Convention story encore!

“Do you have a photo of our convention anchor booth from last time?”

That question was first posed to me by a network producer between Democratic National Convention cycles some ten years ago.

My instant response back then was: “Don’t you?”

In truth, though, I knew it was cumbersome to search through hours of network archive video. This request was for a fixed image in a more manageable medium.

In fact, I did not have such an image. However, upon reflection, I concluded that I should.

Thus began a long collaboration with photographer Peter Sills, who captured first the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston, and then the two venues of the 2008 Convention in Denver.

That work led to a requested book project which I curated late in 2011. Democratic Conventions 2004 & 2008 (images by Peter Sills/words and layouts by Walter Podrazik) captured images of media coverage from those years. It was a big hit with the Democratic Convention planning team, which used it for the work in Charlotte.

For the 2012 Convention period itself, photographer Peter Sills and I were engaged by the DNCC to do the same type of chronicling for a future companion volume.

We were flown out to Charlotte for ten days. Besides once again capturing the media-eye-view of the sessions themselves, we also expanded our scope to include additional images from other related events.

So we were on the floor for President Barack Obama’s acceptance speech and Vice President Joe Biden’s fiery introduction.

In addition, we caught many other surrounding moments.

There were the afternoon rehearsals by James Taylor, and then the Foo Fighters.

We looked in on an Illinois state party morning breakfast session and viewed the live programming at the MSNBC outdoor stage.

We were there for the Arkansas state party preview remarks by President Bill Clinton the night before his convention hall address.

These photos are a few that I snapped with my personal Canon PowerShot.

Using his formidable photography arsenal, Peter Sills shot thousands more with a Canon 5D MkIII and a bevy of lenses (including the 400mm f/2.8 L IS), as well as his Leica M9-P and its triumvirate of lenses (35mm Summilux, 50mm Summilux, and 90mm Summicron). Confession: I lifted those descriptions directly from Peter’s blog report on the event.

The form and timetable for the 2012 Convention companion volume are not yet set, but drop a line to 2012book@makingmediawork to receive future updates. Copies of the Democratic Conventions 2004 & 2008 book are available via the makingmediawork.com site (“Convention Book” tab).

It was wonderful to share such an exciting event with so many familiar faces, and also to see the involvement of enthusiastic new generations!

All sharing in a moment of political history.

© Copyright 2013 Walter J. Podrazik