An Olympic Feat:Seeing Pictures Before They Happen.
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Being a top
photographer at the Olympics takes meticulous planning, razor-sharp
instincts, visual virtuosity and the ability to recognize drama –
attributes that Chang Lee, a staff photographer for The New York Times,
has in abundance. This week, he is in Rio de Janeiro covering his eighth
Olympic Games. Despite that experience, he says he has found it more
difficult to shoot each successive trip.
“You think you know
what you’re doing, but there are always new moments and new human
drama,” he said. “You can plan for many things like remote cameras,
close-ups and clean, beautiful pictures with shadows and color. But
there’s always a moment that you can never plan for that you don’t want
to miss.”
It is always a
challenge to find clever, new photographs but the images that show human
dignity are the most important to him. It’s usually a single moment, he
said, that defines an athlete and reveals his or her lifelong struggle
to reach the Olympics.
Mr. Lee’s own road to
the Olympics was one that he could not have imagined growing up in
Pusan, South Korea. He said he had no interest in sports before moving
to the United States after high school, but that the 1988 Summer Games
in Seoul had piqued his interest. While working delivering pizza in
Leonia, N.J., to support his English studies he said he had no time to
watch the Games on television. But he said he knew something big was
happening.
“I heard people screaming from their home and I really hoped I could watch,” he said. “But I was just delivering the pizza.”
He learned how to deliver the photographic goods after he enrolled at
New York University, studied photography and, in 1994, became a photo
intern at The Times. His first assignment was covering the celebration
at Madison Square Garden after the New York Rangers had won the Stanley
Cup for the first time in 54 years. He had no idea what ice hockey was,
but one of his photographs made the front page of The Times’ Metro
section. He was hired as a staff photographer a few months later.
Usain Bolt of Jamaica won the gold medal in at the National Stadium, Beijing, 2008.
As the newest photographer, he worked the night shift, which meant
covering sports several times a week. He soon learned the ins and outs
of baseball, football, basketball and even hockey (which he discovered
uses a flat puck — not a ball).
Usain Bolt of Jamaica winning the gold medal in Men’s 200-meter final in Beijing, 2008.
His strong graphic sense and excellent hand-eye coordination made him quite adept at photographing sports, and his early adoption of digital photography allowed him to effortlessly transmit images on deadline.
He was soon assigned
to almost all the major sporting events, including the World Series and
other championship games. At the same time, he covered many
international stories and was part of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams
that covered the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan.
In Brazil, he is part
of a New York Times photo team that includes photographers Doug Mills,
Mauricio Lima and James Hill, and led by photo editors Becky Lebowitz
and Jeffrey Furticella.
Before the games
begin, Mr. Lee, 48, is meeting venue managers, checking locations for
remote cameras and making sure that the internet connections will work.
He is also looking for shooting positions that might lead to a photo
different from any that he has made before.
“Working for the
Times, I have great freedom in deciding how I want to shoot,” he said.
“The editors discuss what is important in the story but they rarely tell
us how to shoot. It’s all up to us. We can take a risk to make a better
picture.”
In a way,
photographing the Olympics is quite like an Olympic sport itself. There
will be hundreds of credentialed photographers competing with Mr. Lee
for the best photos in Rio this month. Among the attributes that will
separate them will be concentration, instantaneous physical response and
years of training and experience.
But what truly makes for a gold medal Olympic image is more than a winning combination of eye, mind and body.
“If you see the
picture with your own eyes it’s too late,” Mr. Lee said. “But if you see
the picture before it happens, then it can be yours.”
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