Iconic in an Instant? One Trillion Images

On Monday, December 5, Reuters and the International Center of Photography hosted “Iconic in an Instant? One Trillion Images,” a special event which brought together Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalists, photo editors, and leaders in media to discuss critical issues in photojournalism today.

The half-day event at the ICP Museum in New York began with opening remarks from ICP’s Executive Director Mark Lubell and Reuters’ Editor-in-Chief Steve Adler. The day covered a series of topics including the risks and rewards of combat photography, forensically detecting photo manipulation, the ethics of publishing shocking images, the role of the photo editor in the digital age, and more.

Key highlights of the program included:

• Photographer Jonathan Bachman and Ieshia Evans—the subject of his iconic image from protests in Baton Rouge—met for the first time. They discussed the events of that day in July and how their lives have been affected since.
• Adrees Latif, Reuters Editor-in-Charge of US Pictures, moderated a discussion with The New York Times’ David Furst, Time’s Kira Pollack, The Atlantic’s Alan Taylor, and Buzzfeed’s Wajmah Yaqubi on the role of photo editors in the digital age.
• Sir Harold Evans, Reuters Editor-at-Large, and Steve Adler, Reuters Editor-in-Chief, discussed the risks and rewards associated with sending photographers to combat zones.
• Evans also moderated a discussion with Reuters photographers Yannis Behrakis and Goran Tomasevic, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Greg Marinovich, and Bronx Documentary Center’s Michael Kamber about the gravity and toll of covering combat zones.

In addition, ICP’s adjunct curator Joanne Lehan discussed the upcoming ICP Museum exhibition, Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change. The show, which opens January 27, 2017 and runs through May 7, 2017, will examine today’s often overwhelming image universe through five critical contemporary issues—all of which have been transformed by visual culture: #BlackLivesMatter, gender fluidity, climate change, terrorist propaganda, and the refugee crisis. Lehan spoke to the latter, the portion of the show she organized.

To see more highlights of the event, search #iconicinstant on Twitter.

A special thank you to American Photo who chronicled the half-day conference and shared the "five most inspiring takeaways from Reuters and ICP’s #IconicInstant event.”