One five-hundredth of a second, a never to be repeated moment in time, generously shared by the Dixon Triplets while out for a walk, at the tail end of storm Bert. It reminds me how short and fleeting the miniscule moments that we as professional press photographers spend our lives searching for. We position ourselves endlessly, hopefully, in the right place at the right time before the elusive, decisive moment.
On this occasion the triplets make my life easy. But it’s not always like that, there are the tough jobs, where amazing people are brave enough to share their experience of serious cancer diagnosis or a tragic death, or funerals as a result of the most tragic circumstances. It’s our job to translate that to you, the reader, in a way that cuts through the digital overload, grab your attention and inform you. We seek to assimilate complex issues or story’s and distil it down to just one image, THE Image, that’s what we do! That’s the job.
“Light and background, get that right and you are only looking for the moment.” I try and sum up 36 years of professional photography to enthusiastic camera club members at some of the many, hours-long talks, ironically a byproduct of winning the AIB Press Photographers Ireland annual photography competition over the last year. Standing up in public and talking, the stuff of nightmares for most, and yet when it comes to photography, as a usually quiet individual, I surprise myself on my ability to rabbit on. I admit that we photographers are strange creatures. We see the world in soft light and hard light and degrees of colour temperature. What’s that I hear you say? The light on a summer evening where photographs of people seem to glow and look magical.
I reflect on a year where those photographers, far braver than I, have risked injury and some lost their lives, to bring you the undistorted truth of happenings in this world. Don’t take what we have for granted, a free press, choice, freedom of expression, moments of magic.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our In The News podcast is now published daily - Find the latest episode here
