Slusher: Photographers scramble for a timeless moment
The digital age is altering the work life of a newspaper photographer, but some things - like the unique skill of capturing the emotion and power of a fleeting moment - haven't changed. Exhibits A and B: Dennis Hastert and the Chicago Blackhawks.
An event like the Hastert "perp walk" comes along every few years but never ceases to be almost impossible to cover. Scores of still and broadcast photographers had been camped out at the Dirksen Federal Building for hours Tuesday vying for a vantage point from which to grab an image of the former Speaker of the U.S. House as he arrived for his court appearance. They knew that in the short trip from his car to the courthouse door, they would have only a matter of seconds to try to get an image of Hastert, who had not been seen or heard from in the week since the feds dropped the bombshell of their charges against him.
The chaos that ensued when Hastert finally arrived ended up being more of the visual story than the picture of Hastert himself, and was almost predictable. Imagine the physical limitations of trying to get a revealing picture of a person as he plunges through such a maelstrom, tracking him as scores of others press against and around you, trying to find some way to get a clear image of the subject.
It's often aptly described as a circus, but it's not a meaningless one. The entry of a former U.S. House speaker into a federal courthouse to face felony charges is a historical event. That alone speaks for the importance of chronicling it, in whatever form it takes. But it's also true that readers, viewers and citizens have a legitimate and natural curiosity to see a person facing such circumstances. What does he wear? What is his expression? His bearing? His gait? How does he deal with the commotion, and indeed how much of a commotion does he create? Capturing it - as our Laura Stoecker and Mark Welsh managed to do, along with Paul Beaty for The Associated Press photo we used on Page 1 - is a particular challenge, requiring resourcefulness and spontaneous adaptability. One doesn't have time or opportunity to set up and frame each shot, but must rely on instinct and luck.
The same skills come into play when covering a very different kind of mayhem - the action on the ice during a Stanley Cup Final playoff game for instance. By contrast, the audience here isn't looking merely for the slump of a person's shoulders but for images that portray the wide range of action and emotion. These images too, though, are fleeting. They are something to be caught, not produced.
Our Steve Lundy captured one such with the full-page photograph we carried on Tuesday's Sports front showing reactions of Blackhawks fans just on the other side of the glass from Tampa Bay Lightning players celebrating a game-clinching Game 3 goal at the United Center. Anger. Derision. Resignation. It's one of those moments when the chronicling of a moment turns into something timeless.
Now, of course, we'll be hoping for timelessness of a happier nature for Chicagoans as the rest of the championship series plays out. And the Dennis Hastert case will be just one of many breaking news stories providing daily challenges for us to tell visually. But whether the picture is joy or dejection, athletic excitement or political scandal, our photographers will be in the thick of the scramble to get it.
Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is an assistant managing editor at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on Twitter at @JimSlusher.