Congressional Debate

October 24, 2006

Assignment: the first debate between Rep. Jim Matheson and challenger LaVar Christensen, who are running for Utah’s 2nd Congressional seat. Numerous challenges to this assignment, including the fact that this was a televised debate and I would not be allowed to photograph the actual event; too much noise and distraction to have a still photographer in there, I guess. I would be allowed to photograph for a few moments just before the debate started, and then I would be whisked out of the studio so they could start the debate. Knowing I would have very little shooting time, I showed up early to take advantage of every possible moment. But most of that time was spent waiting. The biggest challenge in photographing a debate is fairness. The photos of each candidate have to match up in a variety of ways. For example, you can’t show one candidate looking all haggard and the other one shiny happy (though they know enough not to look haggard when I’m around). You can’t have emphasize one in the frame over the other. The debate was scheduled to start at 7 p.m. but the candidates didn’t get into the studio until ten minutes after. I knew this would severely cut into my time. I starting shooting immediately once they came in. The production crew started fitting the two men with microphones and I was trying to shoot around them. It seemed like every time I clicked off a frame, one or the other of the candidates was scratching his face or leaning over to the side or something. We had pre-arranged the layout for the paper, so it would be one, horizontal image. So I needed both to look good in one frame. I hoped to get both at the same height (sitting or standing) in one frame. I kept clicking and kept hoping, knowing that my time was very short. Both men were finally seated and mic’d. The production staff moved away. I waited, hoping something natural would happen. Then Christensen reached out his hand and Matheson reached over for the handshake. I had several images of the handshake sequence. Interestingly, there is not one single frame where both men are looking at each other at the same time. In the published frame, both men appear to be looking past the other. Equal treatment, indeed. The entire shoot was 71 frames in just three minutes.