Joel Sartore/Copyright National Geographic Society
A woman wearing a fake fur dalmation coat walks her dalmation in a Boston suburb. The photo was published in National Geographic as part of a story on
Boston in July, 1994.
____ ,, __• , __. •‘j ___
Photo by Joel Sartore
A mother and daughter share the fun of a carnival ride at the
Lemhi County Fair near Salmon, Idaho, in February 1994.
“You have to like what
you do. If you don’t like
what you do, you won ’t
be successful at it. It
doesn’t seem like work
most of the time. ”
m
JOEL SARTORE
Contract photographer
for National Geographic
Joel Sartore/Copyright National Geographic
Bent over from years of work, 77-year-old Hartley Bowmar
carries a sack of oranges in Northern California, July 1993.
*
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OiU IUIC
Continued from Page 1
for a hardware store or a bank,” he said. “But
if you don’t mind working on Christmas,
New Year’s, Easter, Mother’s Day, your birth
day, your wife’s birthday, then go into jour
nalism.”
Sartore had a chance to be close to his wife,
Kathy, as he documented the last week of her
pregnancy, the birth of their son, Cole, and
the week after the birth.
In a way, he said, he wished he hadn’t.
“When the baby was being born — actu
ally coming out into the world—I’m making
sure he’s in focus,” Sartore said, “instead of
being overjoyed and cheerful and happy that
he’s crying loudly.”
Sartore previously worked for the Wichita
Eagle in Wichita, Kan., and the Daily Ne
braskan. He got his start as a photographer
when a photo he shot for his hometown
newspaper, the Ralston Recorder, captured
his photographic eye.
' He taught himself how to use a camera, he
said, but he learned how to improve his
techniques at UNL.
“I learned how to meet deadlines,” he said.
The Daily Nebraskan also helped Sartore
, hone his skills by allowing him freedom to
come up with his own pictures, he said.
He saw a small announcement for an arm
wrestling competition at the Nebraska Union,
he said, and the photographs he shot at that
event remained in his portfolio for several
years.
Sartore also credits George Tuck, a UNL
Focused.
With feeling.
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the world in pictures
news-editorial professor, with teaching him
how to learn from other people’s work.
“They say that no one ever has a truly
original thought,” he said. “All thoughts of
mankind or humankind is based on work of
other people before.”
Tuck said Sartore was unique in his ability
to visualize and depict emotion.
“He sees pictures where other people don’t
see pictures,” he said. “He reminds me that
funny pictures are possible.”
Sartore "said one-third of his work was
researching his assignment so he knew when
the ideal condition would take shape.
For example, Sartore said, he was as
signed to photograph sea lions off the coast of
Alaska. He called biologists with the Alaskan
Department of Fish and Game and found out
that the sea lions appeared on the coast for
two weeks in March. Biologists collect tissue
and blood samples from the sea lions at that
time.
“These sea lions are worked once a year for
a week,” he said. “What were my chances of
just going up there and finding them out there
working with sea lions?”
Sartore’s ability to be in the right place at
the right time materialized years before he
signed on at National Geographic. As a pho
his editor if he could photograph a llama sale
in Palmyra.
“I said ‘Can I go? Can I go? Please, please,’
and he said, ‘No, it’s not on campus,”’ Sartore
said. Sartore talked him into it by saying there
might be a university student there.
Still, Sartore said a lot of his situations
came about by luck.
“Photography is a lot like fishing,” he
said. “Some days you get skunked, some days
you do very well.”
From the beginning, Sartore said he learned
to make sure he enjoyed what he did. Photo
journalism, he said, is not a job, it’s a series
of experiences.
“You have to like what you do. If you don’t
like what you do, you won’t be successful at
it,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like work most
of the time.” ,
Sartore has received numerous awards for
his work, including several Photographer of
the Year awards.
While working at the Wichita Eagle,
Sartore met James Stanfield, a National Geo
graphic staff photographer. Sartore started
sending his work to the magazine every few
months until they gave him his first assign
ment.
“It’s all downhill from here,” he said,
because National Geographic is the peak of
his career.
“I’ve wanted to do this ever since I was a
little kid,” he said. “Every day’s not a joyous
thing—terrible food, weather and the travel
is grueling ... But it’s the greatest job ever.
“I shudder to think what I’ll do after it.”