ABC News photographer Brendan Esposito reflects on 35-year career, how photography 'made him a better man' and the key to a great picture

Brendan Esposito happily describes himself as a "dinosaur".

As modern newsrooms demand a workforce of multi-skilled operators – journalists, photographers and camera operators whose roles increasingly blur into each other — Brendan Esposito has, for 35 years, remained steadfastly dedicated to one medium, one style of storytelling — news photography.

Starting out as a newspaper "snapper" in the 80s, he now works for the ABC News Specialist Reporting Team, taking photos for a range of digital platforms and programs from daily news to Four Corners.

In 2022, he was awarded the Walkley Press Photographer of the Year Award for a portfolio of images captured around Australia and in Ukraine.

Where once his photos were published on newsprint, now they're showcased on a smartphone but what Esposito loves about photography has never changed – the ability of an image to grab your attention and make you feel something.

"A still is called a still because it stops you and you take in the emotional content of that image," he says.

"It's a very, very powerful thing when you can hold someone on a page, they can rest, they can observe and take in emotionally what the words will support or carry.

"It's a collaboration between journalist and photographer and when you get it right, it is extremely powerful.

"With vision, it's transient, it keeps moving, and that's not to say that emotionally vision can't be just as strong as a still but the still allows a story to rest and breathe."

Over his career, Esposito has captured tens of thousands of news-making moments with his camera.

He's won a host of awards, including the 2022 Walkley Press Photographer of the Year, 2013 Walkley Portrait Prize, 2014 Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Photography of the Year Award and Kennedy Awards in 2022 and 2018.

He's also published several books.

While he appreciates the professional accolades, photography has delivered him a greater prize on a personal level.

"Photography has made me a better man," he says.

"I truly believe that because when I was young and brash and hungry to be the greatest photographer the world ever knew, I went about it the wrong way.

"It's very, very easy to take a cheap shot, a picture that's invasive or demeaning to someone and I have been that person.

"I have been the one chasing a career taking pictures that I thought were about them [the subject] but in fact the picture was about me.

"As I matured and understood what it is to be married, have children and to have all the trials and tribulations of a man going through life, photography helped me to be better."

Dropping the detached, "tough guy" façade he adopted in the early years of his career, has, Esposito says, greatly enhanced his work.

"I'm a very emotional person, I'll cry at the drop of a hat and for many, many years that was a sign of weakness for a man and particularly in the media," he says.

"The view was: 'Suck it up, son, suck it up, don't show your feelings.'

"I've learned that's wrong.

"I've learned to show my feelings, understand I'm emotional and I use that as a force now.

"I use that to understand emotion [in others] and I have made very conscious decisions about the way I photograph.

"I like taking beautiful pictures, refined photographs where I can show how a subject matter is feeling.

"I am the conduit and I take very seriously that I need to understand my subject and allow that to come through me and go out to the public that the ABC serve and I think it was reflected in winning the Walkley last year."

The stories that stay with him

Esposito grew up in Sydney's western suburb of Liverpool, a place he still calls home.

He started out working as a nurse but in 1988 at age 23, newly married and wanting to buy a house, he was frustrated by the low pay.

Walking past the local Liverpool Champion newspaper office one day his wife, Cherie, suggested he consider making a career out of his hobby of photography.

"I knew nothing about the newspaper industry at all, but I thought, yeah, I'm gonna do this," he recalls.

"I was cocky, had a bit of bravado about me so I went in and asked for the local photographer and asked him if there was any chance I could do some work experience.

"You've got to understand it was a bit easier to do that back in the day.

"He said he needed a darkroom assistant and while I told him I don't know anything about printing or processing film, he said, 'no problem, I'll teach you'.

"So that was the start and — I don't want to sound boastful – but I was good at it, I enjoyed it and I thought, wow, this is a gateway to an adventurous and exciting life."

He was then offered a cadetship with Fairfax and moved to working for the Sydney Morning Herald, then The Daily Telegraph on the crime beat.

Esposito returned to the SMH and ended up becoming chief photographer with a staff of about 20 photographers to manage and mentor alongside shooting assignments.

There was a stint with AAP and the NRL before news lured him back and he's been at the ABC for the past five years.

Over the course of his career, Esposito has covered the full range of news stories — crime, wars, politics, courts, natural disasters and a lot of sport — (Olympic and Commonwealth games, rugby league and soccer to name a few) – always a welcome respite from the death and destruction.

When you meet, witness and record people in the worst of circumstances it leaves some scars on your soul.

"I covered the 2019 volcano eruption in New Zealand and also the multiple killings at Christchurch mosques and they are events that stay with you forever, simply because of the nature of them and the sorrow that occurs," he says.

"In 2022, I travelled to Poland and Kiev to cover refugees fleeing the war and that really stayed with me because of the humanitarian crisis unfolding there — hundreds of thousands of people fleeing over the border and coming off trains.

"What I witnessed was people who looked utterly shell shocked, lost and confused about what was next.

"They told us stories of horror, how they'd left their homes, schools, businesses, families and how their lives had been destroyed.

"I put these photos out as black and white images as they reminded me of many photographic archives I had seen over the years of World War II.

"I felt like history was repeating itself and I was compelled to record it."

While his job is to document what's in front of him, at times he's wrestled with photographing people in vulnerable moments.

"I used to feel that it was intrusive and voyeuristic, but news photography is an emotive art form that displays truth and honesty and that weighs very heavily on me in my work," he says.

"If I'm on a news job and an event is happening in front of me, I capture the actuality and that is ethical.

"I'm not interfering, I'm not manipulating [an image], I'm doing the best I can to show accurately the event that has happened before me and ethically I need to reflect that.

"If I'm doing a portrait of someone, for example someone with a disability, I must always maintain their dignity.

"I give people time to get settled and we work together to produce the best content and it always comes down to truth, honesty, and trust because when you walk into someone's life with a camera you cannot betray their trust, you cannot."

The secret to taking a great photograph

In the days of film, which was costly to purchase and process, photographers had to be judicious in their shooting, but the emergence of digital cameras and smartphones has enabled photographers, professional and amateur, to snap away until they jag the best shot or touch it up later.

But Esposito argues tools and tech are not what make a great photograph or a great photographer.

"I remember in 2000 when digital came out and we were shooting digital at the 2000 Olympics for the first time," he recalls.

"It was hailed as his new device that would be way easier for photographers to work and file, you could send your pictures electronically.

"But the cameras became heavier and the choice in editing became harder because you can just click away and click away click away and take hundreds and hundreds of images and most professional photographers hated it.

"So, the medium has changed but what hasn't changed is the photography and I find a lot of people don't speak about photography anymore, they speak about how they capture it, they talk about the latest camera, how many megabytes, what they can do in post-production.

"iPhones today have beautiful screens and the photos look unreal – I think the iPhone takes three or four pictures and splices them together so it's hard to go wrong – but what's missing now is the thought process.

"True photojournalism is about creating a narrative but so often now there's no capturing of the narrative and that's a problem because of the ease of doing it.

"I think images aren't seen, they are felt and the best camera you will ever have is in your head."

Capturing the narrative of a news event photographically, he says, relies on mundane practicalities as much as a photographer's individual flare.

"The key to a great photograph is planning and knowing your subject," he says.

"There are many great photographs that happen in front of you, but a lot of great photographs don't present themselves, which is why planning is extremely important.

"So, at an unfolding news event you need to have the ability to position yourself at the spot where things are going to happen, you need to read the play, read the streets, you need to understand the issue, you need to talk to the journalist you're working with.

"And then with portraits it's about communication.

"It's about me understanding the subject, talking to them and listening to them.

"Time is really important, you need time with a subject for them to actually show themselves and that comes sometimes with being around to the point that they even get bored with you and then you're able to capture those raw moments.

"I recently spent five days with Miriam Margolyes travelling through Byron Bay and Mullumbimby, photographing her and talent being interviewed for an ABC TV show, Impossibly Australian, which airs next year, and that was memorable because I got on really well with her and I was able to get beautiful daily life and portrait images which were strong and emotive.

"It was a very successful shoot."

Whether for professional or personal use, Esposito argues everyone can improve their photos with a little thought and some simple fixes.

"People just say to someone they're photographing, 'stand there' and they take a pic and there's a pole coming out of the person's head or a tree out of their shoulder, or they are standing against a wall where half the window is cutting across the back of their head and it doesn't look right, or the photo just doesn't resonate," he says.

"The best pictures need to be well composed, visually clean and in news photography there should be no manipulation other than cropping the image or enhancing it with contrast, so it looks neat and tidy as we used to do in the darkroom."

At 59 years of age, when many are thinking about winding down, Brendan Esposito is still pushing himself, paying for weekly sessions with a mentor over the past six months.

He's also keen to mentor others and one thing he's learned over his career is not to despair over the mistake or missed shot.

"I was fortunate enough for about 15 years at the Herald to be mentored by Tim Clayton, a master craftsman who I would suggest is the best sports photographer in the world ever, he's phenomenal.

"Tim always spoke about failing forward and I learned from that.

"I have failed many, many times but failing forward means that you learn, and you take that out of your game.

"You say, 'OK I failed, but I won't make that mistake again'.

"I refine my skills and I don't continue those mistakes and that's why I sought a mentor at my age because I need to keep evolving."

Which means this "dinosaur" continues to thrive in a constantly changing environment.

"I really enjoy the freedom of creativity that the ABC has afforded me, and I am in a very, very blessed and fortunate position that they do appreciate my skill set.

"I think there will always be a place at the ABC for quality photojournalism."