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Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009

Photographing a mother's grief not a fun job

By Kai-Huei Yau, Herald photographer

Readers still are reeling about the photo of Josefina Gonzalez mourning the death of her son, Carlos Rivera, 16, of Pasco, who drowned at Schlagel Park while swimming with friends Aug. 3. Many have voiced their outrage about the Herald publishing a photo of a grieving mother on the front page via phone calls, online comments, e-mails and letters to the editor.

Although I don't need to defend the actions of myself or the Herald, an explanation from somebody who was there might aid the dialogue - much of which was surprisingly cordial in online comments to the story and my blog post about the backlash.

When I arrived at the park, it already was a madhouse, with Pasco fire and police working to control the crowd and figure out where Rivera might be as they waited for Columbia Basin Dive Rescue. Reporter Ingrid Stegemoeller and I talked to family members as they made their way to and from shore and started to piece together more of what happened.

I flagged down Peter Moreno after he helped officials locate the body and heard his terrifying take on the incident. Moreno, also 16, had tried to save Rivera, but had to let him go after he started getting pulled under as well.

"The worst part was feeling him trying to grab onto my legs," he said.

Gonzalez arrived on scene around this time and was understandably unhinged. Her haunting wails could be heard from where we were standing 100 yards back, and her emotion was constant amid the ebb and flow of grief from the rest of the family as they stood by during the three-hour ordeal.

A common theme throughout the complaints is that I invaded the mother's privacy and the paper exploited her grief in order to boost sales. The letters imply a certain level of greedy enjoyment on our end - that the mental cha-ching I heard as I made a picture of Gonzalez was loud enough to overpower her wails of despair.

Believe me when I say there was absolutely nothing enjoyable about covering this or any other tragic event. The overwhelming emotion that surrounded me after the recovery of Rivera's body will stay with me forever. If I had to choose one type of assignment that I'd never have to shoot again, it would be events like this.

But there's a difference between what you want and what you need to do, and that applies to the heart of the issue. As one reader correctly assumed, there were plenty of photos to choose from. Any of the search and rescue photos I took would have been fine to accompany the story, but none of them would have had the same impact as seeing a mother's grief.

There wouldn't have been as much discussion about the story, and that's the point of covering stories like this. If one person remembers seeing the consequences of swimming in dangerous areas and thinks twice before doing so, then we've done our job.

If the photo makes you uncomfortable because it's hard to look at a grieving mother, that's part of the point. There's nothing nice about what happened that day.

Perhaps the outrage is a semi-positive side effect of the relatively safe and small community we live in. The residents here haven't become accustomed to death and tragedy like they have in other places where images of distraught mourners and grisly scenes are more commonplace.

Regardless, the backlash here was anything but unexpected, which should dispel the ridiculous accusation that we were trying to cash in on her grief. True, there are photographers who happily think of contest wins and portfolio additions when covering tragic events, but the vast majority of photojournalists are just trying to tell a story with their images. To lump us all together at the level of paparazzi is as unfair as labeling all Arabs as terrorists or priests as pedophiles.

Besides, the Herald doesn't pay enough for me to do anything I feel is unethical.

It's a debate worth having, however, and the story comments managed to maintain civilized discourse (by web standards) for a day before somehow taking a web-worthy turn toward welfare and Native Americans.

I doubt this column will sway many opinions, since this argument is almost as old as mass media, but my hope is that I've taken the edge off of some of the more outlandish remarks.

* Kai-Huei Yau has worked for the Herald for a year and a half. You can read his blog, from which this column is based, complete with photos at tricityherald.com/behindthefold.

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