Richard Alan Hannon, a photographer for The Advocate of Baton Rouge, La., was honored today with the AP Photo of the Year award.
"I'm torn over getting a check for one of the saddest photos I've ever taken," he said at the podium.
Later, I spotted him standing alone and decided to go talk to him.
I was struck at how much he reminded me of Glenn Moore, our Tracy Press photo editor. He said he had been on assignment shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit. He had waded in deep water to get to the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, where he watched evacuees who were not allowed inside. He shot the photo of the dying woman on the other side of a glass atrium.
He never got her name. He's pretty sure he saw her die.
I told him that the policy at our newspaper is that we won't run photos of people in accidents if we find out they've died before we go to press.
He said his paper has the same policy. But when the editors saw the photo, they thought it was too powerful not to run.
I'm glad they broke the rules.
3 comments:
Rules should definitely be broken for the right photo. I don't know that any other photo truly conveyed the desperation of the situation in Lousiana. That paper made the right choice.
There is nothing worse than photgraphing tragedy. The sick, empty feeling you have when you watch an air ambulance land as you stand on the edge of a dusty road at an accident scene and think you have probably photographed the last few minutes of someone's life. Someone's son, someone's daughter is dying, and we are there taking pictures of it.
It is a hard thing to do.
Cheri,
I'm enjoying your blog!
Meg
Post a Comment