Jury 2010

Michael Sargent

PICTURE EDITOR, THE STRAITS TIMES (SINGAPORE)

Michael Sargent’s thirty-five year career started as a photojournalist, working in the newspaper and wire service industries and moved through various roles from official White House photographer to management positions for AFP and Getty Images.

He now runs his own photo-media consultancy, through which he is working as the picture editor at The Straits Times in Singapore. From getting his first roll of camera film at the age of seven for Christmas, photography has been a "tireless passion that never stopped growing."

With such an interesting career under his belt so far, what are the highlights? "I’ve had many, I've really been blessed in my career. The high points would be in the years spent as both a newspaper and wire service photographer, as well as those as an editor and regional director with the wires. I worked as a White House photographer for George H. W. Bush (1989 – 1993) and eventually in a role at Getty Images where I had the privilege of hiring some of the best photographers and editors in the industry and having the resources to focus them on doing award winning work."

Regardless of his progression into photo and business consultancy, Michael has always kept in touch with his roots as a photographer. He won a string of awards in the 1980s and enjoyed his time as a news-photographer in North Carolina, Florida as well as the US army at the start of his career. "Photojournalism is my forte, though I do enjoy exploring landscape and travel photography. I've also done my share of sports photography over the years, a lot of basketball, American football, golf and NASCAR racing among other disciplines."

As someone who has been devoted to photography for over 50 years, its interesting to hear what photography was like before the digital age. "Back in my prime, digital cameras weren't even a dream, there were no auto-focus lenses and zoom lenses were rare and considered novelty items. The Internet didn't even exist."

"Photographers don't think the way they used to, picking the right prime lens for the picture, setting exposure from experience with meter-less cameras, thinking about focus and depth of field. Waiting for just the right moments, knowing you only had 36 frames or less to work with before having to reload."

"Then there was working in the darkroom, mixing the chemistry, making the prints, there is really none of this left today. All of this said, there are still some talented photographers out there making very nice pictures."

Does Michael think that action and adventure sports photographers have a different style and personality to most sports photographers? "I think in subtle respects they do, action and adventure sports are less predictable and routine and for this reason, I think they are a bit more challenging to photographers. Most sports have an air of predictability and repetition, which reduces some of the odds of not getting some good pictures. With action and adventure sports, it's more of 'anything goes.'"

As a judge at Red Bull Illume, he’s looking for photography that "captures that decisive moment" and photographers who have mastered their eye and familiarity for their sport without losing their sense of daring. "I've always had a competitive spirit and I think Red Bull Illume will inspire photographers, in the sporting spirit of competition, to deliver their best work."

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