By Kenny Irby
I recently invited picture editors to offer some observations about Hurricane Katrina coverage. Here’s what they said.
Randy Cox
Senior Editor/Visuals
The Oregonian
The best photography from Katrina has a power that sometimes comes along in photography of natural disasters and human tragedy and transcends the events themselves. It’s why video and audio sometimes can’t quite manage some of the same drama. It’s why still photography can freeze images in time for reflection, review and understanding later on and on and on. It’s why I hope still photography used on printed pages never dies.
It’s the kind of photography that causes you to linger longer looking at these pictures than the few seconds we generally spend on most; it’s the kind of photography that can still bring a tear to this jaded old picture editor’s eye who thinks he’s seen most everything by now; it’s the kind of photography that can still cause folks at the coffee shop –- not realizing they’re being watched as they look through the daily newspaper –- to wordlessly mouth to themselves a silent “Wow.”
The photographers who have been covering this tragedy, particularly those working with little sleep, under stifling weather conditions and in increasingly life-threatening situations, are to be applauded for
being so resolute in their role as non-judging eyes for all of us who can’t be there. I applaud them and their vision.
Joseph Brown III
Team Leader/Enterprise Photography
The Tampa Tribune
We initially sent three teams out ahead of the storm to the panhandle. As the storm’s path changed we began to make adjustments to the west with our teams. At that point it was time to wait and watch the storm take its toll. Our teams hit the ground at the first available safe time to document Katrina’s wrath.
Editing was made easy for us as the images started to arrive. It began with the image from Michael Spooneybarger of two men trying to launch a boat in an attempt to rescue stranded civilians. We moved this image over the wire and it found its way onto a large number of front pages nationally and internationally.
Hurricanes always present the challenge of [figuring out] how much readers really need to see. We chose to give them variety with a focus on the people.
David Frank
Deputy Director of Photography
The New York Times
Seems like we can’t go for very long these days without a huge story happening. This one reminds me so much of 9/11, especially as far as coverage goes. Obviously it’s not in our backyard and it covers a much larger area, thus staffing is not quite as simple. We had Vincent Laforet on his way Sunday, the day before the storm, and it paid off in a big way for us.
Photography plays a huge role in the reportage from an event of this magnitude. Readers want to know what it looks like and what it feels like. We’re trying our best to cover both areas. Now that we are a few days into this, the human emotion is the thing that I’m pushing our photographers to be more aware of. In the first day or so, we needed to get some perspective on the damage and flooding. Now it’s time to focus more on the human toll, and it’s a complete mess down there. The appearance is that people are being treated liked cattle — abused cattle, to be more specific. They have been abandoned with little or no relief supplies.
Communication has been a huge issue. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to get in touch with the photographers. Photographers are limited in their own mobility by the lack of roads, flood waters, no gas and police. There is a sense of lawlessness that’s putting everyone on edge — reports of shots being fired at relief vehicles as well as helicopters; photographers being robbed at gunpoint, etc. There have been moments when it actually sounded as bad as working in Iraq.
… I think our paper has done another great job, documenting this story. I’m damn proud.
Bob Pearson
Director of Photography for North America
Agence France-Presse
Having covered and/or coordinated coverage for over 20 years for AFP, the destruction from Hurricane Katrina is by far the worst I have ever seen, and that includes Hurricane Andrew in Miami, Hugo in South Carolina and Elena, which also struck the Biloxi area in the late ’80s.
These images were stunning and mind numbing — views of beaches where homes had been completely demolished, leaving only debris on the shoreline; giant oil rigs tossed around like toys; the anguish on residents’ faces when they discover their homes and lives are washed away; and finally, brutal images of people trying simply to survive among the bodies of unrecovered victims.
These are images of human tragedy that we do not normally associate with our own country, but with countries of the Third World. We all are truly vulnerable to the powerful forces of nature.
Toren Beasley
Director of Photography and New Media
Newhouse News Service
Like most of America, I’ve watched the television coverage and as a professional I have plowed through thousands of images, in newspapers and on the wires, of this nearly unfathomable event.
Early images of Hurricane Katrina focused on the destruction wrought by the storm. They were a true testament to the awesome power of nature. Once the human element became part of the coverage, some images carried two messages: One of desperation –- in the faces and actions of hurricane victims. The other of bias, apparent in the photo captions and reporting of journalists. As the true extent of the catastrophe is beginning to dawn on photographers and reporters alike, images are again changing, hopefully providing America with a more meaningful sense of this tragedy.
Steve Deslich
Managing Editor
KRT Photo Service
From my perspective as a photo editor, covering Katrina and the tsunami are similar in several aspects, logistically speaking. Working conditions for photographers were rough in both since each involved a huge amount of water that took out power, potable water, communications, shelter and food. Each disaster left people dead and desperate for help. They each left photojournalists to fend for themselves. Photographers heading into each situation needed to be self-sufficient. Knight Ridder photographers were told to bring their own water, gasoline, food and lots of each. In addition to those items, knowing how to use a satellite phone and carrying a power inverter for a car battery are essentials.
Although Katrina and the tsunami that struck southeast Asia were similar logistically, to my eyes the images are very different. Yes, each disaster left residents standing amid rubble that used to be their homes, but New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi were cities with a lot more infrastructure and dense populations than most of the places hit by the tsunami. In addition, the major crisis with the tsunami was how to cope with the huge loss of life. With Katrina the crisis seem to be how to save people that are in a seemingly hopeless situation.
Boyzell Hosey
Deputy Director of Photography
St. Petersburg Times
As I watch the Katrina coverage unfold, I am struck, once again, like 911, the tsunami and last year’s hurricane season, that I’m witnessing dramatic history unfold. Unlike 911 and the tsunami, where we relied solely on wires, but exactly like the hurricanes of 2004, I am reminded of the fact that I have an awesome opportunity and responsibility to help guide the visual documentation of this moment in time.
Though most proud of the work that our photojournalists have produced thus far, I am struck by the visual variety of coverage by the masses of visual journalists. However, one critical observation is the apparent lack of in-depth coverage in Mississippi and other areas outside of New Orleans. I think time will prove that many stories went uncovered because the majority of coverage pointed toward New Orleans. It will be interesting to see how photojournalists advance the many stories that have yet to be told.
Santiago Lyon
Director of Photography
The Associated Press
Not often do we see a disaster of this magnitude in the U.S., but true to form AP photographers reacted with resourcefulness to overcome the numerous logistical challenges and were then able to faithfully document the situation in ways which ranged from helicopter overviews of the scene to compelling images of the human toll of Hurricane Katrina.
Despite shortages of food and water and often dangerous situations involving marauding groups on the streets, the AP photo and text and video crews continued to show the entire world the scale of the story.
Sandy Ciric
Senior News Editor
Getty Images News & Sport
(Updated from earlier comments) The magnitude, intensity, and impact of this disaster has made Katrina a very difficult story to cover. The photojournalists on the ground in New Orleans and Mississippi have had to deal with roads that have been closed, damaged, or flooded, a gas, food and water shortage, and rising violence. The hardest part for the editors has been the spotty communications. However, the photographers have endured and excelled in these extremely trying conditions, making honest, raw, and intimate pictures of the survivors, as well as powerful images of a decimated landscape.
There is no one definitive image of this disaster; Katrina’s mark becomes realized in the face of an elderly woman in pain, in a view of a flooded city with the specks of human beings wandering through its bowels, and the vast stretches of Gulf Coast beaches littered with the pieces of peoples’ lives. As good as the aerial photos of the Katrina disaster have been, this story really requires the photographers to work on the ground — in the streets, on the road, atop rubble and in the water. Getty Images will continue to work to cover this story, as we all feel that there is a long way to go and many more pictures to make.
> View 55 defining images of disaster and hope (Flash plugin required; download it here.)
> Send your best photos, along with credit information, captions and comments, to Kenny Irby, irbyman@poynter.org.
