How Bloomberg photographers cover business news

Andrew Beaujon of The Poynter Institute writes Friday about how photographers for Bloomberg News cover business news.

Beaujon writes, “Scott Eells shot his photograph of a person under an umbrella passing by the corner of Wall and Broad streets in New York on May 9, when stocks had fallen sharply and Greece’s political troubles were threatening to drag on many country’s economies.

“‘The thing is in terms of shooting a concept like that, I don’t set out making it look a certain way,’ Eells said by phone. ‘It just so happened it was a rainy day.’ Eells works on the New York Stock Exchange’s floor a couple days a week, and he relies on serendipitous circumstances like the man under the umbrella passing by to spare readers yet another view of traders holding their heads in their hands.

“Bloomberg encourages its photographers to think about how photos can be used again. ‘Every story we shoot we try to add value by thinking about its secondary value,’ said Natasha Cholerton-Brown, Bloomberg’s global team leader for news photography. Bloomberg’s photos get used through its internal verticals but also make their way out on wires. Eells’ Wall Street photo, for instance, has been used to illustrate stories about stocks rising, why living in New Jersey is better than living in New York and President Obama seeking support from business leaders.

“‘We really try to look at the point where business or an issue or an economic issue meets human being,’ Cholerton-Brown says. Bloomberg doesn’t expect its photographers to ‘understand what a collateral default swap is,’ she said, ‘but we need them to understand the story.’ An Eells shot of Ben Bernanke, whom Cholerton-Brown describes as ‘not a particularly charismatic character,’ shows the Federal Reserve chairman bathed in light, peering out over a murky foreground that dwarfs him.”

Read more here.