Capturing a moment
Telegram photographer Joe Gibbons looks back through the lens at one of his favourite photos of 2014
The photo was talked about for days after the story ran in The Telegram.
On Monday afternoon of June 16, I was at the Airport Comfort Inn hotel covering a conference where The Telegram was making a presentation.
My cellphone was in my camera bag at the back of the conference room. It was on vibrate, so I didn’t hear it ring as managing editor Steve Bartlett and Gerry Carew, TC Media’s Atlantic director of digital product and operations were doing a presentation on the changing face of media.
After I had gotten enough photos, I went back to where I had stored my camera bag and coat. There were more than 20 missed calls from the newsroom on my cellphone.
I called back and was told then-premier designate Frank Coleman had called a news conference for 2 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in St. John’s where he was expected to step down. It was 1:45. I had to leave immediately and rush to the Holiday Inn. I arrived about 10 minutes later. Coleman’s news conference started about 10 minutes after I got there.
I shot the basic photographs that photojournalists get at such events, such as Coleman coming into the news conference room and then speaking to the media. I continued to shoot photos as questions were fired at him by the media once he sat down and the newser began.
After it was over, I waited for him to come out in order to take photos of him leaving with his public relations team as they walked towards the main door of the hotel. Coleman got his raglan and then went outside to the front parking lot looking for his wife, who was supposed to meet him there.
She didn’t appear to have arrived, and he went back inside the hotel after chatting with his wife on his cellphone. I had a hunch and followed him back inside the hotel instead of retreating to my Telegram vehicle.
I had hoped to get a photo of him with his wife, but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I followed as he went towards the back exit of the hotel.
He left the hotel through those doors. Once again I followed him outside the hotel thinking she might be out back waiting for him, but she was not there.
So, I then just shot off photos of him walking away, one hand in his pocket and the other clutching his cellphone. He seemed subdued as he walked away from the hotel knowing that his dreams of becoming premier of Newfoundland and Labrador were never to be.
When I got back to work and downloaded the photos from the news conference, this was the one picked by the editors. “It plain and simple told the whole story,” our news team said.
The photo was talked about for days after the story ran in The Telegram. It was even mentioned in post-news conference columns days after by Telegram columnists including retired CBC journalist Bob Wakeham and Mount Pearl Mayor Randy Simms.
As recently as a few weeks ago on the Rogers TV political panel involving VOCM news director Fred Hutton and The Telegram’s political reporter James McLeod, Hutton referred to the photo as he chose the Coleman saga as his top story of the year and how Coleman “looked like a lost person.”
Every journalist likes to get feedback on their work, and I was very grateful for the good feedback that came from this timely shot of Frank Coleman.
While photojournalists always strive to give you the best view of the news, it is rewarding to be appreciated and to know you’ve captured the essence of moment.