Judge 2010

Andy Clark

SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER, REUTERS (CANADA)

Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, operating in at least 200 cities in 94 countries with 2,700 journalists, supplying news text in about 20 languages. Andy Clark has been a photographer for 35 years and has devoted 23 of them to Thomson Reuters’ policy of fast and objective news.

Working alone in a one-man photo bureau with a small reporter team, Andy works through the continual flux of daily events at home or on the road. However, photojournalism was a career he grew into after starting in Canadian Press (CP), a news agency, in 1970. “I became seriously interested in photography as a 17-year-old 'copyboy' working for a news agency in their photo department. I had been slightly interested prior to that but had no career aspirations. Once I saw the magic of taking photos, processing film and making prints, I was hooked."

He was promoted to the darkroom in 1972 and was officially promoted to be a full-time photographer at CP in 1975 when he joined the Ottawa office – which he describes as his proudest moment to date. After "several hard years working my way up" and earning his spurs, he moved on to Hamilton Spectator, UPI  and then Reuters in 1985. Interestingly, he was also the official photographer for Brian Mulroney, Canada's prime minister (1983-1993), for two and a half years before he re-joined Reuters in 1987. He worked at the European Picture Desk in Brussels and London for several years before returning to Toronto to be Reuter's chief photographer in Canada.

Considering that news-agency photographers have to strongly consider how text and image combine, his perspective on what makes a great photo leans towards photography’s power to capture moments and events through an objective eye. What, for him, makes a great photo? "That's not easy to answer. My favorite photos are those with layers to them - foreground, middle ground and background. That tells me the photographer was not only looking through the viewfinder, at his subject, but seeing too."

Andy also sees his passion for photography as no different to any other photographers, regardless of what field he works in. "In simple terms, I love taking pictures, nothing more nothing less." However, this "red blooded Canadian" also has a passion for photographing ice hockey and, surprisingly for a Canadian, cricket.

Asked about the digital or film debate, Andy agrees that digital has transformed the industry over the last decade: "It has changed everything. I spent most of my career, so far, shooting film. I went full digital in 1997 and the only similarity to the film days is looking through viewfinder and pushing the button."

As for Red Bull Illume, Andy is excited about the prospect of judging: "Not only do I love to shoot pictures but I love to look at pictures and expect I am going to to see some very nice photography."

www.reuters.com