as a mother, and raising a pair of bright, well-traveled children.

A Camera, Two Kids and a Camel is available for purchase now (street, $21). Personalized, autographed copies are available through Griffith Belt’s Web site for $45.

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The photographic community is incredibly diverse, made up of photographers who shoot from the sky to the sea and everywhere in between. Each month we look at a different segment of the industry, interviewing top professional photographers about life, their careers, and what sets their piece of the photographic industry apart from the rest.

This month we focus on Steve Winter, 52, a contributing photographer at National Geographic magazine since 1991. Focusing on conservation photography, Winter’s subjects have included volcanoes in Iceland, grizzly bears in Russia, and the natural history of Cuba. The New Jersey-based photographer recently traveled to India, documenting snow leopards for his most recent National Geographic article. While on a layover in Delhi, India, Winter took some time to share a glimpse of his life after spending three months photographing in the field.

Q. What led to your career at National Geographic? I read that, as a child, you aspired to travel the world as a photographer for National Geographic; did you ever consider that to be an attainable goal?

I remember as a child looking at the National Geographic magazines we had in my home south of Fort Wayne, Indiana. They took me to places far away from Midwest cornfields. I was totally fascinated by the cultures that I discovered on those pages. And when I was young, I was obsessed with wildlife shows: I remember getting all choked up even hearing the intro music before a National Geographic TV show.

I wanted to be a National Geographic photographer since I was eight years old. My parents always led me to believe that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to, and I took that to heart. I felt I could realize my dream. One of the things I try to impart to students during lectures is that dreams are not just something you experience at night while sleeping: they are your lifeblood — focus, be passionate and don’t give up.

Upon graduating from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, one of my photographic idols, Michael “Nick” Nichols, offered me a job as his assistant — then my education really began — also a long-term friendship that has made a large impact on my career.

I got my shot at doing my first story for National Geographic magazine partly because I had been working for National Geographic World magazine and doing short pieces for the “front of the book” for National Geographic magazine. To work for National Geographic magazine, I showed my portfolio to the Deputy Director of Photography Susan A. Smith (to whom I owe so much) and the then the Director of Photography, Tom Kennedy. I proposed a story on the Quetzal and we worked out a deal where the first trip was a “prove you can do it trip.” I was successful and learned so much about working in the field with biologists and the patience it takes shooting natural history. I then received a contract for the whole story and with the help on my photo editor, Kathy Moran, and so many others, my career at National Geographic magazine began.

Q. What projects have you worked on for National Geographic? Where have you traveled? Have you published recent work in other publications?

I first set foot into the rainforest in 1992. It was a life-changing experience. I had a corporate shoot in Costa Rica through my then-agency, Black Star. My job was to document the collaboration between Merck Pharmaceuticals and the National Biodiversity Institute (of Costa Rica) in their quest to find new medicinal compounds in tropical forests. As Merck’s research director told me, “We ran out of ideas and had to move back to Mother Nature.”

I went down with my family and remember walking into the forest for the first time one morning with my wife, Sharon Guynup. As the darkness enveloped us, we realized that we knew nothing about this world, where to see animals or how to be safe there. So we went back to the research facility and talked to the scientists who knew the forest like their own backyard, and spent the next days out with them.

I was completely awed. That experience changed the direction of my work from social documentary to natural history and conservation. During that trip, Sharon, who is a writer and photographer, was doing seven stories for Science magazine. One of her subjects was Dr. George Powell, an ornithologist who was studying bellbirds and quetzals at the time. After I got home, he sent information on a great place in Guatemala to photograph quetzals. This became my first story for National Geographic magazine.

My earlier work focused on people and culture. When I was 20 years old, I circled the globe for eight months shooting pictures. I also spent a lot of time in Mexico, and lived for nine months in Haiti working on stories, including a piece on Mother Teresa’s Home for the Sick and Dying, another on the slums surrounding Port-au-Prince, and covered the many coups that erupted during that period.

For National Geographic, I traveled to Iceland to photograph a volcano erupting from a glacier, shot the world’s first wild jaguar story in locations from Arizona to Brazil, and did a story on the creation of the world’s largest tiger reserve in Myanmar. I also produced stories on the grizzly bears of Kamchatka in the Russian Far East, Myanmar’s Irrawaddy River, and the natural history of Cuba, which I like to call the Galapagos of the north. I tend to propose stories that have never been done before. I like the challenge and they are always full of adventure.

My last shoot for another publication was in 2000; since then, my magazine work has been exclusively for National Geographic.

Q. Having worked for National Geographic since 1991, I’m sure you’ve racked up your fair share in travel expenses. What type of budget do you have to work on projects for the magazine? How long do you typically spend in the field? Has this changed in recent years?

Budgets vary from story to story. It depends on how remote the location is, what type of expedition travel is needed, and how elusive or difficult the subject is. Sometimes I use elephants for months at a time to carry all the gear and equipment — which can be over 30 bags and cases. Other times we need horses, jeeps or porters. Elephants are a lot cheaper than jeeps! In Kamchatka, we had tens of thousands of dollars in helicopter transport fees because there are no roads across much of the peninsula. To cover that, we received a grant through the National Geographic Expeditions Council.

You need to be more creative on budgets nowadays, as things are getting tighter in all areas of print. But I always try to make sure I have enough expense money to cover both costs and contingencies. I need to bring back National Geographic-quality images no matter what, even if Mother Nature decides not to cooperate weather-wise or animals have moved from where they were in years past.

I usually spend three to five months shooting a story over at least two trips, with a midway show in between for the editors to help focus on what I still need. Sometimes I spend extra, unpaid time on a story to get the job done.

Q. How much of your time is spent shooting? What else is involved in making each assignment a success? Can anyone with financial backing handle spending weeks photographing tigers in the jungles of Myanmar?

When I’m in the field, I work seven days a week, usually from dawn to dark, sometimes with a break in the middle of the day when the light is bad. But before I’m out the door, I do extensive research from home. Since I don’t have a background in science, I work closely with biologists to learn everything I can about the species I’m working on, its habitat and the survival issues it faces in the world. Without the knowledge, expertise and passion of the experts I work with, I cannot successfully produce these stories.

One of the first things we need to do after a story is approved by the editors is to obtain the permission and permits needed to work in the country or countries where we need to shoot. This can take months and sometimes requires a huge amount of bureaucratic wrangling to gain access to remote wild lands. Some places are impossible to work in without the assistance of a local “fixer”. Sometimes you need diplomatic aid: I could not have produced my Irrawaddy River story without the gracious assistance of a then-Undersecretary General at the United Nations. Seven different times, government officials told me I had to return to Yangon (formerly Rangoon), the capital of Myanmar (formerly Burma), and couldn’t continue shooting in the country, but with an email or phone call to the UN, I was allowed to proceed. Without National Geographic’s clout and key government contacts, it would be impossible to shoot in some places.

Another important factor in producing these stories is packing — both gear and photo equipment. When I’m in the field, it’s often impossible to replace damaged equipment, so I must have backups for everything. I’m especially careful about backing up my digital files on at least three hard drives (my current story has a total of 1.5TB of photo files). But other gear can include anything from tents, mosquito nets, and a gas-powered generator to cold weather gear, antivenin for snakebites, or a machete to hack through the jungle. I also bring a serious medical kit on every assignment.

Q. What challenges do you face in the field? Any crazy misadventures?

The list of challenges in the field is long and diverse. Keeping yourself and the folks helping you alive and healthy tops the list. People always ask me about attacks from animals I’ve photographed — like tigers, rhinos, elephants, jaguars, bears — but I always say that the most dangerous creatures are the microscopic variety. Although I’ve been charged by animals, so scared I could barely breathe with my heart pounding so hard I thought it would explode, I’ve never been hurt. But I have had malaria, Dengue fever, parasites, worms, amoebic dysentery, and various unexplained illnesses.

That said, many of my stories bring me in close proximity to dangerous animals. In some places, I’ve been required to bring along an armed park guard to help keep me alive in case of an attack. It’s important to learn what you need to do — or not do — to avoid life and death situations, though obviously this is not always possible. But an animal rarely wants to attack you unless it is a female with young that feels threatened or an animal with food that is protecting their meal. Surprising an animal is also a good way to end up in a dicey situation.

One of the scariest things that ever happened to me was when I fell in quicksand in Myanmar’s Hukuang Valley, and quickly sank chest-deep. The Lisu hunters that were with me just stood there and laughed awhile before they decided to pull me out.

On another trip to Myanmar, I flew up north in a military helicopter that almost crashed into a cliff. The pilot then dropped our team off in a tiny village in the high peaks of the Hkakabo Razi mountains — and we spent the next three days trekking from dawn until dusk to reach our destination.

Q. I read on your blog that you brought 36 bags on your recent trip to India for your story on snow leopards. How do you manage with so much gear? Do you bring assistants along to help with the load and logistics?

Handling the gear is one of the worst parts of the job — packing, getting it on airplanes and out into the field is a monumental task.

I have always used local guides and assistants that I would train, but now I bring a U.S. assistant to handle my digital files and equipment. I now have an incredible assistant, Gabe DeLoach, who makes my time in the field so much easier than in the past, freeing me up to concentrate on the images. But I still use local people as much as possible. They know the country and customs, help me with logistics, and are key to making each story a success.

Q. What was your experience like photographing snow leopards? Was that the most recent story you worked on? What do you currently have in the works?

Outfitting a winter camp for my snow leopard story in the Ladahk region of Kashmir meant that I left Newark airport with 36 bags. The folks at Continental Airlines know me well. To get equipment into another country sometimes requires approval from local customs officials. I hadn’t received the customs forms in time for my flight. The Indian Embassy advised me to wait until the next day to leave, but it would have cost me $2,000 to change my and my assistant’s tickets. I already had permits to work in India, so I left. After 2 1/2 hours at the customs office in the Delhi airport, it looked like they weren’t going let me bring my gear into the country. Their concern was that I would sell the equipment in India, but in fact the equipment is mostly owned by National Geographic magazine. Luckily I had the cell phone number of the Indian Consul General’s office in New York. I called, he answered and told me to put the customs guy on the phone — who eventually let me in the country after I filled out volumes of paperwork. I will never forget him showing me a customs regulations manual the size of a phonebook, saying, “Why should we have these laws if I am not supposed to follow them?”

The story on snow leopards was physically the hardest story I have ever produced. Given that I am primarily a jungle guy, working at high altitudes while was a big shock to the system. I camped out in Hemis National Park in the Indian Himalayas for four months during the winter. It took 3 days with 20 packhorses making continuous trips to ferry us and our gear to our campsite in the park. At night, the temperature dipped to 30 to 40 below zero. Every day we climbed to between 15,000 and 17,000 feet, up and down mountains to place remote cameras.

I had a great team from the Kashmiri town of Leh who worked for snow leopard preservation organizations, plus a cook, and an assistant, Emilene Ostiland, who had been the coordinator for my editor Kathy Moran — eight people in all.

Luckily, the cats are habitual animals that tend to walk the same trails and mark their territory in the same places every week or two. Some of them were disturbed by the camera sound or flashes, but I had two males who didn’t seem to care at all about the sound of the camera. So I “mined” the trails they walked on during the winter with [camera] traps placed in areas that made good compositions, and was able to get incredible images of them. I see these images as gifts: the snow leopard had never before been photographed except by scientific camera trapping. And I was lucky: in 2007, the weather was good for the camera traps. The next year, they had three feet of snow, which would have made it impossible. All in all, the story was blessed from the beginning when I saw two snow leopards within the first 24 hours.

I just completed a story on Kaziranga National Park in Assam, India, home to the largest remaining population of Indian rhinos, as well as the highest density of tigers and the largest population of Asian elephants left in the world.

Q. Do you have much downtime in between assignments to spend time with family and friends? Do you have a family of your own? Is it difficult for them to adjust after you return from several months in the field?

Time away from my family — my wife, Sharon, and stepson, Nick — is the hardest part of the job. With the advent of satellite phones things got a lot better. I try to call twice a day. To keep a relationship going you need to be involved with what’s happening at home. It also helps ground me during lonely times in the field — I treasure the calls.

Coming home can be tough, readjusting to life after extended time in a remote corner of the world. It’s an adjustment for my family, too: they’ve gotten used to a routine without me. Over the years, it’s gotten easier, but every trip is different. And time between assignments can be six weeks — or six months.

Q. Your colleague Brian Skerry shared the advantages of shooting with digital cameras in a recent Behind the Lens Q&A. Do you shoot digital as well or do you prefer to stick with film? What cameras and lenses do you shoot with in the field? How many images do you typically come back with?

I could not do what I do as successfully without digital cameras. Being able to review the day’s take and knowing what you have and what you need to shoot has completely altered how I work — and has taken off some of the pressure. For camera traps, digital is indispensable: with film, the only way I knew if I had anything was to get the film to the capital, DHL or FedEx it back to National Geographic magazine, and wait to hear the results. Now we download files every night, I import them into Apple’s Aperture software and within minutes I see the images. If there are technical problems with the trap or the flashes, I can fix them the next day. So I love digital.

I use Canon EOS 1D Mark III cameras and a variety of lenses from 16mm to 1200 mm. I have two Mac laptop computers and use Aperture 2.0 which has dramatically changed my life for the better — it’s so quick and efficient it’s like having another assistant inside your computer.

There is no typical number of photos from an assignment. I produced about 150,000 images in Kaziranga. On others, especially when I was still shooting film, I sometimes shot half or a quarter as many.

Q. Many photographers consider a position at National Geographic to be the ultimate photography job. What would you recommend to someone who aspires to join the ranks of National Geographic photographers?

National Geographic photographic is a family — and I feel very fortunate to be a part of this family and to work for the best magazine in the world. It is wonderful to have editors, coordinators and other National Geographic magazine photographers as close friends and colleagues, working as a team to produce the most comprehensive coverage from around the globe. I look at each story as a way to do better than the last time. I compete against myself.

Learning to tell a story in photographs is the best way to work towards a career at National Geographic magazine. Many of us started at newspapers and magazines where you get a great foundation in storytelling. If working for National Geographic is your dream, work hard, spend time looking at pictures by the photographers you most respect. Go out and shoot stories that you’re passionate about — and learn to edit your work down to just the very best images.

Read other interviews from the Behind the Lens series
• June 2008: Robert Hanashiro
• April 2008: Preston Gannaway
• March 2008: John Moore
• February 2008: Martin Schoeller
• January 2008: Brian Skerry
• December 2007: Jasin Boland
• November 2007: Norm Barker
• October 2007: Cameron Davidson

The post Behind the Lens with Steve Winter appeared first on Popular Photography.

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The photographic community is incredibly diverse, made up of photographers that shoot from the sky to the sea and everywhere in between. Each month we look at a different segment of the industry, interviewing top professional photographers about life, their careers, and what sets their piece of the photographic industry apart from the rest.

This month we focus on Preston Gannaway, a staff photographer at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado. While driving from New Hampshire to Colorado earlier this month, Gannaway learned that she had been named the recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography. The 30-year-old photographer was recognized for her picture story, “Remember Me,” which she created while on staff at the Concord Monitor. In April’s installment of “Behind the Lens,” Gannaway talks about her career as a newspaper photographer, and the hard work and dedication that went into her Pulitzer-winning picture story.

Q. When did you begin your career as a newspaper photographer? Have you always worked for local publications?

I started professionally as a photographer right out of college at the Coalfield Progress in rural southwest Virginia. I had just graduated from Virginia Intermont College, where I studied fine art photography, when I was hired. I had no real experience with journalism, but I thought a newspaper job would be a good way to have a steady paycheck and still take pictures. The Coalfield Progress had a circulation of 8,000 and was published twice a week. A few years and internships later, I was hired at the Concord Monitor. I spent five years there. I loved the community photojournalism that has become what the Monitor is known for. I’ve always worked at small (until now) newspapers.

Q. You recently spent several months working on your project, “Remember Me.” Do you prefer working on long-term projects or daily assignments?

I spent almost two years on “Remember Me” — the longest I’ve spent on any project. I like doing both projects and daily assignments. That’s one of the reasons I love newspapers. But long-term projects are the most fulfilling for me. I enjoy the immediacy of daily work, but I also like delving into more complexities in a long-term story. For me, daily work is mostly about making good pictures, but long-term work is more about the story.

Q. When working on a long-term project, how do you judge which life events best tell the story? Do you spend all of your time with the subjects or anticipate situations and plan your time around them?

It’s usually determining which life events I can be there for and which ones I can anticipate ahead of time. During the editing process is when there’s more analyzing of the story and the themes we’re trying to illustrate.

As a newspaper photographer, I do what I can do to be there for situations, but it’s often in balance with other job responsibilities. At a small paper with a photo staff of five, you still have to put a paper out every day. My editor at the Concord Monitor, Dan Habib, was good about freeing me up when I needed to be. And the staff is always supportive when someone is working on a project.

Maintaining focus on a long-term project can be extremely challenging. It takes a lot of time just trying to stay up to date. The most frustrating thing in the world a photojournalist will hear is, “You should’ve been here yesterday…” But spending time on a project is also a balance with the subjects — it can be exhausting to have a photographer constantly around!

Q. How did you meet your subject for “Remember Me?” Was it difficult to get access? How did you make the St. Pierre family feel comfortable around you?

A friend of Rich and Carolynne’s contacted reporter Chelsea Conaboy about doing a story. From there, it really evolved. Originally, we planned to follow the family for only few months. Rich and Carolynne were very pleased with how the first story came out — and how we were able to capture what they were going through. That first story really built trust. At the same time, Chelsea Conaboy and I became more attached to the family and committed to the story. Some afternoons I would go by their house and just spend a few hours talking and visiting with Carolynne. Many times I would go and not even make a photo. Carolynne had reservations about the story at first, but she was so incredibly courageous and amazing about it.

Q. Did you become emotionally involved in the story? Is it possible to avoid after spending so much time with a subject? Was it difficult to continue after Carolynne’s death?

We couldn’t have done the story if we weren’t emotionally involved. Chelsea and I were always careful to be truthful in our coverage and not to interfere, but we never tried to be detached emotionally. It just wasn’t possible.

It was extremely difficult to continue after Carolynne’s death. We were dealing with our own grief. But we felt strongly that that we wanted to tell that part of the story as well — to share what a family goes through after the loss.

Often people don’t realize that that’s the darkest time for a family with someone so sick — when the house gets quiet and other friends and community members get back to their lives. After the loved one has passed, the needs are just as great. We wanted to show what that part of life was like for Rich and the kids.

Q. Working at a local newspaper, most of your readers live near one city, so neighborhood stories are obviously a priority. Do you cover events beyond where your readers reside? Have you spent time photographing in other countries?

At the Concord Monitor, I never photographed in another country. We would occasionally do stories outside our coverage area (of central New Hampshire), but only if it had a strong local angle. I love working domestically; there are so many fascinating things here and so many stories that need to be shared.

I think a lot of photography students feel pressure to shoot internationally – that that’s the way to become a photojournalist. I don’t think that’s true at all. The St. Pierre family lives two miles from the Concord Monitor office. So that’s, pretty literally, telling a story in your own backyard.

Q. As newspapers increase their Internet presence, there seems to be a greater focus on multimedia. Do you find yourself shooting video and capturing audio in addition to stills? How has this changed your workflow?

I’ve done some audio, but just for long-term projects. Most newspapers are in flux right now, the Rocky Mountain News is the same way. There’s a lot of emphasis on the web which changes the way you define the typical daily newspaper deadline. Now, photos are needed throughout the day for the website.

I think audio paired with still photographs can be incredibly powerful. And I really enjoyed creating the multimedia that went with the “Remember Me” story. It feels like such a more complete way of telling a story.

Q. What equipment do you use on a daily basis? Does the newspaper provide all of your equipment?

At the Rocky Mountain News where I am now, the paper provides all my equipment. Currently, I shoot with two Canon Mark II bodies. For documentary stories, like “Remember Me,” I don’t want to draw too much attention to myself so I usually stick with one body and a wide-angle zoom. I use my 16-35mm for 90% of my work, I would guess. I think your equipment needs to be good enough and reliable enough to not distract you from the job. But other than that, it’s just equipment.

Q. You’ve been recognized for your photography before, but the Pulitzer Prize is an award like no other. What did you do when you found out you had won? How has your life changed in the last few weeks?

My editor from the Monitor, Felice Belman, called me as I was driving out to Denver to start at the Rocky Mountain News. I had been on the road for four days, so it was surreal. I thought I must have heard her wrong.

I’m still having a hard time believing it! But the number of people who have seen the story is just incredible. We have received so many emails in support of the family [from readers] who have been moved by the story. It feels really wonderful and affirms the power of documentary work.

The “Remember Me” project has been, by far, the most significant work I’ve done as a journalist (and personally the most profound experience of my life). I put so much of myself into the project and I didn’t want to look back years later and think, ‘I wish I would have entered it in the Pulitzers.’ And I thought it would be really cool to be a finalist! It never occurred to me that I would win.

Q. What resources would you recommend for photographers interested in a job in the newspaper industry? Can you recommend any workshops or conferences? Are there any good resources on the Web?

There are tons of great resources for photographers! Aphotoaday.org is an excellent online community — especially for those starting out. The Missouri Photo Workshop is a great hands-on training ground for documentary storytelling. The National Press Photographers Association also provides great resources. The Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar has always been one of my favorite conferences. I could go on and on…

Read other interviews from the Behind the Lens series
• June 2008: Robert Hanashiro
• May 2008: Steve Winter
• March 2008: John Moore
• February 2008: Martin Schoeller
• January 2008: Brian Skerry
• December 2007: Jasin Boland
• November 2007: Norm Barker
• October 2007: Cameron Davidson

The post Behind the Lens with Preston Gannaway appeared first on Popular Photography.

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Strike up a conversation with Wayne Martin Belger and you’ll hear about the warm weather in Tucson and airport security woes, but browse through his studio or website and you’ll find everything from the heart of a baby to a 500-year-old Tibetan skull to a vial of HIV-positive blood. No, the man’s not a mad scientist; he’s an artist.

While some of his prints hang on gallery walls, Belger’s true masterpieces are the tools he uses to create his photographs. The Arizona based machinist’s operation is a one-man show. After conceptualizing a photographic series, he sets out to create a unique pinhole camera, gathering materials that range from the practical (aircraft grade aluminum) to the absurd (HIV-positive blood).

Perfecting a new camera can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months for Belger, who sometimes goes for days without sleep. Customers don’t take that hard work for granted, however, with some of his cameras selling for as much as $240,000. Once the camera meets his high standards, Belger begins his role as a photographer.

His subjects range from Californian body builders dealing with AIDS to mothers during childbirth. All images are captured through a pinhole, but a different camera is used for each series. Once complete, Belger heads to the darkroom, dodging and burning each print to perfection. He works independently from start to finish, never seeking help from an assistant, technician, or even a camera manufacturer.

Belger says he even makes his own frames. “Everything is done in-house,” he says proudly. “I don’t like anybody else messing with it so I kinda make everything. The only thing I don’t make is the film itself.”

Never touching a commercially manufactured camera, he travels the world with his 20 lb. pinhole camera, light meter and tripod in hand. Belger’s travel photos are never snapshots; rather, they require precise manual exposure control, 4×5 film, and tremendous patience.

The 44-year-old artist discovered photography just nine years ago, when automotive photographer and friend, Brian Booth, showed him a pinhole camera. A perfectionist, Belger decided to build a better camera for Booth. The Bee, as it came to be known, was a pinhole camera made from materials including aircraft grade aluminum and its namesake, the bumblebee. Booth continues to shoot with the camera today.

Most of Belger’s images follow a particular theme related to the camera created to capture them. Still a work in progress, his recent project documents mothers who are at least eight months pregnant. The 4×5 pinhole camera created for the project contains the heart of a child who died at birth. The heart, donated by a gallery owner who found it among a collection of old anatomy equipment, is preserved in a sealed compartment at the rear of the camera. Despite its chilling reminder of the risks of childbirth, Belger says he was surprised by how well the mothers took to the Heart camera.

Word about his project spread fast, with expecting mothers now contacting the photographer to set a date. So far Belger has photographed portraits of 30 women. He’s even been invited to photograph the women giving birth. Belger is able to capture only one frame, about a ten-minute exposure, and begins to expose the film just before his subject gives birth. Because of the project’s widespread popularity, he relies on air travel to reach some of his subjects, always carrying his cameras on the plane.

With the unusual appearance of his cameras and tight security at airports, Belger finds it necessary to take extra precautions when traveling, including arriving at the airport at least three hours before a domestic flight. Belger says a recent shipping mishap sent some of his cameras on an “unscheduled tour of Europe,” so shipping the cameras to his destination is out of the question.

He faces the most difficulty when traveling with his HIV camera, which contains sealed vials of blood donated by an HIV-positive friend. Belger uses the HIV camera to capture portraits of individuals suffering from the virus. The camera is subjected to additional scrutiny by airport security because of its unusual appearance. “The thing looks like a small nuclear device,” Belger says. “It’s really hard to explain.”

He plans to continue photographing his series with the HIV camera, and has already captured portraits of AIDS victims in San Francisco. Belger says that 13 of the 14 individuals he’s photographed for the project are very muscular, citing the steroids they use to treat AIDS as the cause. He plans to expand the project, hoping to travel to South Africa and Calcutta this fall, creating a geographic comparison of people with HIV and AIDS. “Where you live has so much to do with your survival,” he says.

Survival and death alike are recurring themes in his work. Belger says a future project may include portraits of Holocaust survivors. Employing this concept, his subjects would be photographed using a split cam that exposes the 4×5 film in two parts. A portrait of the survivors would appear on the top two-thirds of the film, while a close-up of their identification number tattoo would be displayed below. The pinhole camera used for this project would include a cross worn by Hitler’s wife, Eva Braun. The relic is already in Belger’s collection.

Belger says he’s very interested in studying genocide, and that the Holocaust project was partially inspired by war and wedding photographer Mark Brecke, who published photographs documenting genocide in Darfur and Sudan.

Belger places a strong emphasis on originality, and will even employ a particle accelerator for an upcoming project photographing icons of creation and destruction. Collaborating with a scientist, the photographer will use the Stanford Synchrotron in Palo Alto, CA to discharge a high intensity X-ray beam focused on the icon, which he’ll capture using a specially designed pinhole camera and 8×10 X-ray film.

With even more projects in mind, Belger says he finds himself limited only by time. To help find a balance between building cameras, traveling and working in the darkroom, he splits the year in two, working in his studio for two months, traveling as a photographer for the next two, then working in the darkroom before repeating the cycle. Belger said he doesn’t mind spending two months without light. “I really like the darkroom,” he said. “It’s like painting for me.”

Belger included prints with each of the six cameras he’s sold. His first camera, Bee, is currently in photographer Brian Booth’s collection. Third Eye and Yemaya were sold to fine art galleries, and Deer, Roadside Altar, and Sons of Abraham, his 9/11 camera, were sold to private collectors. Etherton Gallery in Tucson is currently listing the Yama installation for $240,000.

Yama is a 4×5 “stereo” camera contained in a 500-year-old Tibetan skull. The pinhole camera creates two side-by-side images captured through the skull’s eyes. Belger says that every metal part of the camera was assembled by hand. Embedded in the skull are precious stones, including a $5,000 ruby. The $240,000 asking price includes a gold Burmese temple case and an elaborate steel and wood table made with materials from India.

Belger has arrangements with each of the camera’s owners, allowing him to use the cameras whenever he chooses. In exchange, he provides the owners with prints of the new images he captures.

He will be reuniting with Yemaya, an underwater pinhole camera, at Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. Belger, a certified scuba diver, will shoot on July 12th and 13th at Scripps. His work will also be featured at an inaugural gallery showing in La Jolla the following weekend. The opening reception at Device Gallery will be held on Saturday evening, July 19th.

For more information about Belger’s cameras and to see examples of his work, please visit our image gallery.

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In celebration of the International Year of the Potato, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has announced a photo contest for amateurs and professionals worldwide.

Individuals aged 18 and older may enter the contest with either one single JPEG image or a photo story of four to eight images. Prints and film will not be accepted. Images must depict a theme including biodiversity, cultivation, post-harvest and processing, trade, marketing, and consumption and utilization, and must feature potatoes. There is no fee to enter.

Submissions must be adhere to photojournalistic guidelines, and may not include multiple exposures, composite photographs and manipulated images. Minor color correction and dodging/burning is acceptable. Entrants may also submit images in black and white.

First through third place prizes will be awarded to photographers in both the professional and amateur categories, and include a combination of cash and Nikon cameras and lenses. The first place winner in the professional category will receive $4000 US and a Nikon D300. The first place amateur winner will be presented with $2000 US and a Nikon D60.

Entries may be submitted online or mailed to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s headquarters in Rome, Italy by September 1, 2008. A panel of eight judges including Steve McCurry of Magnum Photos and Francesco Zizola of Noorimages will select the winners. A list of contest rules can be found on the IYP Web site.

The post UN Photo Contest Focuses on World Foods appeared first on Popular Photography.

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A group of young students in the rural mountain village of Eal Keshan, Afghanistan were given the opportunity to share a glimpse of their lives with strangers worlds away.

Concern Worldwide, a non-profit humanitarian organization focused on improving the quality of life in third world countries, provided the donated disposable cameras that enabled the students to use photography as a tool to communicate aspects of their lives to philanthropists in America.

Images captured by the students were brought back to Chicago, where they were sold at Concerned Worldwide’s Brigid Awards Luncheon in February. The event raised over $100,000 for education in Afghanistan. The organization will use some of the funds to build an eight-room school, which will provide primary education to 800 students in Eal Keshan.

Laborers will use materials available locally, including stones, sand and gravel, to help build the school. During the construction process, 10 educators will attend the government’s Teachers Training Institute, which will prepare them to teach reading and writing skills.

Justin Schair, press officer for Concern Worldwide in the U.S., says the organization has been working in Afghanistan since 1998. They have been responsible for the construction of several new schools in Afghanistan, including some in Takhar Province and other areas.

Students learned only the basics of photography in order to capture images with their disposable cameras, but were able to see prints of their images after the film was developed in the United States. With the community lacking running water let alone any familiarity with technology, Schair says photography will not be part of the curriculum.

Based in Dublin, Ireland, Concerned Worldwide has over 3,500 personnel working to improve the lives of the five million people they reach in developing nations each year. For more information or to make a contribution, visit their U.S. web site.

The post Disposable Cameras Help Rural Afghani Students Document School Conditions appeared first on Popular Photography.

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The photographic community is incredibly diverse, made up of photographers that shoot from the sky to the sea and everywhere in between. Each month we look at a different segment of the industry, interviewing top professional photographers about life, their careers, and what sets their piece of the photographic industry apart from the rest.

This month we focus on John Moore, a senior staff photographer with Getty Images based in Islamabad, Pakistan. Before joining Getty, Moore was a staff photographer with the Associated Press, and was on a team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography for their coverage of the war in Iraq. Having lived in Nicaragua, India, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt and Pakistan, as well as the United States, Moore estimates that he’s worked in over 80 countries throughout his career. Most recently named Magazine Photographer of the Year in POYi, Moore was awarded two first place prizes at the 2008 World Press Photo Contest for his coverage of Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Taking some time while on a layover in Johannesburg in route to Zimbabwe, Moore provides some insight into what it’s like to work as an international conflicts photographer.

Q. Where did you begin your career as a photojournalist? Did you work at a daily newspaper or were you shooting international conflicts from day one?

I actually paid for much of my university tuition by shooting sports – football, basketball, baseball – whatever assignments I could get and for whoever would pay, including the college newspaper and the Associated Press. I also took several paid internships at newspapers during my summer vacations while in college.

After graduation, the AP offered me a post as the photo stringer based in Managua, Nicaragua, and ever since I have worked internationally. Early on with the AP, I concentrated more on feature and social documentary photography. My first real experience with conflict photography was when I was sent to Somalia to cover the famine in late 1992. I was the only wire service photographer there when George Bush Sr. announced that the U.S. would send troops, so I had that important story to myself for almost a week until other photographers arrived. I stayed on through the U.S. invasion.

When photographing out on the streets of Mogadishu, I had two gunmen with AK-47s by my side at all times. After the U.S. Army said that we could no longer employ private security guards, I was out photographing one day and was robbed of all of my cameras by armed bandits and in a separate incident stoned by a mob a couple of hours later. Sixteen years and many conflict zones later, I still count those months in Somalia as the most dangerous of my career.

Q. You were recently the closest journalist to the blast during the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Why did you decide to shoot the rally she was attending at the time?

The threat level against her, of course, was very high following the attack on her procession a few months before when she returned to Pakistan from 8 years in exile. During President Musharraf’s state of emergency, she had planned a large demonstration in Rawalpindi but was put under house arrest, so the rally didn’t happen. So, months later when the much-delayed event was finally to take place, I thought I should be there. And naturally we all knew there was a threat. In fact, the number of her supporters there was down significantly, as many people stayed home afraid.

Q. What was that experience like? Did you suffer any injuries? Are you happy with the images you captured?

I never expected her to leave the event standing up through the roof of her armored vehicle the way she did. I had been walking to my car, trying to leave the event, when I took one last look back and saw her riding along and waving to the crowd, which was swarming around the vehicle. Let me risk cliché and say – it all happened so fast – because it did. After sprinting back to her car, I only photographed her for 18 seconds, according to the time codes in the digital images, before I moved ahead of the vehicle just prior to the blast. Afterwards, I was temporarily deafened by the explosion, so for me it was all very quiet at first. It was almost dark, and I had not had time to raise the camera’s ISO to match the situation, so much of the photography was unusable because of very severe blur. That said, the movement visible in some of the frames probably added to the urgency of the photos. I suppose being so close to the blast, I was not really thinking much about shutter speeds. The possibility of a secondary suicide blast or just getting run over by Benazir’s fleeing vehicle was in mind, however.

Q. You’ve photographed in dangerous conditions throughout your career. Have you ever feared for your life? What drives you to continue documenting life and death in conflict zones?

No matter how long you’re in this business of conflict photography you will always feel fear. When you no longer feel it, then it’s time to get out. More important is what you do with that fear. If you calculate your risks based on your instincts and experience, then you can channel your fear to help focus on what is in front of the lens. That said, there are never any guarantees – and no, fortunately I have never been seriously injured.

Q. When photographing in Iraq, do you travel on your own or embedded with American troops? What are some advantages and disadvantages of traveling with American soldiers?

When in Iraq I can really only work while embedded with U.S. forces. The advantages are twofold. First, working with the forces provides some protection against those that would do me harm. Secondly, as embedded journalists we can get incredible access to frontline fighting, among many other stories only possible by close proximity to the military. An occasional disadvantage is that it is difficult to move from one embed to another with a different unit on short notice. For example, an offensive may kick off, but if the unit you are embedded with is not taking part in it, then you miss the whole event. Naturally, I would also like to cover the Iraq civilian side of the story, but, as a foreigner, the threat of kidnapping is just too high.

Q. As a photographer constantly on the move, are you able to spend much time with your family? Do you visit them in the United States or do they live overseas?

I live with my family in Islamabad, Pakistan, so I have been spending a lot more time with them recently, since Pakistan has slipped into such instability during the last year. I have been traveling less and covering more, for better or worse, closer to home. My wife, Gretchen Peters, is the correspondent for ABC News in Pakistan, so she understands well what I do for a living. Islamabad has remained fairly safe so far, despite the chaos in much of the country. Hopefully that will not change.

Q: What photography equipment do you use on a daily basis? Your cameras and lenses must be subject to some serious wear and tear, how often do you need to replace them?

I’ve used Canon for all my life, even before EOS, if you can imagine that. Currently I use two of the new generation Mark III bodies for news and a 5D for features. The first Mark III bodies to come out, as we all know, were disgracefully unsharp. Amazing how Canon threw away more than 15 years of professional competitive advantage over Nikon in a single blunder. That said, I think they will recover. It is healthy to again have good competition between Nikon and Canon.

For lenses, I usually use a 16-35mm f/2.8 and a 70-200mm f/2.8 for news and a 28mm f/1.8 and a 50mm f/1.8 more for features. I also have a midrange zoom and a 300mm f/2.8, both of which I use rarely. My backup zooms are a 20-35mm f/4 and a 70-200mm f/4 IS. I use flash with slave sometimes. Lately I have been doing a fair amount of multimedia, so I often carry a Canon HV-20 HDV camera and a Zoom H2 digital audio recorder.

My camera gear gets some serious wear and tear because of the environments I work in. You just barely knock a zoom lens against the armored door of a Humvee and the thing snaps in half. I keep a backup wide zoom when I am traveling, as well as my fixed wide lens. For repairs, sending gear out from Pakistan, as well as receiving repaired equipment, is a frequent problem, because of the impossible corruption and bureaucracy in the country’s customs office. Interestingly, the easiest place to pick up my repaired or new equipment has been Baghdad, where customs is not a problem and DHL is located just downstairs from our office at the Al Hamra Hotel.

Q: How do you transmit images to Getty Images from the field? What equipment do you use? Do you send all the images from a shoot or do you edit yourself and only send selects?

When in the field I often use a BGAN satellite transmitter. It connects to the internet and I then send my photos to the Getty server via ftp and check via Instant Messenger to see if they landed ok. It takes less than two minutes per photo, and I always send an edit, not the entire take. When you are often shooting at 10 frames per second, sending everything is not really an option. On any given day on assignment in the field, I may send between half a dozen and twenty photos, it just depends on the situation.

Q: Where do you spend your time off? Do you travel on vacation or do you spend your time resting at home?

When I am at home, I am rarely off. While I may not be shooting photos every day, I am usually lining up the next assignment, sending dozens of emails and spending time on the phone. The places I tend to work often require myriad logistical efforts to reach, so there is a lot of leg work that goes into the process. When I was with AP, I could often rely on the office staff to set up much of my logistics – air travel, translators, drivers, etc, but with Getty I am on my own out here and do it all myself. Plus, I spend a lot of time trying to keep up on the news and when possible, stay a bit ahead of it. We often vacation back at our parents’ homes in the states, so that they can get some time in with our two young daughters. It is hard for them, as grandparents, being so far away. This year we hope to also spend some vacation time in France and perhaps Thailand.

Q: How many countries have you worked in? Where are you shooting now? Do you receive much notice before it’s time to jump on a plane and head off to your next assignment?

I am not sure exactly how many countries I have worked in, but I think it is over 80. I have been posted and have lived in six – Nicaragua, India, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt and Pakistan. I just finished an assignment photographing Marines arriving to Kandahar, Afghanistan and am currently in Johannesburg in route to Zimbabwe. Most of my assignments are self-generated, so I often line up the timing myself. Naturally, plans are thwarted when we react to natural disasters, such as major earthquakes, storms, etc.

Q: Are there any photography or journalism related websites that you keep up with on a regular basis? Do you have any advice for aspiring journalists aching to join the elite ranks of war photographers?

I don’t keep up with any sites on a regular basis, although I think they are really good for the profession. Young photographers can always concentrate on stills as their passion, but should also learn video and audio and how to edit multimedia stories. With online journalism becoming more important every day, multimedia is certainly the future of our business. That said, the power and permanence of the still photograph is as strong as ever, and I don’t think that will ever change. As for being a war photographer, I don’t really consider myself one. It is very rare for the United States to be fighting two wars simultaneously, so I currently feel an obligation, for reasons both personal and historical, to be there. That said, a time will come when I am no longer involved in conflict photography, and I will embrace that change. Advice for aspiring photojournalists getting involved in war photography? Trust your instincts, calculate your risks and stay behind the guys with the guns.

Read other interviews from the Behind the Lens series
• June 2008: Robert Hanashiro
• May 2008: Steve Winter
• April 2008: Preston Gannaway
• February 2008: Martin Schoeller
• January 2008: Brian Skerry
• December 2007: Jasin Boland
• November 2007: Norm Barker
• October 2007: Cameron Davidson

The post Behind the Lens with John Moore appeared first on Popular Photography.

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The photographic community is incredibly diverse, made up of photographers that shoot from the sky to the sea and everywhere in between. Each month we look at a different segment of the industry, interviewing top professional photographers about life, their careers, and what sets their piece of the photographic industry apart from the rest.

This month we focus on Martin Schoeller, a world-renowned portrait photographer based in New York City. Schoeller is best known for his “Close-Up” portrait series, for which he has photographed a slew of politicians, celebrities and everyday people over the last 10 years. As an editorial portrait photographer, Schoeller’s clients include the New Yorker, GQ, and Rolling Stone, among others. He also has several commercial clients including Goldman Sachs, Nike and Citibank. Schoeller, who began his photographic career as an assistant for Annie Leibovitz, provides an intimate look into his work.

Can you remember your first experience with photography? What aspect of photography pulled you in enough to consider it as a profession?

After graduating high school I was at a loss until a friend of mine got me interested in photography. We applied together at a technical school in Berlin. He helped me with my portfolio and explained the basics to me. He didn’t get into the school, but they took me. We are still friends; he is a very successful documentary filmmaker now.

Have you always been a photographer? What was your early career like?

No, not at all. I only got interested in photography while working on the portfolio that I needed to apply for this school. I always thought photographers are nerds and tech geeks, constantly talking about cameras and equipment. They just go to a party to take pictures, while not initiating anything.

After finishing school I assisted many different photographers in Germany, some more successful than others. Being an assistant is a lot of work and I decided it is time to work for somebody whose work I really respect. I had seen a big exhibition of portraits by Annie Leibovitz in Hamburg and was very impressed. I came to New York in 1992 and called up Irving Penn, Steven Meisel and Annie Leibovitz, trying to find work as an assistant. Nobody offered me anything; my broken English probably didn’t help. I went back to Germany, took more pictures and worked as a waiter. Half a year later I came back and ended up working with Annie Leibovitz for three years.

It was a great experience, I learned so much. It opened my eyes and took me to another level. Sometimes it wasn’t easy, she gave me a lot of responsibility, which at times was overwhelming. Photographing portraits on assignment comes with a lot of limitations and pressure. Watching her deal with all of the elements that have to come together — subjects, lighting, production, weather, styling, location — gave me an insight into what it takes to be a portrait photographer.

It’s clear that you’ve developed a unique style for capturing subjects in a natural state as seen in your book, “Close Up.” Who or what inspired you to photograph people in this way?

Bernd and Hilla Becher’s work inspired me to take a series of pictures, to build a platform that allows you to compare. Thomas Ruff’s images fascinated me when I saw them at a museum in Frankfurt. Richard Avedon’s images encouraged me to just photograph people the way I see them and not to worry if they will like their picture or not.

How do you get your subjects to open up to you? Do you spend time getting to know them well before a shoot or do you get right down to business?

Most of the time I have a very limited amount of time with my subjects. I do talk to them continuously while I take their picture and put on music that they might like. I always research my subjects, and watch their most obscure movies whenever applicable, if I think that might help me with ideas.

Where do you do the majority of your work? Do subjects often come to your studio or do you spend a lot of time on the road?

I prefer to photograph on location. The “Close Up” set up travels with me wherever I go. I don’t even have a studio.

What photographic equipment do you use on a daily basis? Do you shoot with digital medium format cameras or do you capture images exclusively on film?

I have never taken a digital picture, except for on vacation with a snapshot camera. I still prefer film and will continue to use it until the end. Film just looks so much better in galleries and museums. I use all different cameras. For my “Close Up” series I used a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II with a 140mm lens. A lot of magazine assignments I shoot with a Fuji 6×9 and for my latest project, “Female Bodybuilders,” I used my Sinar 8×10. Now that’s a camera. The quality is just amazing. The prints in the show will be 72″x89″ and the detail and colors are just beautiful and yet realistic. They’re not over saturated, too sharp and with too much depth of field, the way digital photographs sometimes look.

I exclusively use negative film, because it has the widest range of tonality. We scan them on a drum scanner and work on them in Photoshop. The scans for the “Female Bodybuilder” series were 1.86 gigabytes per image. I don’t think there will ever be a digital camera with that kind of resolution, since there is only a very small group of potential costumers in need of this kind of detail.

What difficulties do you run into on the job? Is there a lot involved in coordinating each shoot?

The preparation is often the most amount of work. To come up with an idea and to produce a shoot can be very involved and can take many days. The subject is most of the time the biggest unknown. Publicists are also a force to be reckoned with and can be quite challenging to say the least.

How many portraits have you shot over the years? Who was your favorite subject? What was that experience like?

I have probably photographed 1,000 people in my “Close Up” style so far. That’s about 100 a year for the last ten years. In the beginning I set up on the street and worked with whoever was willing to cooperate.

What projects are you currently working on? What do you have planned for the future?

A series on female bodybuilders. I have a show opening at Ace Gallery in L.A. on the 5th of March. They will also be shown in Beijing during the Olympics. This fall there will be a book published as well.

What books or Websites do you recommend for photographers interested in learning about portrait photography? Are there any Websites you keep up with on a regular basis?

No, not really. I get ideas from all different experiences. Just everyday events can have inspiring moments, such as riding the subway or going to a museum. I love to see people thinking outside the box of commercial photography that surrounds us everywhere.

Read other interviews from the Behind the Lens series
• June 2008: Robert Hanashiro
• May 2008: Steve Winter
• April 2008: Preston Gannaway
• March 2008: John Moore
• January 2008: Brian Skerry
• December 2007: Jasin Boland
• November 2007: Norm Barker
• October 2007: Cameron Davidson

The post Behind the Lens with Martin Schoeller appeared first on Popular Photography.

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