Deez Interviews: Meet the photojournalist and First Amendment defender you’ve definitely seen on YouTube

Happy Friday, Deezers! This week’s interview is with photojournalist Tim Tai, who rocketed to the national spotlight while covering the November 2015 University of Missouri campus protests as a student — which was captured in this iconic YouTube video (and this NYT article).

So it’s fitting, in light of the current hellstorm news cycle where journalists are finding no shortage of tricky situations to navigate professionally PLUS a public distrust of media that doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, to catch up with Tai post-graduation on fame, the First Amendment, and Instagram inspo:

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The interviewee: Tim Tai (follow @nonorganical on Twitter and Instagram)
The current job: Staff photographer at the Columbia Daily Tribune
The hustle: I photograph a little bit of everything.

That video of you covering the Concerned Student 1950 protests was seen everywhere, especially in the media circles. What was that like, and when did you first find out about going viral??
It was rather bizarre and I’m still not sure I understand it. Obviously, most journalists (cough cough, Brian Williams) hate making the story about them. And I definitely hate attention, so that was never my goal. I did, however, think it was ridiculous that people who physically attempting to prevent journalists from doing their jobs. So I decided to challenge that and it was recorded on video — and the rest is history, as they say.

But I didn’t make any good pictures during the confrontation and so I decided it was time to move on and find a better vantage point to cover the protests. I didn’t know anything about the video until I was filing photographs in the middle of the day, and someone had tagged me in it on Facebook. I was sort of mortified and thought it was rather embarrassing — ironically, I hate photos of myself (though I realized early on that if I was going to be a photographer, I wasn’t allowed to complain about having my own picture taken) and I also hate my voice.

Then later than afternoon and evening, I started getting more and more Twitter notifications until they started basically cascading nonstop. Like, I was getting one push notification after the next and it was eating up my phone battery, so I had to turn off my notifications. Fun fact: I haven’t turned back on my Twitter notifications since then, because I’m already addicted to Twitter and don’t need anything to remind me to get back on it.

That evening, I was starting to get more and more emails, too. I realized it wasn’t about to die down anytime soon, and consulted fellow Mizzou alum and LA Times national reporter Matt Pearce, who was in town and covering the protest, for advice. He had experienced quite a bit of Twitter fame as one of the first national reporters on the scene in Ferguson, and he gave me some helpful advice about what to do.

I can’t remember exactly what he said, but it was something along the lines of that the attention was going to be on me whether I wanted it or not, and so I had to choose whether the news coverage of the incident was going to include my side of the story. And I hadn’t actually watched the video yet at that point, so I watched it, and then he interviewed me in [Mizzou journalism professor] Katherine Reed’s office. (But you’ve probably never been in her office because you were a strat commie, right, Delia? Hahaha sorry.) [Editor’s note: This is true and also omg is that what you guys called us advertising students???].

How has that incident since changed the way you think about being a photojournalist?
In terms of journalism, I learned what it’s like to be on the other side of the voice recorder or phone call. I think it’s like those people who tweet pictures of big news events and then every web producer in the country is DMing them trying to get permission to use their photo or get an interview with them. Except it lasted almost two weeks for me, if I remember correctly, before I went a day without getting a phone call about an interview or something else related.

But it also affirmed a couple of other things I strongly believe in: Know your rights and realize that professionalism will benefit you a lot more in the long run. Seriously, journalists should know their rights. You don’t and shouldn’t always start or end every such confrontation with “But I have the right to do so!” because sometimes situations are delicate and it’s more important to buy yourself access rather than prove you’re legally correct.

But you need to know your rights before you can decide how you proceed in any such situation. And you never want to do anything that gives someone else the excuse to arrest you, sue you, etc. — which goes along with staying professional. Don’t give anyone an excuse to make you look bad or get you in trouble, and you’ll come out looking better in the end.

In terms of my career, I thought it put me in a really awkward spot because I absolutely had no desire to benefit off this fame or exposure. But Matt Pearce told me too that it was going to happen regardless of whether I wanted it to. And having a platform could be beneficial as a journalist (for example, Wesley Lowery gained a big platform from his reporting in Ferguson, and that platform was great to have when he began covering national law enforcement stories). I also thought press freedom/First Amendment advocacy is crucial for democracy, so I was glad that people were at least learning about this topic, and that made me more willing to do some interviews and such. I really, really did not want to do any TV interviews, though, but ended up being convinced to do one with KOMU.

Since I work full-time in Columbia now, I still get recognized by strangers at least once a week. It’s getting a little old, I’ll admit. But I just smile and say uh-huh, you’re right, I was the guy in that video.

In 2017, when everyone, including reporters of all stripes, is carrying a decent camera AKA an iPhone around, how do you think the role of photojournalism changed?
I don’t think I have a top-down view of the answer to this because I didn’t get into photojournalism before iPhones came around. I use my phone camera all the time, in fact. I hate carrying a big camera on vacation or everywhere I go — I know a lot of photojournalists wouldn’t be caught dead without their cameras. So if I see something cool, I’ll just take a picture with my phone and put it on the ‘gram. I’m still an #iPhoneOnly purist on Instagram.

All the social media specialists out there are groaning right now because yes, I do know how influential of a platform Instagram is, and yes, I bet I could get a ton of followers if I started hashtagging and also posting cool photos from my day job, but you know what? It’s my life and I ‘gram what I want.

Anyway, I don’t think the role of photojournalism has changed. I think people are consuming more and more visual content, a lot of which is video, so a lot of news outlets are pushing video heavily, to mixed results. And I think the industry has moved to include a lot more freelancers and far fewer staff photographers. But the role of photojournalists hasn’t really changed. We’re here to tell truth with a picture.

Somewhat along those lines - what is the biggest misconception people have about what you do?
I get asked sometimes which TV station I work for. I’m always amazed they can’t distinguish between a still photo camera and a television camera, but at least it’s another chance to plug the newspaper. #PrintIsNotDead

What would be your dream project to shoot?
I’ve never been terribly interested in photographing stories outside the U.S., which a lot of photojournalists are drawn to. I’m more fascinated by domestic issues.

I’d like to photograph what it’s like being a Chinese exchange/international student at a U.S. university. I also recently did a story about a baby with a rare genetic condition called epidermolysis bullosa, where his skin blisters and falls off if it’s bumped or scratched. I’d like to photograph people of all ages with the condition, which is not widely known and currently incurable. I’m kind of stuck halfway in a story about the legacy of nuclear contamination in the St. Louis area; it’s not exactly a visual topic but I spent a lot of time on it a while ago and haven’t had time to work on it recently.

And for a while, I’ve wanted to do a story about Brooklyn, Illinois, a little town near East St. Louis that was the first black town in the U.S. to be incorporated. It has a proud history but the population has dwindled, city government has been addled by corruption for years and the only businesses that remain in town are several strip clubs where violent crimes have taken place over the years.

What are your go-to places for inspiration?
I like the Explore tab on Instagram, which I’ve trained to mostly show me other photojournalists’ work. I occasionally look at The New York Times’ Lens blog. Often, I’ll just pick a photographer whose work I like and scroll through their portfolio. That’s especially helpful when I feel like my pictures are starting to get bland or when I have to do a portrait shoot and don’t know how to pose someone. Seriously, posing is hard. You have to figure out what to do with their hands.

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Too many good quotes here, but someone please @ me and Tim so we can launch an entire merch line based around that amazing “It’s my life and I ‘gram what I want” line.

Again, follow Tim Tai on Twitter @nonorganical, and see you Monday!

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