Photojournalist

NU grad lured by job full of superlatives

By Gary Kemper
1975 journalism graduate

“Why would anybody ever want to do this twice?” was a question I’d been asked frequently four years ago in the aftermath of the ’96 Atlanta Olympics.

The answer was hard to justify. After all, hundreds of us had put several years of hard work into staging the Games. And for what? The snub of IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch who declined to describe the Atlanta Games the “best Olympics ever?” Criticism from the world’s press about a faulty results system, transportation problems and over-commercialization?

Why would anybody ever want to do this twice? When first approached during the Atlanta Games by the Sydney organizers, I replied “You’ve got to be kidding.” I told Reg Gratton, my former colleague at Reuters, hired by the Sydney organizers to be the Main Press Center manager, that I simply could not look forward to more of the 18-hour days or complaints about arrangements out of our control.

But the passage of time has a soothing effect. The next Games were, after all, in Sydney, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

And there is something attractive in the challenge of helping to organize the world’s biggest peacetime event. It’s in the superlatives — the best athletes, the most sports, the biggest stadium, the largest number of spectators, the most countries, the most medals and the largest gathering of the world’s press and broadcasters.

There was some comfort, too, in having helped to organize an Olympics before. I’d had considerable experience as a photographer and editor for United Press International and Reuters in covering major news stories around the world. I’d been involved with most Olympics since the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games. Each time we faced certain known difficulties: the language barriers, transport delays, communications, high costs and uncomfortable accommodations. Getting involved in the organization of the Games was a way of giving something back to the business I’d enjoyed.

After graduating from NU in 1975 from the School of Journalism and working for three years at the Lincoln Journal and Star, I spent nearly 14 years abroad, working in Brussels, London and Hong Kong. I returned with my family to the United States in 1992 to live in New York.

In 1994, I received a call from the organizers of the Atlanta Olympics. They asked whether I was interested in the role of photo chief, responsible for the arrangements for the more than 1,200 accredited photographers covering the Games. I went to Atlanta for an interview and liked what I saw, and my family moved there a few months later.

The Atlanta preparations for the athletes, officials, Olympic family, spectators and broadcasters were, for the most part, excellent. For the visiting press, however, the plans fell short. Those of us who worked in press operations felt duped. We had accepted the word of other “functional areas” like transport and results services and expected them to deliver on their promises.

Still, photo operations was able to make some huge improvements over past Olympics, especially regarding the way in which accredited photographers worked. One major injustice that we corrected was the way in which the photographic “pool” was formed. In the past, the IOPP (International Olympic Photographic Pool) was formed as a separate team of 24 photographers from the three international wire service agencies AP, AFP and Reuters.

Pool photographers are given the best positions from which to shoot, and their pictures are made available on a shared basis to each of the agencies. In practice, the pool competed with the agencies themselves. The agencies were loath to put their best photographers in the pool because they had to share the material with their rivals. Atlanta was the first Olympic games in which we increased the number of pool photographers to allow each of the agencies to put their best photographers in the best positions.

We had the same successful arrangement in Sydney and even extended the opportunity to the national pool.

The national photo pool consisted of the two major newspaper publishing houses in Australia — Fairfax and News Ltd.

Each group was allowed to accredit 15 photographers for the pool, affording them positions as good as those of the international agencies.

Even the non-pool photographers had positions which were often as good.

One criticism I heard was that the positions were too good and, as a result, few pictures stood out from the rest because everyone was making great pictures.

Good working relationships with venue managers and competition managers helped greatly. Early input into the design of the venues took away many of the operational issues. Any operational issues that remained were quickly addressed with the venue teams. We certainly had more photographers in more catwalks than at any other Olympics, and each of them has signed a proper waiver drafted by our risk management department.

Probably the biggest key to the success for photo operations in the past two summer Olympic games has been the quality of the staff, both paid and volunteer, working in the competition venues. We set out to find people who were experienced in the field of photojournalism and who were keen to be involved. Joe Traver, as deputy photo chief in both Atlanta and Sydney, was instrumental in finding managers and volunteers through his network of acquaintances in the United States. In Sydney, Peter Charles, former picture editor of the Melbourne Age, contacted some of his old mates who did an outstanding job across several venues.

In Sydney, we were able to bring some photo managers onto staff three months before the opening ceremony, allowing them plenty of time to get to know their venue teams. Others came onto staff at least one month before.

We had time to meet as a group on three occasions for training sessions in which we shared detailed operating procedures to ensure that we had consistency throughout the venues.

But the one unexpected bonus that we couldn’t count on was the instant camaraderie that developed among the photo managers and staff. All of them were serious enough about their roles and responsibilities, but the atmosphere in our meetings always was one of high spirits and anticipation of a successful operation. The combination of excellent venues, good weather, an absence of mischief and a motivated staff together in one of the world’s most beautiful harbor settings all accounted for the “best Games ever,” regardless of what the IOC president said.