The hidden side
David Guttenfelder
Associated Press
I am, at heart, a wire photographer. Working for the Associated Press for the past fourteen years has given me a life of constant travel to world events. I’ve collaborated with talented teams of AP colleagues who have become like a family. I’ve fought hard to earn space on front pages, and to say something meaningful with my photographs. I’ve worked well at this pace, and the wire has been a good fit for me. But, over the years, I began to feel that the demand to make deadlines and match headlines too often made me rush past moments and issues that are not easily described in photo captions. The need for an immediate image, and immediate impact, often made me afraid to step back and take photographs more open to interpretation. At the same time, I came to feel that those types of photographs, of daily life moments found on the margins of “the story”, are the most alluring, and the most lasting. So I’ve tried to maintain my own, more personal, side of photography. Many of these pictures and projects were shot on my way to, or from, the day’s assignment, sometimes from car windows and the back of a motorbike.
Preview
Some were made on my train commute to the office, during my free time, or while on early-morning walks with my daughters. Most were discovered only when I’ve found the self-confidence to step away from the center of it all. Many of these photographs have never been published. For a long time, some of these pictures may have fallen outside classic wire service boundaries. But times are changing. AP, for one, continues to open up to broader photographic styles and content. AP has their daily photo stream, new online services, an expanding AP Images, and an enterprise desk to distribute long term projects. I now try to work simultaneously like a daily wire photographer, a weekly magazine photographer, a multimedia story teller, and a documentary photographer. There are photographs in this show that were used in each of those formats. These efforts to go beyond any narrow definition of our profession, to stay interested in the world around me, and to keep growing as a photographer, have seeped into all my work. It has made the life of working as a wire photographer much more gratifying. Some concrete results are exhibited here.
David Guttenfelder
