MEMORY OF THE PRESENT
I have just received the first copy of the new book Our World Now 2. The title page reads “Executive Picture Editor: Ayperi Karabuda Ecer”. But besides pleasing my parents (my teenage daughter does not care), what does that mean?
On the one hand, everyone at Reuters is an editor. News flows between photographers, regional chiefs, global editors, picture deskers, keyworders and specialist editors. All are absolutely vital to deliver a daily output of some 1,700 images for the international media. My efforts are only in addition to what has already been produced.
On the other hand, within such a rich, global production there is no such thing as one final edit. Working with Reuters imagery is, like the book’s title, opening a window to our world now – it is live and constantly changing.
One can have many perspectives on that vision. My view is that although our photographers work to shoot that one standalone impact image, the important factor is that the sum of this collection is a stunning testimony of our times.
The book presents 370 images by 188 photographers of 60 nationalities. To reach this point, my colleague Jassim Ahmad and I, together with Kate Slotover and Amanda Vinnicombe from our publisher Thames & Hudson would regularly ambush a meeting room at our London offices and plaster the walls with images and evolving layouts.
