Today was the first day that was spent as a group going to different wire services/companies (Associated Press, The New York Times and Thomas Reuters.) Each place we were welcomed with a warm greeting that set the tone for the few hours that we had the pleasure to meet with workers from the companies.
Associated Press was the first wire service that we met with, and the day was started off with a meeting that had a few different geographic locations video chatting about trending news that needed to be covered through out the day. The meeting lasted roughly twenty minutes covering a wide range of stories (the Colts poor 4th down play against the Patriots to the election happening in Canada.) After the meeting ended, we were brought to a small room where Santiago Lyon (VP of Photography) talked to us for close to an hour. The talk was started off with a handful of images that AP distributes, which lead to very insightful talk about becoming a successful photographer. Much of the talk revolved around being a photojournalist, but the talk still was very applicable to anyone in the industry regardless of their specification (advertising, bio med, fine art or photojournalism.) What truly stuck with me as a photographer was showing your work to as many people as possible, I find it very important to show your work to a wide audience. This allows you to get feed back from different upbringings giving you useful advice making it easier to connect with your audience in future works. After seeing how AP works, it became a very appealing place to work for as a freelance or staff photographer.
The New York Times was the second destination of the day, and this was very meaningful stop for the group. Most of the meeting was spent with James Estrin (Lens Blog Co-Editor and Senior Staff Photographer) who spoke about his career, being noticed in the saturated field of photography and what it takes to be successful. James was freelance in 1987 and became staff in 1992 and since has been a staffer at The New York Times. Much of the success talk was based around a few key ideas such as; passion, obsession, nailing technique and being a hybrid. After spending a fair amount of time with James he brought over to a quick edit session where we got to see a wide edit go to a tight edit over the course of ten minutes. After being apart of the wide edit the meeting came to an end.
Thomas Reuters, the third and final destination of the day, was the second wire service we had seen day one. While visiting Reuters we had the pleasure of seeing a handful of successful photographers and editors in the wire service industry (Andrew Kelly, Carlo Allegri, David Bergman and Andrees Latif.) Much of what was learned at Reuters was persistency and hard work pays off. David Bergman was a great example of how being persistent works. Making calls Monday-Friday for six weeks got him a job, which quickly turned into many more jobs to follow after having such a successful image. Another interesting part of the night was hearing Andrew talk about his finding of photography. His finding of photography wasn't until he was 26 on a trip exploring and finding himself. After going to school and working for a short period of time in Australia he came to New York to work for Reuters. He's currently a freelancer for Reuters, but is apart of the short call list and sounds like he will soon be apart of the Staff photographers. After a few others talked the meeting came to a conclusion after Frank Fournier presented about his career and what it takes to be a successful photographer.
Day one was very successful and a lot was learned from the three destinations visited. Day two should be just as knowledgeable at Blue Chalk Media, Bloomberg Businessweek, Esquire and Magnum Foundation.