Dedicated photojournalists log countless hours in airports and hotels, while documenting the often mundane details of the world’s leaders. This is not my job description. On a recent assignment for The Department of State, covering APEC Leaders’ Week in Hawaii, I got a glimpse into what it would be like to work in this manner. I was assigned to cover Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for three days while she held bi-lateral meetings, gave speeches, hosted dinners and attended many other events. In fact I got to travel around the world with The Secretary of State without leaving Honolulu. Our first stop was the East West Center on the campus of the University of Hawaii, where Secretary Clinton met with Pacific Island Country Leaders and gave a speech to a large and enthusiastic crowd. It was en route to this location in the motorcade, complete with secret service and a police escort, that I realized this job was unlike any other I had done before.
Secretary Clinton at East West Center
The rest of the day was consumed with Bi-Lateral meetings with the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Japan, China and The President of Vietnam. Shooting these meetings is fast and a bit unrewarding as the press is allowed in at the top of the meeting for a quick handshake photo-op and out the door we go.
Bi-Lateral meetings with Australia, China, Japan and Vietnam
From the final meeting with the president of Japan we traveled to Shangri-la, the mansion built by Doris Duke to house and preserve her Islamic Art Collection. A dinner reception was being held for trade ministers from APEC economies.
Secretary Clinton receives a private tour of the art collection at Shangri-la
The next day we got to work early and spent the day in meetings, in a press conference, at the CEO Summit and finally back at Shangri-la for another dinner, this time with The Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo. The dinner was prepared by Iron Chef Morimoto.
The Foreign Ministers Breakfast at The hawaii Convention Center
Secretary Clinton at The CEO Summit
Back at Shangri-la with Iron Chef Morimoto and The Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo
The final day in my 3 day assignment with Secretary Clinton was a long and slow one spent primarily waiting around the hotel for my photo-op. Only 4 meetings were held and that means I had a total of less than ten minutes of actual photography work in a day that began at 8:00 and ended at 6:00. It was all worth it though, with a priceless moment during the last meeting with the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. The sun was setting so the shot was at least a bit interesting when out of nowhere comes a man running, presumably on his way to the luau complete with torch. The security was nowhere to be seen.
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Justin Vernon is the voice and artistic creator of Bon Iver. The band and concept is his vision and he alone accepted the best new artist Grammy a couple of weeks ago, but Bon Iver is a band and Justin Vernon is a person. Jethro Tull is also not a person, but that is a different post. I had the opportunity to photograph Bon Iver at the Fox Theater in September of 2009, and it was an incredible show. I was not familiar with the band at the time and their album For Emma, Forever Ago turned an obscure singer songwriter from Eau Claire, Wisconsin with an incredible falsetto into a national phenomenon. Since the Grammy win I have heard many people refer to Justin Vernon as Bon Iver and Bon Iver as a he and it just is not so. This is a band and a pretty good one at that. I met them briefly before the Fox Theater show and had two minutes to take a mediocre backstage group shot, they never turn out very well, but it is a fine memory of a great show and a moment in time before this very talented group blew up.
Scott Chernis 