Spencer
Platt has received many honors as a photojournalist, including the World Press
Photo of the Year award in 2006 for an image showing a group of young Lebanese
in a convertible driving through a South Beirut neighborhood devastated by
Israeli bombings. Platt, an OPC member since 2013, is based in New York.
Current assignment: Senior staff photographer
for Getty Images
Hometown: Brooklyn
Age: 44
Education: Clark University, English major
Languages: Spanish (poor)
First job in journalism: Star-Gazette,
Elmira, N.Y.
Countries where I’ve reported from: Afghanistan, Liberia, Iraq, Ukraine, Congo,
Lebanon, Romania, Albania, Italy, France,
Best advice about photojournalism I’ve
received: Any hotel room above
$150 per night will only make you want to stay in bed. Always stay at a place
you can’t wait to leave in the morning. This is from Carolyn Cole of the L.A. Times.
Worst experience as a journalist: Covering the hysteria surrounding Ebola ranks among
the worst.
When traveling, I … always bring a kettle and French press. Good
coffee is a necessity. Also a corkscrew.
Hardest stories to photograph: The 2002 invasion of Iraq and the Tour de
France.
My
journalism heroes are: Don
McCullin, Larry Burrows, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa.
Dream
job: I have it!
Favorite quote: From Ryszard
Kapuscinski: “A journey, after all, neither
begins in the instant we set out, nor ends when we have reached our door step
once again.”
Advice for photojournalists who want to work
overseas: Choose an
uncomfortable and difficult location others have ignored. Work it to death.
Place most eager to visit: Algeria. Reading Camus began a desire to see,
smell and taste this land.
The
most over-the-top assignment:
Waiting for a shark attack along a Florida beach; it didn’t happen but the
beach was great.
The
most common mistake I’ve seen: Not being well informed over a story.
My
pet peeve about editors is: I
have fantastic editors
The
country I’d return to: Lebanon,
always.