Fantastic Photography from the Conventions

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If you haven’t seen this already – you have to check out the following slide show from the two conventions from The New York Times. It’s a 3 part slide show – and while the first section is a bit more straightforward – wait until you get to the second (Protests) and especially the third section (Vision.)

I’ve featured Damon Winter’s work once already on this blog, and once again he and Todd Heisler – along with Ozier Muhammad and Stephen Crowley – produce some absolutely fantastic work from the conventions.  

I’ve covered these things – and it’s so easy to get sucked into getting the one “headshot” photograph from the center photo platform, getting there early and securing your spot – you almost end up having “blinders” on when shooting – that’s your one spot and your sticking to it!  God forbid you walk away to find something different – you might miss something from the KEY spot that EVERYONE else has!!!!  God forbid!!!! 

The photography you’ll find in this slide show is everything but that.  Easily one of the strongest series of photos I’ve seen come out of any convention from the past few decades… (I wasn’t born before then and didn’t get to see stuff from before then – so I’m not the one to comment on the “real” conventions that preceded my days….)

Damon and Todd’s photographs truly stand out in a realm where every moment is orchestrated and planned weeks in advance – you come to even doubt those “spontaneous” moments themselves, and wonder if they haven’t been suggested back stage in the form of a whisper from a party mastermind…   Their behind the scenes photographs, attention to small details (the Obama T-Shirt, Red Chairs at the Xcel center, Tamales Shop,  Hillary w/ cloud image, McCain cardboard cutout behind the gates) are absolutely exceptional.

I remember leaving the Athens Olympics on the day prior to closing ceremonies in 2004 to fly straight back to New York just in time to cover the Republican Convention the following night (which was absolutely certifiable looking back.)  And I can tell you that in those days, Michele McNally had just been hired, and that getting “big” pictures and more pictures into the paper was our main goal.  We were trying to change the culture of the New York Times – one step at a time.  If we got a staff image in the paper – as opposed to a wire photo – that was a coup.  If we got it big and in color – well that was unprecedented.   (If I remember correctly,  they ran one of my images across two pages, I think it was an 8 column picture which at the time was a record for the largest (widest) photo ever run by The New York Times at that point (and perhaps since – I really don’t keep track of this stuff – the quality of the photograph has always mattered more to me than the size it is run at…) It was shot with a high resolution Canon 1Ds camera – and that “technical” or “historical” accomplishment was a big deal back then (not to me to be honest – I’d given my left arm to have both the eye(s) talent and liberty that Damon and Todd had at these conventions.)  

Just getting the pictures in the paper was a struggle back then.  I’ve got to admit that if the work we did back in those day in any way helped to lay the ground work for the type of photography we’re seeing produced for The New York Times today – all of those struggles and all of that hard work seems even more worth it today.  

Truth be told – I think that  what we really owe the great photography to today – was the decision in hiring photographers like Todd Heisler and Damon Winter – and to their vision – and editors like David Scull and managers like Michele McNally and Bill Keller etc. to allow them to spread their wings.  I think the web also has a big part to play in this – I did not see many of these images in print prior to seeing them in this web gallery… 

I can honestly say that this is some of the strongest political photography coverage I’ve seen inside or outside of the Grey Lady’s pages.  Period.