| In describing photojournalist Joe McNally, it's hard to avoid
using words like versatile, determined, curious, ambitious -- because
those are the very characteristics that define both his personality
and his career. "The qualities that I think get underestimated
quite often are durability and tenacity and a willingness to just
keep at it," he says. "Time spent behind the camera is just phenomenally
important. It's like anything. You have to get better at it."
| "The sharpness, clarity, and color rendition of the new generation of Kodak film is astonishing. These new films, in particular E200, have become the mainstay films for my assignment work."
- Joe McNally |
Having worked his way from copy boy at the New York Daily News to becoming a staff photographer at Life magazine and a regular contributor to National Geographic, the 46-year old photographer has built a supremely successful
career in less than two decades. His work is marked not only by
an uncanny ability to snatch those once-in-a-lifetime revealing
moments, but also by a willingness to take chances and seek solutions
where none seem obvious. While on assignment for National Geographic covering Senator John Glenn's Space Shuttle training, for example,
McNally (an experienced diver) insisted on being dive-certified
by NASA so that he could shoot underwater images from inside their
massive training pool. He also had 30,000 watt seconds of strobe
and a professional motion-picture lighting crew brought in to
light the shoot.
McNally has covered everything from World Series baseball (he
bluffed his way into an assignment with UPI by telling them he
was an experienced sports shooter -- he wasn't) to in-depth stories
on vision and the human brain. In fact, says McNally, it is the
very unexpected nature of his next assignment he has grown to
love: "The variety keeps you alive. Everything is different," he
says. "Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad, but it's
always different."
Kodak and PDN are proud to present this in-depth look at the life
and work of one of the world's great photojournalists.
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