Being able to see the news, as well as read about it, and being able to capture the story in a single image is a special skill honed over many news assignments.
Photographer Giulio Saggin (pictured) was a newspaper photographer for 27 years. During that time he worked for all the major London based newspapers, The Canberra Times, The Sun and The Courier-Mail.
Using his camera to tell the story is one story. But Mr Saggin explains, there is always another story about how each of his images are captured.
“You see these photos in newspapers and you have no idea, the photographer was standing on one leg and leaning out the back of a truck swinging over a dirt road,” Mr Saggin said.
“Working in daily newspapers involves crazy, constant deadlines. Some images require a lot of standing around waiting sometimes in snow, rain or full sun.
“A lot of the work is interesting and exciting, but some situations you would rather not do, like speaking to someone who has lost a family member. We call them death knocks. Some people really want to share the story of the person’s life, others find you asking about it really offensive.”
Mr Saggin believes a picture shows something whereas a news photo tells a story.
“A photo that tells a story is far more interesting than a picture that merely shows something,” he said.
“My job was really to add the human element, find the angle and make it exciting to look at.
“I love the variety of the work and having access to places and events the average punter wouldn’t.”
Mr Saggin takes us behind the scenes on assignment
While photographing a wedding, I was standing outside the church waiting for the bride’s car to appear, when I saw this scene unfolding behind me. The girls were talking about their shoes and dresses, while the boys were plotting and planning a way to wear a hole in the seat of their pants by sliding down the handrail. I kept watching for the bride’s car, then turning back to see how this scene was unfolding. Finally, the bride’s car appeared at the end of the street and I turned one last time to see if the boys were ‘going for it’. They, too, had seen the bride’s car appear and one of the boys threw himself onto the handrail, raised his arm like he was riding a bronco at a rodeo, and set off down it. I snapped off a few photos of him ‘going for it’, turned and got the bride arriving.
I was sent to Redlands Hospital on January 2, 2000, because they’d had a large number of births on the eve of the new millennium and New Year’s Day. I had no idea what I was going to do for a photo. I didn’t just want to do the usual photo of one parent in the foreground holding their baby with all the other parents standing behind holding their baby, and I spent the entire drive from Brisbane wondering what I was going do that was different. I couldn’t think of anything and hoped I would be inspired when I got there.
I arrived and was ushered into a room full of proud parents holding their babies. No inspiration ushered forth and I was left standing there, sweating bullets, as the parents looked at me for guidance.
I tried as best I could to act like I knew what I was doing but I had the photographer’s version of ‘writer’s block’. I had no idea what I was going to do for a photo. I told the parents to lay their babies on a couch that was in the room and looked through the camera. Nothing. I stood on a chair, hoping the time it took to do this would kick me into action. Nothing. I could sense the parents were getting impatient and, as I gazed through my camera at the babies below me, the arms of one of the parents appeared into shot as they supported their baby’s head. The arms coming into shot from out of frame looked fantastic and, in an instant, I knew that was ‘the shot’, so I got all the other parents to place their arms into shot and support their baby’s head. I let out a huge internal sigh of relief.
Giulio Saggin will be speaking at the Friends of the Library (FOILS) lunch, Friday, 31 August, 12pm at the Barry Jones Auditorium, Library Courtyard, Ipswich Central Library, 40 South Street, Ipswich.
Contact FOILS on 3810 6761 if you are interested in attending.
Friends of Ipswich Libraries (FOILS) is a group of enthusiastic library supporters who are interested in promoting and enhancing Ipswich Libraries and strengthening links with the community.
4