Steve Russell - Staff Photographer - @RussellPhotos
It is a testament to the power of the still image,
Yesterday Twitterverse heated up over Kevin Van Paassen's front page picture of Kaetlyn Osmond skating in the ISU World Championships Exhibition Gala.
The Monday, March 18, 2013, Globe and Mail front page.
Millions watched the event televised and saw the same things that you see on the photo. But, it's the photo that freezes action that generates debate.
David Cooper - Chief Photographer - @Whatzname07
Sharing Grief
The first time that I remember actually crying on the job was in June of 1985. Air India flight 182 had disintegrated in mid-air off the coast of Ireland killing 329 people. A few days later I arrived in the Irish city of Cork with the family members of the victims. Many of of them were sobbing. The scale of their pain just overwhelmed me.
I remember being at the naval base in Cork where recovered items were being brought ashore. One that struck me at the time was a package of Huggies, driving home the fact that babies died in this tragedy.
My picture from the archive of the waterlogged bag of Huggies coming ashore. Each night I would make prints in my hotel room and write the caption on them before going to the local wire office to transmit photos back.
I had covered other air disasters before this, but this was a week of gut-wrenching sorrow for me as well as the families.
In 1970, Air Canada Flight 621 crashed in a field near Brampton after a hard landing attempt. It crashed north of the airport killing everyone on board (118 people) when it lost part of a wing and went straight into the ground and exploded into a pile of rubble.
As a young freelancer for the Toronto Telegram at the time, I was one of the first photographers at the scene that Sunday morning. Forced to leave my car about a mile from the scene in a ditch, a volunteer fire fighter coming to the crash in his own car saw me climbing out of the ditch on foot. He stopped and gave me a lift.
Minutes later, we arrived to find several fire trucks and maybe a dozen ambulances sitting on the side of the road. There was nothing they could do to save anyone. The fire fighter and I headed several hundred yards towards the centre of the crash, where the fire was. At one point he pushed me sideways as we walked through the grass. I looked at him and then down near my feet. All we could see were grapefruit-sized chunks of what I then realized were people's remains. It wasn't only the plane that had exploded.
In retrospect, I think I was in shock.
Both those events changed me in ways I didn't understand back then — I still think about it today. To this day I cannot not watch violent movies involving death and gore.
I believe sharing still images of people's loss and pain can help others and change the way people see tragic events. (Think of the 1970 Kent State Massacre — the young woman crying beside the young man shot by guardsmen.)
Twice this year, I've had the privilege of spending time and documenting families going through unimaginable pain: the loss of a child to senseless gun violence.
Merle Henry, Tyson Bailey's grandmother, is comforted beside his casket after she fell to the floor, overcome with grief at his funeral at the Toronto Central Seventh Day Adventist Church. Tyson Bailey was 15 when he was fatally shot in a Regent Park stairwell.
People need to see and understand that anguish. That is what we try to do as photojournalists. Part of the power of a still image is that because it captures the moment, it allows the viewer to study the emotion and impact in that still frame.
I would like to thank the families and friends of Kesean Williams and Tyson Bailey for allowing me to see and photograph their grief.
I always try to be sensitive to the feelings of those attending an event, and try to keep a respectful distance from the participants. Sometimes people need to be alone in their grief and I would respect that. Many times though, I think they would be disappointed if no photojournalist were there to convey their story and we ignored their loved one's tragic death.
I was humbled, as many friends and families of the two young victims came over to thank us for being their to tell their loved one's story and document the true impact of senseless gun violence.
Tyson Bailey's sister Shandel Bailey strokes his forehead at the funeral.
Tyson Bailey's mother Christina Scott leans forward to embrace her son one last time as her daughter Francelyn Clement follows behind her.
Bailey’s family — brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, mother and father — wore identical black Adidas tracksuits with white stripes, which matched the one he would be buried in.
“We would rather have been at his graduation, at his wedding,” said Pastor Andrew King, his cutting voice rising from the pulpit. “How many more exceptional men must we lay to rest before we change these things?"
A memorial for nine-year-old Kesean Williams, the Brampton boy shot in his home while watching television.
Odete Piccolino and her daughter Briana, 5, place flowers at the Memorial for Kesean Williams. Briana is in kindergarten at the same school. A week before he was shot nine-year-old Kesean came to read to her class.
A community gathering was held in front of the Ardglen Drive home where nine-year-old Kesean Williams was shot through the window of his home.
Kesean's school principal Kristin Bergen, centre, escorts Kesean's grandmothers Joan Garvey, left, and Daphne Ruddock, right, back to the school after the community gathering.
More from Air India:
Seeing the violin case really affected me.
The people of Cork were extremely supportive of the victims' families, letting them share stories and pictures of their doomed loved ones.
In a story with the magnitude of the Air India disaster, being a journalist first is important.
Irish authorities organized an escorted bus trip for family members to a beach near Bantry, the nearest accessible point of land to the crash site.
Even though I had talked to many of the people on the bus, the police escorting the bus refused to let me go to the beach with them. We were kept well back over a hill, out of site of the actual beach. So at the last second I took one of my cameras, put in a roll of slide film, set the exposure, put on a wide angle lens and passed it onto Ajit N Nair, one of the family members, who volunteered to shoot pictures for me. I knew that we needed pictures on that beach to help tell the story.
Family members of those who perished on Air India Flight 182 walk along the beach and drop flowers in the ocean. Photo by Ajit N Nair.
Ajit N Nair, one of the family members, made some a beautiful touching images. To my surprise, in this frame, the boy in the picture was wearing a Toronto Star hat. I found out later that he was a Star Carrier back in Toronto.
The Star also felt the pain on a personal level.
Vijaya Thampi, 28, worked in the Star personnel office. She and her daughter Nisha were on the flight to visit relatives in India. -File picture
Vern Thampi watchs a video tape of family and friends in Canada that Vijaya was supposed to take to India for family there. -Photo by Ken Faught.
Thank you again to the families.
- David Cooper
Steve Russell - Staff Photographer - @RussellPhotos
It is an image that every photojournalist wishes that they had taken.
But what I find the most incredible about that moment in time captured 40 years ago is what happened after the picture.
Steve Russell - Staff Photographer
I'm cold, I'm windburned, I'm bored, I'm glad I'm not inside.
It has been cold and windy, the days are long and boring, a lot of hurry up and wait, long stretches of boredom followed by a few bursts of rapid activity, but I am glad to be outside on this one.
Even a day like Wednesday, where we would have seen the interrogation/downfall of Russell Williams, what followed, the victim impact statements and the previous two days of the presentation of the agreed statement of facts would have been brutal to sit through. I don't envy anyone who had to sit through the testimony and evidence presented in court.
The three days I have been here covering the trial are all the same,
5:30 am - wake up call
6:00 am - arrive at court to set up ladder, make pictures of reporters waiting to get in
7:30 am - photograph arrival of Russell Williams from top of an eight foot ladder, file pix
9:30 am - (or half hour before court starts) arrival of Lloyd family, file pix
10 am - court starts, rush to eat breakfast before Morning break then go to front of the court to see what's going on
1:00 pm - lunch break, out front of court looking for principals
2 pm - court resumes go file
Afternoon break
4:30 pm - on ladder waiting for court to end, after departure run to front to see if any family talking to media and then back to back to wait for lawyers and crown. FileTear down ladders
6 pm - hotel and re-edit
Anytime we cover these events it's hard, we have to figure out the balance of coverage.
What we have to balance is how we cover the accused and the victims.
I feel for the Lloyds, the large amount of media coverage makes it difficult to get pictures sometimes and we end up pushing the bubble around the family a little too much.
A couple days ago we ticked off Andy Lloyd, the brother of murder victim Jessica Lloyd.
I would have been upset too. Mr. Lloyd is in a tough spot and on that day when he and his mother left court before hearing the agreed statement of facts concerning the death of his sister, the balance we seek as a photojournalists and subject might have been upset a little.
Andy Lloyd is a brave man, as the family spokesperson he faces us all the time. He keeps Jessica in the story.
In his victim impact statement on Wednesday inside court, Andy Lloyd expressed the frustration of being the centre of all the media attention while he and his family are still going through the grieving process. Yet he shows up at almost every court appearance with one purpose in mind : to make sure that the story was also about his sister and her life. A heavy burden.
Monday 6:53 am A sniper takes up position on a nearby rooftop.
Monday, 7:41 am October 18, 2010 Under heavy police protection Russell Williams, the former base commander at CFB Trenton arrives at the Belleville Court. Williams plead guilty to killing two women, sexually assaulting two others and to a string of fetish break, enter and thefts.
Monday, 7:42 am October 18, 2010 Under heavy police protection Russell Williams, the former base commander at CFB Trenton enters the Belleville court.
Monday 9:09 am October 18, 2010 Family and Frieds of the victims lead by Andy and Roxanne Lloyd, the brother and mother of Jessica Lloyd. Clues from her tragic death lead to the capture of Russell Williams.
Monday 3:17 pm October 18, 2010 Police unlock the gate of the makeshift sallyport.
Monday 4:58 pm October 18, 2010 Under heavy police protection Russell Williams, the former base commander at CFB Trenton leaves the Belleville court after a court appearance.
Monday 5:06 pm October 18, 2010 Andy Lloyd, brother of murder victim Jessica Lloyd speaks to media about the day and the day the family will face Tuesday.
Monday 5:09 pm October 18, 2010 Andy Lloyd, leaves court after patiently ansewering the media's questions.
Tuesday 5:59 am October 19, 2010 Media line up at 6 am for what will be the most gruesome day as facts about the sexual assaults and the murders will be read in court.
Tuesday 7:40 am October 19, 2010 Under heavy police protection Russell Williams arrives.
Tuesday 7:44 am October 19, 2010 A sniper sits on a nearby roof.
Tuesday 9:22 am October 19, 2010 Roxanne Lloyd, mother of murder victim Jessica Lloyd leads a group of family and friends to court.
Tuesday 10:52 am October 19, 2010 Andy and mother Roxanne Lloyd leave court before the agreed statement of facts is read on the two murder cases which includes their kin, Jessica Lloyd.
Tuesday 12:02 pm October 19, 2010 Jasmine Hazelwood, 16, protests outside the courthouse.
Tuesday 3:06 pm October 19, 2010 Friends and family of Jessica Lloyd get some fresh air after listening to the Agreed Statement of Facts concerning the murder of their friend.
Tuesday 3:50 pm October 19, 2010 Under heavy police protection Russell Williams leaves.
Tuesday 4:21 pm October 19, 2010 Crown attorney Lee Burgess takes questions after court.
Wednesday 6:09 am October 20, 2010 Once again, reporters line up before the sun rises to get into court.
Wednesday 7:07 am October 20, 2010 Reporters file into into court, which will start at 9:30 am.
Wednesday 7:37 am October 20, 2010 Under heavy police protection Russell Williams' van pulls into the makeshift sallyport.
Wednesday 8:32 am October 20, 2010 A sniper watches over the back of the court house.
Wednesday 8:49 am October 20, 2010 Andy Lloyd and Roxanne Lloyd, brother and mother of murder victim Jessica Lloyd lead family and friends to the court house.
Wednesday 4:27 pm October 20, 2010 Andy Lloyd, brother of murder victim Jessica Lloyd speaks to media after he and his mother and family and friends gave victim impact statements.
Wednesday 4:30 am October 20, 2010 Andy Lloyd, brother of murder victim Jessica Lloyd speaks to media.
Wednesday 8:23 am October 20, 2010 A pair of yellow roses were placed in front of the court house in memory of Jessica Lloyd and Marie-France Comeau.
My day on Thurday?
5:30 am - wake up call
6:00 am - arrive at court to set up ladder,..........
Monday 4:30 pm October 18, 2010, Print and television media await the departure of Russell Williams.
Bernard Weil, Chief Photographer/Multimedia
In 1990, former Toronto Star staff photographer Andrew Stawicki and Photo Editor Peter Robertson invited myself along with a small group of other Toronto based professional photographers to form a non-profit collective determined to explore how photography can contribute to social justice and to focus on realities with which we are all too familiar such as poverty, illness and injustice.
To mark the occasion, a retrospective exhibition of photographs from 20 years of PhotoSensitive projects is on display from September 14-27 at the Allen Lambert Galleria, Brookfield Place, Toronto, along with a panel discussion September 16 at the Verizon Grand Hall at the Hockey Hall of Fame, of which I have the honour of being a part of.
Below are are some images from a few of the projects I've had the privilege to be part of. To say the least, it has opened my eyes to the frailties of life, as well as the incredible determination of the human spirit.
Braille = Equality
PhotoSensitive spent several months working with the blind and visually impaired to help the public better understand the importance of braille. Louis Braille's invention of six raised dots enables the blind to read and write and function in our sighted society.
A worker at CNIB in Toronto inspects an acetate sheet imprinted with braille which will be used to produce a printed page.
Them = Us
I dove into digital at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and never looked back. It was fast and helped us beat the wires, so on this project I wanted to further explore digital photography in a new and creative way.
I spent a week in 1997 at the Etobicoke School of the Arts taking photographs of nearly 700 students and ended up with 28,800 images which were used in the final photograph below. Each student is in the image many times. The main image of three dance students was used as a template. The final print allows viewers to move in closer to see thousands of smaller images.
The technology was a lot slower then, and the final 100MB file was unheard of at the time. It also took me a year to produce, one image at a time on what was then considered a state of the art Macintosh computer. I then had to print it. The printer was a Lightjet 5000 and there were only two in Canada at the time. It was the only printer that had the resolution I needed.
We have to find unique ways to tell people's stories and we have to be prepared to take chances and do it differently. The digital revolution led me in that direction with this photo.
The final image above was printed 4 feet wide, making each image within a 1/4 inch in size. Below is a blow up from the image above.
Beyond the Wave
In 2005, five PhotoSensitive photographers, including myself, travelled to Indonesia and Sri Lanka to document the reality of lives affected by the December 26, 2004 tsunami. PhotoSensitive partnered with World Vision and CARE Canada to raise awareness of the tsunami's continuing impact and the positive results of Canadian aid and development work, one year after the disaster. The sights and smells are forever burned in my memory.
Irul Jubir throws stones into a waiting dump truck provided by Care, at the shoreline on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, October 17, 2005. Aceh Province withstood a direct hit from the tsunami that devasted coastal areas of the Indian Ocean a year earlier.
A home lies in ruin near the shore in Ulhee Lhea, beside Banda Aceh, October 22, 2005, located at the north eastern tip of Sumatra Island, Indonesia. The devastation exists as far as the eye can see in some areas.
A lone fisherman tends to his nets on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, October 17, 2005. The shoreline and all buildings were wiped out as the result of a 100 foot high surge of water that crashed into land and pulled everything back out to sea.
Arifin lays bricks on a home for World Vision in the village of Lamgriheu, near Banda Aceh October 20, 2005, located at the northern tip of Sumatra Island, Indonesia. The area was one of the first and hardest hit by the tsunami a year earlier and is only now starting to be rebuilt.
Young children are taught Islamic religion at a school outside Banda Aceh October 20, 2005 along the north west tip of Sumatra Island. Despite the devastation, life continues.
HIV Positive
In April 2002, CARE welcomed myself and six other members of Photosensitive to Zambia to document the HIV/AIDS crisis. In the heart of southern Africa, Zambia is one of the poorest but most peaceful nations on the continent. Sadly, the HIV/AIDS scourge is deepening poverty.
Ovies Mwila, 31, carries a coffin to a work area where he will finish the trim and lining inside, April 8, 2002. The small hut where he sells his coffins can be seen from the main road leading to Lukasa, the capital of Zambia. Together with his father Ovi, 52, they also repair vehicles and make door and window frames. Ovi sais the coffin business is busy because of the huge number of HIV related deaths.
Sick and very weak from an HIV related illness, George Sakala is rushed several kilometres through a field to the St. John Hospice on the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia, April 11, 2002, where he most likely will spend his last days of life. Helping him are his mother Monica (black top), caregivers Scostica Mumba and Agnes Zulu. Sakala was found sick and dying, huddled on the floor of his home in the Misisi compound on the outskirts of Lusaka. The illegal compound is home to 50-60,000 people. Caregivers at the Misisi Home based Care Centre make daily visits to the sick.
Later, inside the St. John Hospice, George Sakala is comforted by his mother Monica.
More information on the Panel Discussion Thurday September 16, 2010
Steve Russell - Staff Photographer
Last month two pictures supplied to the public by BP have been exposed as severe photoshop alterations and third picture distributed was a terrible photoshop job.
The blog americablog.com has exposed two of the incidents.
The damage that these images can cause the already tarnished image of BP is yet to be seen, but, these images have media companies up in arms.
The U.S. Coast Guard had created an extremely restrictive "safety zone" around all clean up locations and equipment and banned the news media from interviewing clean-up workers. The order was to keep media about 20 metres away from an oil spill clean-up activity. These safety zones also include areas where wildlife will be taken for cleaning.
An irate Anderson Cooper of CNN said it best when he pointed out that these kind of rules make it "easy to hide failure and hide incompetence."
Out cry eventually lead to the boom ban being lifted for accredited media.
During this time BP was releasing images on its website, two images show alterations done to images that enforce the need for media to cover these events.
The first of the images shows a busy BP control centre with images up on most of the screens, the problem is that in the unaltered image, below, three of the screens are blank, losing some of that busy drama in the room.
There have been some awesome variations of this image done, my favourite has one of the blank screens filled with the google search page and "How to plug an oil well leak" typed into the search field.
The other is of a helicopter that appears to by flying over some boats doing clean-up and fighting a fire, an image that the rules made it very hard for media to get.
The sharp eyed blogger noticed a structure in the upper left window, turns out that the helicopter is actually on the landing pad of a near by oil rig. The sea has been changed from a deep blue, maybe a dirty blue, to an aquamarine blue. As well the blogger noticed that neither pilot is holding the stick and a display on the control panel shows doors and ramps are open and the parking brake is engaged.
The original image. While dodging the control panels of the helicopter would be allowed by most newspaper and wire agencies, removing the structures and changing the water colour would not.
Other Toronto Star Photo Blog entries dealing with photojournalism ethics.
Ethics, Computers & photojournalism