Why You Should Care
"I was a photojournalist for over 40 years. During that time I was assigned to work as a combat photographer in war zones around the world. That experience gave me a deep respect for the hard work and sacrifice that was required by photographers of the past to build the historical record we benefit from today."
"This presentation is a brief history of the development of combat photography, some of its practitioners, and the way it developed from its inception in the Mexican-American War through World War II." - David Rust
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Content Warning
Some images in this presentation contain graphic depictions of violence, death, and wartime destruction. They may not be appropriate for all audiences.
Things to Consider:
As you explore the historical development of combat photography, take some time to think about the following:
- How did the field of combat photography change over time?
- What role did combat photography play in American wars?
- As social media becomes a dominant force in communications, and technology continues to make advances, what effects might that have on combat photography in the future?
(Official Army Photographer, 2nd Lt AHC Sintzenich with Debrie Camera, Ford Junction Aerodrome, Sussex, England, Oct. 24, 1918 - U.S. Army Photo)
The First Documentation of War
- Historians believe conflicts are as old as civilization. The first armed conflicts were fought more than 10,000 years ago in pre-historic city-states in present day Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.
- Archaeologists have uncovered Natufian ruins at Jericho they believe contain history's first known fortifications. (Photo: militaryhistorynow.com - Public Domain)
The First Visual Recording
- The first visual recording of combat was discovered in Sumerian sandstone carvings from around 2,500 BCE. They depict conflict between two Mesopotamian city states. This is regarded as the first representation in image form of military action.
- Society has advanced since then and an untold number of written words about conflicts along with countless artistic depictions of war have been added to the historical record over time. It would take several thousand years and great advancements in technology for modern photography to become a tool to help document warfare and play a key role in recording history. (Photo: militaryhistorynow.com - Public Domain)
Roots of Photography
Father of the Photograph
Photography as we know it today had its roots in the late 1820s. That is when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a French scientist, coated a pewter plate with Bitumen of Judea (a tar-like material) and, through his camera, exposed it to light for eight hours. This resulted in what is considered the first photograph (or at least the oldest surviving photograph). At that moment, modern photography was born. (Portrait of Niépce by Leonard Berger - Public Domain)
Oldest Surviving Photograph
For anyone interested in early photographic processes, the above link will connect to a short video that explains the photographic process used by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce for his historic photograph and the followup process done by Louis Daguerre and the Daguerreotype, which came later. (Courtesy George Eastman Museum)
Heroic Images in Paintings
- The transition from heroic battle paintings to photographic representations of military conflict first began to appear during the Mexican-American War in 1847. Photographic images would bring reality to the coverage of combat that would change the perception of war.
- This historic painting by Emanuel Leutz, a German-American artist, is an heroic portrayal of General George Washington crossing the Delaware River on December 25-26, 1776 prior to a surprise attack on Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton. It was an important victory for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
- Leute grew up in America and returned to Germany, where he painted this picture in 1851, around the time of the European Revolutions of 1848. The original was displayed in the Kunsthalle collection in Bremen, Germany. He painted two other versions: one ended up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the other hung in the West Wing of the White House from 1979-2015. It is currently in a museum in Minnesota.
- Ironically, the original version that was displayed in Germany was destroyed by war, the victim of British bombing during a raid over Bremen in 1942.
First Combat photos
- From 1829 to 1833 Joseph Nicéphore Niépce worked with Louis Daguerre on developing new photographic processes. After Niépce’s death, Daguerre perfected what became known as the Daguerreotype.
- The first photographic images of war were taken during the Mexican-American War in 1847 in Saltillo, Mexico. They were credited to an unknown American photographer who accompanied U.S. troops down to Mexico.
- This image shows U.S. General John Wool and his staff riding down the Main Street of Saltillo, Mexico in 1847. (Amon Carter Museum of American Art - Public Domain)
- Other daguerreotypes were taken on the same campaign around Saltillo, during the Mexican-American war in 1847. Very little information about who took each image has survived over the years. Only brief notes appear on a few daguerreotypes.
- Another daguerreotype shows a leg being amputated at the Battle of Cerro Gordo. Sgt. Antonio Bustos is being worked on by Dr. Pedro Vander Linden on the battlefield (April 18, 1847). Cerro Gordo was a famous battle, during which Winfield Scott’s American troops defeated Santa Anna’s larger Mexican Army.
- The photographer, Charles J. Betts, had followed the American Army down to Mexico. The photo required a relatively long exposure compared to today's cameras.
- As photo technology slowly advanced, political pressures in America steadily pushed the country toward another war. This time it would be a civil war. It would be covered from start to finish by the newly emerging craft of photojournalism.
Question to Consider:
- During the Mexican-American War, there was a fundamental shift in the way conflict was visually portrayed. Paintings depicting heroic battle scenes gave way to the more realistic images captured by daguerreotypes. What effect do you think access to realistic depictions of conflict had on public perceptions of war?
Photography Advances
- The Civil War was the most photographed war of the 19th century. As technology advanced, photos could be mass-produced for an American market with a demanding appetite.
- Within hours of the fall of Fort Sumter on April 14, 1861, photos of the damaged structure had been produced, and this Stereographic image was put on sale to the public.
- War photographers, on both sides of the conflict, would embark onto the field with the latest gear and technology. They would bring the action of the battlefield back to the storefronts and living room of America's hometowns.
- There were hundreds of photographers who would eventually provide coverage of the epic clash. In addition to private individuals, the United States and Confederate governments employed photographers during the hostilities.
- Just before the war began, Mathew B. Brady hired and equipped a staff of photographers to provide coverage of the conflict. He realized that families would want photos of their loved ones as keepsakes while they were off in harm's way. Brady hired Alexander Gardner and James Gibson to run his studio in Washington, D.C. A large amount of the work compiled by Brady and his staff is now in the National Archives.
Notes on Mathew Brady:
- This is the studio camera that Mathew Brady used to take the famous portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Brady invested much of his personal fortune covering the Civil War. By the time he died, he was almost penniless and passed away in New York's Presbyterian Hospital's charity ward in 1896.
- Before he died, Brady sold much of his photographic work to the U.S. Government for $25,000 to pay off his debts. His studio camera, pictured above, went up for auction in 2011 and sold for $65,725.
One Bloody Day
- Alexander Gardner was one of Mathew Brady's most prolific photographers. He was put in charge of the Washington, D.C. Studio. Gardner's photos from Antietam received national accolades, but the fame went to his boss, Brady. Gardner decided to leave the studio and strike out on his own, taking his brother and several other photographers with him.
- This photo, taken by Alexander Gardner, was shot at Antietam, Maryland in September 1862. The bridge was the site of some of the heaviest fighting during the Battle of Antietam. It turned out to be the bloodiest day in American military history. There were 22,725 combined dead, missing, and wounded during the encounter.
Staged Photos?
- During the Civil War, technology wasn't as advanced as the subject matter would require. Long exposures (between five to 20 seconds) were still necessary for properly exposed pictures, so moving objects (action) were difficult to capture. Most of the photographs were limited to portraits or static views of buildings or landscapes, all without movement.
- Since moving objects were so difficult to capture with slow shutter speeds, some photographers were rumored to have staged battlefield photos to represent action that had taken place.
- One famous example is documented by historian William Frassanito. He studied photographs taken by Alexander Gardner at Gettysburg after the battle in July of 1863. Gardner's iconic shot of a dead Confederate soldier at Devil's Den was called "A Sharpshooter's Last Sleep".
- A second photo, most likely shot the same afternoon, shows a dead Confederate soldier (about 70 yards away) that Gardner labeled "Home of A Rebel Sharpshooter". Upon examination Frassanito said the bodies were the same person.
- Frassanito indicated the body must have been moved from one location to the other, possibly using a blanket that can be seen in one of the photos. He also speculated that the rifle was not the type a sharpshooter would use and that the same rifle was used as a prop in other photos taken by Gardner that day. In fairness to Gardner, photojournalism was in its infancy and no rule about setting up shots or staging had been widely established.
Historic Action Shot
- Photographic technology required long exposures for photographs during the early years of the craft. That is why almost all subjects were static (otherwise motion would appear blurred). One exception is this historic shot taken on September 8, 1863. It was captured by George Cook and his business partner, James Osborne, while they were taking pictures inside Fort Sumter after the Confederate siege.
- This photograph shows three ironclad monitors and the U.S.S. New Ironsides firing on Fort Moultrie. It is one of the very few action shots taken during the war. One of the ironclads involved, the U.S.S. Montauk, was later used as a prison ship for President Lincoln's assassins while they awaited trial and then for the autopsy of John Wilkes Booth.
Questions to Consider:
- During the Civil War, due to the nature of the photographic technology, the camera required long exposures. To achieve impact, some photographers staged static pictures. Do you think it is OK to stage photos? Why or why not?
A Short War with Moving Pictures
- As the century drew to a close, the country was drawn into another war. This time it was sparked by dubious circumstances and lasted less than four months. The Spanish-American War began when the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana Harbor on Feb. 15, 1898. Some declared that it was sunk by a Spanish mine, while others claimed it was an accidental internal explosion. Whatever the cause, the event led to the first overseas conflict for the United States.
Fake News?
- Because 260 sailors lost their lives, the American public was outraged. American media soon became involved. What followed has been termed the first “media war”. Newspapers discovered that sensational stories could sell papers. This led to what many historians point to as manufactured headlines, or the 19th century's equivalent of fake news.
Yellow Journalism
- The term “yellow journalism” can be traced back to competing cartoon characters featured in the two major newspapers covering the conflict. (Both characters were colored yellow). Both papers, the New York Journal and the New York World, featured sensational headlines and played up factually questionable stories to help boost circulation.
- Additionally, motion pictures were in their infancy at this time. Companies wanting to promote this new type of media jumped at the chance to send teams down to Cuba to cover the dramatic story and spark interest in motion pictures in the process. Two leaders in that field were Edison Manufacturing Company and American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. They both sent production crews to gather material.
- “War Correspondents” was a film shot for Thomas A. Edison, Inc. as part of its Spanish-American War coverage. Staged in Key West, Florida, this scene shows about a dozen war correspondents from different New York newspapers running up the street to get to the cable office to file Cuban war dispatches. (Paley, William Daly, 1898, Library of Congress.)
- The government also saw an advantage in positive press coverage. The United States tried to use the war to promote itself as a political, economic and military power. The propaganda provided by the media coverage put a spotlight on America’s rise in international stature.
- Publicity from the short lived conflict helped bring some political careers into national prominence and influenced support for the war effort at home. The media also saw an opportunity to sell newspapers. The New York Journal and New York World both claimed they sold over a million papers a day during the war.
- Unfortunately for them, advertising dropped because business leaders weren’t bullish on the war. It was also expensive to cover hostile actions. The Journal reportedly spent $50,000 a week on cable tolls, reporters and dispatch boats, a figure that would be equal to $1 million in today’s dollars.
Action Shots
- As technology continued to improve, the quality of cameras and film improved the images that photographers could supply to the public. From the dark, static images of the Mexican-American War to the newsreels of the Spanish-American War, strides in photojournalism progressed dramatically in the last half of the 19th Century.
New Tool
- The following clip shows a reenactment of Spanish soldiers killing Cuban insurgents by firing squad. Shot in July 1898 by independent cameraman William Heise for Thomas Edison, Inc., the newsreel company used National Guard troops as actors and shot the scene in New Jersey.
- Although most action scenes were staged or recreated for this brief conflict, the use of motion pictures as a tool for documenting war coverage would become an important part of every future war.
Questions to Consider:
- During the Spanish-American War, photographs were used as propaganda to gain support for the war. They were also used to attract viewers and sell newspapers. If you were an editor, how would you go about selecting photos? Would you pick images that best described the story? As a publication is it your job to promote the war? Would you choose a sensational image over an informative one if it attracted more viewers?
- During the Spanish-American War, newspapers competed with each other to capture readership. Sensational news sold papers and historians suggest headlines were not always based on factual stories. It would be the equivalent to what today’s critics call “Fake News”. How do you check a news story for facts?
"A War to End All Wars"
- H. G. Wells, published in London newspapers (1914)
- Less than two decades after the Spanish-American War, another conflict, known as the Great War, would drag thirty nations into combat. Over sixteen million people - soldiers and civilians - would die. It was a war where armies were using 19th century tactics in the field, while being challenged by 20th century weapons, such as airplanes, machine guns, tanks, submarines, poison gas and flame throwers. The carnage was unparalleled.
- For war photographers, the challenges were greater than ever. They now had equipment that allowed them to get right up to the front lines and capture the actual carnage as it was happening, instead of representing the event with staged photos. Smaller cameras and new film formats made it possible for soldiers to bring cameras to the front. Kodak introduced its Brownie camera in 1900 and the Vest Pocket Kodak in 1912. Some even referred to the Vest Pocket Kodak as "The Soldier's Camera".
Composite Photos
- When the war began, authorities kept independent photographers away from the fighting. However, the newspapers needed images to illustrate their stories and applied continuous pressure to get photographs. In 1914 authorities finally agreed to approve official photographers and provide them with access to front line positions. Many of these photographers used medium format cameras with glass negatives.
- Some staged photos were still being taken – a holdover from earlier times. Authorities saw staged photos becoming part of the historical record. To prevent that from happening, in 1916 Britain introduced a policy, the Propaganda of the Facts, that banned fake or staged images. The government felt they undermined Allied credibility.
- Despite the policy, one of the more famous composite (or staged) photos appeared in 1917. It was a photograph created by noted adventurer and photographer James Francis Hurley. He had been famous for, among other things, his trip with Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition to Antarctica. Hurley was the Chief Photographer on the ill-fated trip and took some stunning and historic photos. The photo above is a composite of twelve negatives by photographers from Britain, Canada and Australia. It represents the Allied soldiers going “over the top” at the Third Battle of Yerps in 1917 in West Flanders, Belgium.
Edward Steichen
- The Americans didn’t enter the war until 1917. The Signal Corps were designated the official photographers of the U.S. Army. Their duties were divided into three areas – documentary photography, propaganda and operational photography. The U.S. Air Force photographers were provided with training in aerial photography.
- Initially, they took advantage of the experience amassed by the British and received training from them. George Eastman offered the expertise of the Kodak Company and training switched to its facilities. The U.S. School of Aerial Photography was founded in Kodak Park in Rochester, New York in March of 1918. In all, 2,177 students received training at the school before the war ended. The Air Force Branch was headed by Edward Steichen, a pioneer fashion photographer.
- Alfred Stieglitz, another internationally noted photographer and art promoter, once called Steichen “the greatest photographer that ever lived.” After the war, Edward Steichen returned to New York and worked as Chief Photographer for Condé Nast’s Vogue and Vanity Fair. He was also a consultant for the advertising firm of J. Walter Thompson. While there, he was the best known and highest paid photographer of his time.
- Photos from Edward Steichen’s Aerial Photography Unit of the U.S. Air Force. By the end of the conflict, the department was turning out 17,000 prints a day to aid in the war effort.
Uncredited Photos
- Photos taken by soldiers and military combat photographers often went without photo credit during World War I. Even photos taken by professional journalists were often just credited to a photo service or newspaper. Fortunately, a lot of the work has survived.
- The First World War not only mobilized armies from across the globe, it also attracted a collection of war photographers whose body of work helped set the standard for not only the next world war, but for many conflicts to follow. They established the value of photography for military operations, as well as historical documentation. Even with some censorship restrictions imposed during wartime, the public was able to get more accurate eyewitness views of the real costs of war from a front line perspective. The managed access to frontline areas was a step forward from the restrictions of earlier conflicts. These principles would be revived for World War II.
Question to Consider:
- During World War I, famous Arctic explorer and photographer James Francis Hurley made a composite photograph using twelve different negatives from three contributing countries. He said it was not possible to depict the horrors of war with a single photo. He claimed using multiple negatives was like a painter adding elements to a canvas - the overall effect of the composite photo justified the deception. Do you believe it’s OK to manipulate a photograph with multiple negatives?
"A Date That Will Live In Infamy"
- President Franklin Roosevelt, speaking to a joint session of Congress, December 8, 1941.
- When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, it thrust the United States into the middle of World War II. The Japanese sneak attack was captured by U.S. Navy photographers and anyone else who had access to cameras near the action. It also mobilized combat photographers around the country, who would spend the remainder of the war documenting the conflict around the globe.
Military Service Photographers
- Many of the great photographs taken during the war were captured by members of the Armed Services. These military photographers often received no credit when their work appeared in publications around the world. During combat, they would sometimes have to put down the camera and take up arms to join in the fight when enemy forces got too close. The one thing they had over photographers from the media outlets was access.
Robert F. Sargent
- This photo was called “Taxi to Hell and Back – Into the Jaws of Death” and taken on D-Day, June 6, 1944. It shows troops being escorted from ships to shore on landing craft by Coast Guard personnel.
Henry Miller
- One of the most dramatic photos taken after the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp was taken by Army Signal Corps photographer Henry Miller on April 16, 1941. Conditions were so unbelievable in the camp that the military wanted to make sure official documentation was made of the true situation. In the second row, the seventh man from the left (next to the post) is Elie Wiesel. He would eventually be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
Civilian Combat Photographers
Lee Miller
- Lee Miller was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907 to a father who was considered a serious amateur photographer. Tragically, she was raped by a family acquaintance when she was seven. It left her with emotional scars for life. She grew up exposed to photography and interested in the field of fashion. At the age of nineteen she went to New York, seeking to become a model. While there she was crossing a busy street and was saved from being hit by an oncoming vehicle by a stranger. He turned out to be Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue. He saw potential in Miller and asked her to come work for him. She ended up on two covers of American Vogue. Eventually, after moving to Paris and learning photography with the help of the famous American artist Man Ray, Miller moved to London and secured a job with British Vogue.
- When the war began, most of the men on the British Vogue staff went off to “war jobs” or, if they were American, back to America. Miller continued to work for the magazine while covering the blitz in London. As the war progressed, she became one of four female war correspondents granted accreditation by the U.S. Armed Forces. She joined with Life photographer David E. Scherman to document the 83rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army as it traveled from Normandy to Paris.
- Many critics consider her photos from the Holocaust among her best work. The photographs were some of the first pieces of evidence of the very existence of the Holocaust. Miller and Scherman were witnesses to the atrocities at Buchenwald and Dachau. The horrors of those atrocities stayed with Miller her entire life. She suffered bouts of depression after the war and became an alcoholic until her death in 1977. Her son believes she suffered from what is now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
- After spending the day in Dachau, Miller returned to Hitler’s former apartment in Munich and took a bath in his bathtub. She wiped the mud from Dachau off her boots on the bath mat. It was the same day Hitler committed suicide in Berlin, April 30, 1945.
George Strock
- In February 1943, George Strock took a photo of three American soldiers lying dead in the sand at Buna Beach, New Guinea. At the time government censors would not allow the publication of photographs showing dead American soldiers. Life magazine asked to print the picture. The request went all the way to the U.S. President. FDR decided the American public was growing too complacent with the war and allowed the picture to be published.
Ralph Morse
- Ralph Morse was one of the youngest war photographers of World War II. Hired by Life magazine, Morse, only 24 years old, headed out to action in the Pacific theater on the U.S.S. Vincennes. His assignment was to cover the first amphibious landing by U.S. Marines on Guadalcanal. After getting the pictures, he returned to his ship to drop off the film so it could be sent back home to the censors and then to Life. (He also wanted to retrieve the clothes he left onboard that he was unable to take with him on the initial landing at Guadalcanal.)
- The ship’s captain told Morse he would have to stay on the ship overnight, but could return to the beach at Guadalcanal in the morning. Unfortunately, the U.S.S. Vincennes was attacked overnight during the Battle of Savo Island and sunk. Morse ended up treading water, surrounded by sharks, for six hours before being rescued. His clothes and film went down with the ship.
- He asked permission from the Navy to return to New York for more gear and clothes. They agreed as long as he promised to keep all the details of the incident regarding the Vincennes a secret. In other words, it never happened. Morse agreed and returned to New York. Life was surprised to see him and wanted to know what happened to his gear. He said, “I can’t tell you.” His draft board also didn’t want to give him orders to return overseas to continue to do his job. He couldn’t tell them why he came back.
- Eventually, behind the scenes, high level Navy Intelligence got involved and smoothed things over with Life and the draft board. Morse was cleared to return to Guadalcanal and spent the remainder of the war as a combat photographer, covering the landings at Normandy, the air-raids in Verdun, Charles de Gaulle’s peace parade in Paris and the German surrender at Reims.
- During the liberation of Paris, Ralph Morse was covering Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s tour of the city when a German sniper began to open fire. Morse captured an image of a “Free-French” soldier as he ran to assist a resistance fighter to subdue the sniper in August 1944.
- This was the scene in the streets of Paris during Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s tour of the liberated capital in August of 1944. Allied troops and journalists occupy jeeps, including photographers Robert Capa (on the back of the jeep with a camera covering his face) and George Rodger (with a camera, wearing a beret).
A Personal Favorite
- His favorite photo was one he took of a prisoner newly released from a concentration camp. He followed him home, where the man was greeted by his daughter, whom he hadn't seen in four years. She fed him and began to sing to him. It was a touching moment during a conflict filled with tragedy.
Iconic Flag Raising - Iwo Jima
Joe Rosenthal
- One of the most iconic and reproduced shots from World War II was captured on February 23, 1945, during the Battle of Iwo Jima. This was the second flag raised that day on the top of Mount Suribachi by men from the U.S. Marines. Joe Rosenthal received a Pulitzer Prize for his photograph. Six Marines raised the flag, but only three survived the battle.
- The first flag raised on Mount Suribachi was this smaller flag, shot by Sgt. Louis R. Lowery, U.S.M.C. Some felt it was too small to be seen by soldiers all over the island, so a larger flag was brought in to replace it.
History Questioned
Robert Capa
- This photo show Robert Capa coming ashore on D-Day, June 6, 1944, at Normandy. It was taken by a Coast Guard photographer and proves Capa was at Normandy for the invasion. How much action was taking place while he was there, how long he stayed, how much film he shot and what he actually saw has been a source of speculation and differing opinions.
- This is one of his controversial photos. Robert Capa has claimed his film was damaged in processing, and only a few frames survived. Historians have since speculated that he did not shoot as many frames as he originally asserted. They claimed he landed after most of the action had taken place in a sector that was not busy at the time. The soldiers were not taking cover behind the obstacles, but were just engineers, there to remove the obstacles to make more landings easier. (Their task is indicated by the patches on their uniforms.) These discrepancies called some of Capa’s work into question.
- In 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, Capa took what many have call the greatest war photograph of all time, "The Falling Soldier". Around 1975 controversy began to surround the image. Some historians who analyzed the work said Capa changed his story several times regarding the details about this photo. The location he claimed to have taken it is disputed, and the person identified in the photo, Frederico Borrell Garcia, was believed by some to have died at another location on the same day. The truth may never be known for sure.
The End
- The war drew to a close when the United States detonated nuclear bombs in combat for the first time in history. This is a shot of “Little Boy” exploding over Hiroshima. The blast was the equivalent of 12-15,000 tons of TNT. Eighty-thousand people died immediately, while tens of thousands died later from radiation exposure. Ninety percent of the city was wiped out.
Questions to Consider:
- During World War II, the U.S. government had a policy that prohibited publications from showing dead American soldiers in photographs. They wanted to keep support up for the war on the home front. In 1943 FDR felt the American public was becoming too complacent with the war and allowed Life magazine to publish a photograph of dead American soldiers on a beach. Do you think this should have been allowed? Should the government be able to suppress photos taken by the press during war because they depict the war effort in a negative way?
Conclusion
Over the years combat photographers have left a legacy of photographs that help to define the historical record of our nation during times of conflict. That record and the profession was built one step at a time. Capabilities were initially limited by technology, but, as processes improved, so did the photographic product. Access to the battlefields continues to be problematic, often available at the whim of the armies involved. The one thing that remains constant is the skills and ability necessary for combat photographers to capture and document historical information under less than ideal circumstances. Their images will live on as compelling reminders of a nation's past during times of conflict.
Question to Consider:
- Combat photography is a difficult and dangerous profession. These individuals risk their lives to preserve history and capture iconic images. During the Iraq war (2003-2011) the Committee to Protect Journalist documented 136 journalists were killed while covering the conflict. Many of those were photographers. How much risk would you be willing to take in order to obtain an important photograph?