Day four! This day was an emotional roller coaster, to say the least. Ariana and I biked towards the embassies, grabbed some coffee, and sat outside the Ukraine House with William and Vincent waiting for everyone else's arrival. It was a beautiful day. We walked into the exhibition and I immediately felt a wave of emotions fall over me. The images I saw were heart-wrenching. Not long after, Carol Guzy walked into the room and I was starstruck. I think it was one of those moments where you have so many things to say you don't know what to say. Maybe she felt that way too. I was particularly touched when she described what it was like to be out in the field in Ukraine and the wave of gratitude from the public when she was there. It certainly feels like a different world compared to the treatment of photojournalists in America.
Walking around, and observing the images I think it was the first time I really looked at images from the War in Ukraine and I felt it. The exhibition was certainly a reminder of why photojournalism is so important. I think sometimes I need those reminders even if I didn't ask for them.
After leaving Ukraine House, we hopped on our bikes and rode to AP. At this point in the week, I was drained, I had just cried in an exhibit, and I was pretty checked out. However, we were greeted at the door by a smiling Pablo Martinez Monsivais holding four boxes of (delicious) pizza in hand. As we shuffled into the conference room we were introduced to Jacquelyn Martin, Evan Vucci, and Carolyn Kaster. All three of them spoke so eloquently about the hardships of starting out as a photographer, what they have all endured, and how they made it out to the other side. I didn't think I needed to hear the things they said until they'd said them. Evan spoke about being all in on this career path and never giving up, Jacquelyn spoke about personal decisions like having a child, and Carolyn spoke about her mindset when photographing assignments that are difficult. Hearing the three of them along with Pablo speak about working in this industry, working together, how they cope with it, etc, I was touched. Carolyn in particular impressed me with her attitude. She showed us a piece she worked on during a Michael Flynn rally. To me, I was looking at total insanity. To her, she just wanted to understand, share, and do her job. Her patience and mindset toward the people she is photographing are something I have never seen before or even expressed out loud. It was evident Pablo works to support those three photographers and that really feels special.
Lastly was Science Magazine. We met with Kaitlyn Dolan and Charlie Borst. I was so excited to see Kaitlyn especially since I've been working with her on my capstone. I wished the day wasn't so draining before visiting Science but I did my best to feel attentive and ask questions. I consider myself someone with a heavy interest in all things science so it was really rewarding to be in a space that marries science and visual communication. Ultimately, I think Science would be a great place for me to work. I'd be curious to see if I could pitch climate-related stories that are more visual-centric than science-based. I'm curious about their audience, who else is looking at this magazine? I'm sure these are follow-up questions to ask Kaitlyn. What really interests me is the size of the visuals team at Science. It seems like they are not too big, are good at communicating with scientists, writers, etc, and it's not just about photography, they focus heavily on graphics as well. Science opened my eyes to the side of photojournalism we don't see a lot of, it's not a typical newspaper internship or freelance gig. I think that's the kind of place I'd like to look at being a part of.
