Enrique Shore reflects on the early days of Reuters News Pictures

It’s one of those 1,000 words pictures, but this time it’s about the business of news photography itself, and tells the story of how wire service photographers travelled just a quarter century ago.

Here is Enrique Shore, now 57 but then a young Reuters photographer after freelancing for the agency as well as publications like Time, Newsweek and The New York Times. Oscar Sabetta’s photo shows him during Pope John Paul II’s visit to Colombia in July 1986.

“It was representative of how we used to travel in the old days when we had to carry film and print darkrooms, black and white and colour, and a drum transmitter,” said Shore. “Our gear was new at the time. We had just got it at the Mexico World Cup. On that particular occasion I remember I had some problem at Bogota’s El Dorado airport as Pan Am did not want to let me check in with all that excess baggage.”

Until the early 1990s it was common for photographers to travel with 150 kilos of baggage in order to carry the two darkrooms, supplies, big transmitter, and the shooting equipment that sometimes involved various very long lenses.

Shore joined the new Reuters News Pictures Service shortly after it started in 1985 when Reuters acquired UPI’s international pictures operation. Reuters wanted to hire him but there was no budget for a staff position in Buenos Aires. In November 1985 he returned home to find a message on his telephone answering machine. It was the Latam news editor, Björn Edlund: “There has been a volcano eruption in Armero,” he said. “We need you to go to Bogotá right away - and, by the way, you are hired!”

Shore got on the first available plane and thus began a career that took him all over Latin America as chief photographer for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. In 1989 he transferred to Madrid and from there covered assignments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including World Cups, Olympic Games, presidential elections, summits and the first Gulf War, first as a photographer and then mainly as an editor.

Shore set up a network of stringers and had an active role in Reuters’ transition to digital photography, including what he says was probably the first competitive transmission using mobile phones in Europe - a picture by Wolfgang Rattay of skiing legend Alberto Tomba was sent from Granada airport two hours ahead of the competition through a very early version of Nokia GSM phones and Apple Mac computers.

“A few years later we set another record during the Seville 1999 World Athletics Championships, sending a picture for the first time through a network of worldwide satellites. Nowadays we are used to that speed but at that time this had never happened before, so it was just amazing to see it published in Yahoo! seconds after we sent it.”

In 2000, after 10 years as chief photographer for Spain and Portugal, Shore moved to Reuters Media and started dealing with the commercial side of Reuters operations, not only for pictures but also for text services, news graphics, video, financial services and the new online services for media clients. During the last 13 years he helped to expand Reuters’ penetration in the Portuguese and Spanish media markets to practically 100 per cent. He remained very much involved in pictures, helping to organise exhibits that fostered the brand and exposure of Reuters Pictures. Lately, his involvement focused on television and online video subscribers. 

Towards the end of last year he moved to New York with his family - a transfer that coincided with Thomson Reuters’ announcement that it was laying off more than 3,000 staff around the world. On the penultimate day of 2013 Shore sent a farewell note to colleagues, saying: “As many of you know, I recently moved to New York for family reasons. I was hoping to continue my career within the company here but the timing was just wrong - so after 28 fantastic years now it is my time to say goodbye...

“Tomorrow is my birthday - and it will also be my last day with Thomson Reuters. You can imagine my feelings are very much mixed, but above all I feel honored, thankful and proud of my time here, and particularly fond of my years in Editorial/Pictures, after which the Media stage was a natural continuation.”

He added: “I am sure you will keep up the Trust Principles and the fabulous people tradition in one of the best places to work for a journalist and Media pro. This is a great company, with the top people in the trade - I will miss you all dearly.”

Shore says he has no firm plans yet, though he will definitely stay in New York for the foreseeable future and will more than likely be involved with photography. ■