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Image conscious
Robert Meyers (ABJ ’84) manages a daily deluge of pictures as a photo editor for The Associated Press
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Robert “Bob” Meyers (ABJ ’84) became a photo editor for The Associated Press soon after he graduated from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. His first posting was in London, where he processed photos of international wars, European politics and sports. For the past nine years, he has been at the AP’s State Photo Center on K Street in downtown Washington, D.C.
Meyers works daily with 18 editors to sort the stream of incoming images—matching state, national and international pictures with stories, improving the quality of images by cropping and toning where necessary and verifying the accuracy of the attached captions. He helps decide on delivering the picture via satellite to a narrow group or to every outlet worldwide.
“Now that all photos are digital, our transmission volume has increased dramatically,” Meyers says. “On an average day, we send out about 300 news photos, 100 features and 400 sports pictures. The important news of the day helps decide what we distribute.”
Meyers observes that the lines between photojournalism and art photography are now blurred: “News shots are still our bread and butter, but a dramatic photo that captures an iconic moment can take on a life of its own and get repeated use over time.”
In addition to the contributions of some 400 AP staff photographers in 121 countries, Meyers says photos now also come from such new sources as video, cell phones and even security cameras. “The coverage of the London Underground and bus bombings last summer used mostly low-resolution cell phone images and video. In the electronic world we live in, you can’t expect to be out in public and not be filmed,” he says, “so we get some pictures we can’t use because of privacy or copyright issues.”
Although newspaper circulation has been declining over the past two decades, there’s lots of new publishing on the Web, Meyers says. “There is a huge magazine market for celebrity shots, so our archives now produce more income,” he says. “And the demand for business photos is growing.”
Meyers spends part of his workday helping to build a Web page listing photo coverage planned for the day’s events. The AP bureaus and a regional editors’ conference call assist in providing information. Editors always want more choices than they can use, according to Meyers. “We do a lot of instant messaging to help specific editors,” he says. “The Associated Press has a huge reputation for accuracy and that makes me proud to be with them.”
(Above) Bob Meyers (ABJ '84) began his career as a photo editor with The Associated Press in London. Today he works at the AP's State Photo Center in downtown Washington, D.C., where he helps to send out approximately 800 images a day.
John English is professor emeritus in UGA’s Grady College
of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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