Photocall
Written by Kristen Zelenka
Photographed by Nicole DeSantis

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    On Thursday, May 13, Point Park University communication students visited Photocall Ireland photographic agency in downtown Dublin. Photocall is the largest editorial photographic agency in Ireland that serves national and international media. Photocall specializes in current affairs, news, business and arts. They have over a million images on file, and their online digital archive holds tens of thousands of images covering all aspects of Irish life from 1980 forward.
    Photocall’s ideals originated when two brothers decided they wanted to report on the Vietnam War and bring its message back home to Ireland. Over the past thirty years, the brothers have developed one of the biggest photographic agencies in Ireland. They’ve reported on issues such as the Northern Ireland conflict and many social and political issues of the 80s and 90s.
    One of the biggest adversities they’ve had to overcome is the changes in technology. At one point in their careers, they had to ship photos. Now, with new technologies such as the internet, they are able to transfer photos almost instantly. “The competition in our field is huge,” Eamon, president of Photocall comments. “Everyone and anyone can be a journalist or photographer.” Eamon says that photojournalists must now use more intelligent tactics by specializing in certain fields, getting more detailed information and improving their methodologies to produce better pictures. Also, their photographic agency started out only specializing in photojournalism, but they are now developing more public relations tactics.
    While Point Park University students met with Eamon from Photocall, he showed many examples of the agency’s work on his Mac computer. He showed very graphic images from the peace process in Northern Ireland, which was one of their first big stories when they started the agency. He also showed images from the divorce and abortion controversy as well as poverty and social conditions of the 1980s. One of the most grueling and spine-chilling pictures he showed was a picture of a group of small children living in poverty in Ireland. After he showed the picture, he informed the class that every one of those children is now dead.
    Other pictures that he showed were of Ireland’s dominance of the church, the Celtic Tiger, political corruption with bankers, massive emigration, and the, “Boom to Bust,” situation. All the pictures he showed told their own stories. Our class’ meeting with Eamon at Photocall was a moving learning experience.
    While students visited Photocall, they also met with photojournalists, Sasko Lazarone and Mark Steadman. They provided much insight to students about their daily schedule and advice for making it in the industry. Sasko’s advice was to keep it in your head what you want to do and it will happen. “You must know you want it; put forth hard work and practice, and it will happen. It may not happen right away, but always remember you need any experience you can get.” The photojournalists also encouraged students to keep an open mind all the time and to always try to look at all views and camera angles with multiple perspectives. Photocall employs eight people with six of them being photojournalists. They also use Canon cameras, although they joked about the pressures to move to Nikon.
    Point Park University communication students gained much knowledge and insight about photojournalism and public relations by visiting Photocall Ireland. The information and awareness that was acquired from the visit will undoubtedly benefit the student’s future careers and dreams.
    If you’d like to learn more about Photocall Ireland, visit their website at http://www.photocallireland.com.