WE’VE ALL SEEN it by now – the image of Donald Trump, fist raised aloft in defiance, as Secret Service agents try and shield him as they drag him from the stage where he was addressing a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
While speaking in front of a crowd of thousands in advance of the Republican National Convention – set to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this week – Donald Trump, Republican Party nominee apparent, was shot.
In a photo that has since gone viral, Evan Vucci, chief photographer for Associated Press, captured an image that has been described as “undeniably one of the great compositions in US photographic history.”
Speaking to CNN, Vucci said that once the shots were fired and the Secret Service agents were on the stage, he was straight to work.
“I’ve done this hundreds of times. We were set up in the buffer zone, right in front of where the President was going to speak.
“Over my shoulder I heard pops and I knew immediately what it was, so I jumped up and went straight into work mode.
“I knew what his most likely evacuation route was so I got myself into position. As a still photographer, I don’t get a second chance.
“So I knew that you just have to keep your head and just try to document everything that’s happening.”
Previously, Vucci covered the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. He said that the experience in combat zones made it much easier to focus and get the job done.
“I’ve been in these situations before, that experience does help, trying to stay calm, trying to understand that you have a job to do.
“You’ve got to make sure that you get all the angles, make sure that your composition is right, that your light is right, you just go into work mode, and that’s what it was.”
The photo has been hailed in outlets worldwide.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff, the New York Times’ Canada Bureau Chief, called it, “the pinnacle of photojournalism. A perfectly framed and composed image of historic breaking news. This can never be replaced by AI.”
Barry Malone, the Deputy-Chief of Reuters, said that is was, “The type of news photo you immediately know will be in the history books of the future.”
Vucci won a Pulitzer Prize in 2021 for his work covering the George Floyd protests.
Despite the popularity of the image, the photographer told The Guardian that his favourite image is “the next one, the next one”.
The FBI have identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park Pennsylvania who worked at a nursing home. The FBI are currently investigating possible motives behind the assassination attempt.
Figures across the political spectrum, including Trump’s opponent President Joe Biden, have condemned the attack, with Biden saying that there “is no place for this kind of violence” in American politics.
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