Whenever people watch an interesting news segment or some sort of gripping documentary, they usually remember the people who were on the screen- the reporters, anchors, interviewers or interviewees. But it is the man or woman behind the camera that is telling the story through the images and videos and is responsible for bringing the story to life for the viewers. Ray Bribiesca, 60 Minutes cameraman, who has worked at CBS for more than three decades, has dedicated his life to visually telling a story through the lens of a camera and asking himself, “What does a face look like?”
Bribiesca, an ex-Marines combat cameraman in the Vietnam War and military photographer, claims to always execute his work manually and “turn off the zoom.” However, Bribiesca has developed a reputation for what he calls his “crazy shots.” Bribiesca admitted that the name of his footage derived from how he predicted the people close to him would respond to his scary ways of capturing the subject's emotions. “Once my friends, my family sees it, they’ll say ‘crazy shots’, they really will,” said Bribiesca. One look at the footage the daring cameraman documented of the firefight he and CBS correspondent Lara Logan witnessed while in Afghanistan, would almost immediately evoke the same response, or what his friends back home have actually said to him, “You are really f’ed up.”
Nevertheless, in all aspects of media, the person telling the story has to concede their boundaries and determine where they would cross the line. Unsurprisingly, Bribiesca does not adhere to such a thing.
“You’ve got to forget the lines,” said Bribiesca. “[The American soldiers] told us if we ask you to hand us ammunition, you hand us ammunition… You don’t think, you don’t. You just react. If anything tragic happens to you, that’s part of the deal.”
Although the footage Bribiesca has captured is daring and perhaps a little “crazy”, he purports that being a good photographer is through “practice and just being lucky.” CBS correspondent Lara Logan accompanied Bribiesca on the trip to Afghanistan, and although she did not follow suit with exposing herself to open fire, she asserted in a 60 Minutes segment that “He wasn’t reckless, he wasn’t stupid, he just wasn’t afraid.” In fact, before heading to Afghanistan, Bribiesca and his crew were required to take a three-week intensive first-aid course. He found the course essential because he believes that “We can’t do our jobs and call ourselves journalists if you can’t protect your source.”
Bribiesca mentioned in his lecture that hardly anything could happen anymore without someone recording it. The 60 Minutes cameraman has directed his footage around the emotion of people’s faces instead of point-of-view shots, and removed any boundaries that would stifle his storytelling. Despite Bribiesca’s courageous efforts in documenting the American soldiers, he is already on the move again, this time to Yemen. “You’re only as good as your last story,” said Bribiesca. “As a journalist, I listen, I watch, because everyone has a story to tell.”
To watch Ray Bribiesca and CBS correspondent Lara Logan's full report, A Relentless Enemy, go to http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6902810n&tag=contentMain;contentBody.
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| Bribiesca explaining his background before students watched his 60 Minutes segment. PHOTO: Ana Lastra |
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