Turn away

Posted by Gordon King on Aug 8, 2011 | Comments Off

Action is seductive.

An alarm for a residential structure fire goes out over the scanner. I race to the scene (usually exceeding the speed limit) and arrive to find a house engulfed in flame.

At the start my attention is focused on the fire. It is, after all, the reason I

went there in the first place. That means capturing the firefighters working to extinquish the blaze.

It’s easy to be seduced by the firefighting action.

But the firefighters battling the house fire may not be the whole story. Or the story at all. That’s why, even as I’m photographing those firefighters, I’m looking around to see what else is happening away from the fire.

In photojournalism parlance, we call it “action and reaction.” When photographing news I’m not only looking for the action (the fire) but also the reaction of others to the fire. Those reactions may tell as much, or more,  about the fire  than a photo of the firefighting efforts.

Another phrase I use is “look at the edges.” To me, this means I should  also look at the “edge” of a news scene, not the just the “center” (the fire) of the scene.

Looking for the “reaction” photos is especially important when the firefighting action just isn’t all that dramtic or visual (not all firefighting action is created equally).

And when I “look at the edges” I sometimes find something different, even humorous.

I was also periodically watching the homeowner to see his reaction to the fire. It’s often the victim’s reactions that tell  a better story  than any action photo. In this instance, the homeowner was sitting passively watching as the firefighters did their job. Because he showed no emotion I only photographed his face as he later talked to the reporter covering the story.

I’m sometimes reluctant to photograph victims because I respect their emotions and don’t want to compound their personal tragedy by poking a camera lens in their face. I’m certainly more inclined to photograph victims if I can stand a distance away with a larger telephoto lens and photograph them without intruding on their grief. If I am going to photograph people suffering a tragedy I will do my best to do it a respectful fashion.

We ran the photo of the woman hosing down her house as the main photo on the front page of the next day’s paper.

–Gordon King

 

 

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