Just The Photographer with David Swanson

IN THIS EPISODE You may not know Chip Somodevilla’s name, but you most definitely have seen his work. Many times. A photojournalist and staff photographer for Getty Images, Chip covers the White House – a fascinating place to cover in times like these. He’s been doing what he’s doing for as long as he has not just because he’s so good at it – which, of course, he is - but because he understands hi...

IN THIS EPISODE Photojournalist Ethan Swope has a name like a movie hero and, though he's still relatively new to the job, he's already made it to the front page of the New York Times, been published in TIME, via the AP, Getty, Bloomberg and outlets worldwide covering everything from the California wildfires to the war in Ukraine. As a measure of his precosity, he was named 2022 Student Ph...

IN THIS EPISODE Photojournalism is often physically chellenging. One often has to move quickly - in a hostile environement - either to get the photo or get to safety. It's hard enough doing it with four working limbs. This episode will introduce you to two photojournalists who do the job in spite of physical challenges that most people would allow to limit them. John Putman and Ben Hanson are...

IN THIS EPISODE Photojournalist Zin Chiang is fearless, intrepid and quite willing to put everything on the line. Her work focuses on urban societies; she's deeply interested in how inequity in resources can lead to conflict and displacement. She also focuses on human migration and the unexpected challenges that come from it.  SHOW NOTES You can find this episode’s photos - and lots more at o...

IN THIS EPISODE On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake centered near the town of Léogâne (about 15 miles west of Port-au-Prince). Somewhere between 220,000 to 300,000 people died and roughly 300,000 people suffered injuries. In all, over 1.5 million Haitians were left homeless in the quake's immediate aftermath. Not exactly the kind of place normall people would want to run to. But then no one said...

IN THIS EPISODE Even 25 years after it happened, 911 still haunts us. Photos from that day can still take us back to that day and all the complex emotions we felt. In this episode, David and photojournalists SPENCER PLATT and MARIO TAMA will discuss the photos they took that day that became iconic. While others rushed away from the twin towers as they burned and then collapsed, some people - first...

IN THIS EPISODE In this season's first episode, David told the chronologicall tick tock of his cancer journey - how the growing lump at the side of his tongue began to take over his entire life. Surviving cancer has its challenges. But, having survived cancer, David became increasingly aware of all the things having and getting free of cancer has taught him. SHOW NOTES You can find this episode’s...

IN THIS EPISODE Being in the right place at the right time is key to getting great, iconic photos that not only endure, but impact change at the moment of their release. John Filo was 21, newly attending Ohio's Kent State when an anti-Vietnam War rally began. Drawn outside by the noise, John saw a line of Ohio National Guards facing off against the students, a few of whom threw rocks at the soldie...

IN THIS EPISODE At the end of season 1, David stepped away from the podcast to deal with tongue cancer, most likely the result of, among other things, breathing the air around ground zero in lower Manhattan after 9-11. David was one of a handful of photojournalists inside the zone right after the attack. He also covered the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and experienced more than a few burn pits...

In season one of my podcast, “Just The Photographer”, I told you about my journalistic compulsion to go to dangerous places – like lower Manhattan on 9-11, war zones like Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and wherever natural disasters strike – so as to tell their stories in real time. But, while a photo can tell its audience what it looked like in that dangerous place, it can’t tell what it felt like...

THE BLURB: One of the reasons David started this podcast was to tell his story while he still could. David has just been diagnosed with tongue cancer; half his tongue will be removed (and rebuilt using muscle tissue from his thigh). While David's long term prognosis is good, the short term's going to be rough - but, it's going to be a story of another war zone. A more personal one. SHOW NOTES You...

THE BLURB: Andre Liohn is a conflict photographer (conflict being his specialty) who suddenly began asking himself "why am I doing this?" After risking his life to cover wars from Libya to Ukraine, Andre suddenly began asking himself if it was worth it. A fascinating, deep dive into an award-winning war photographer's internal process. SHOW NOTES You can find Andre Liohn's project "Trauma" here an...

THE BLURB: Amanda Villegas has been a photographer most of her working life. But, when her partner Chris Davis developed a rare, aggressive bladder cancer, she went from being a decorative photographer to a documentarian, willing to look death head on. Her work is stark, absolutely honest and, often quite beautiful. It dares you to look away. In the episode, Amanda talks about the path that led he...

THE BLURB: One of the best ways to de-stress from covering war zones and natural disasters is fly fishing. In this episode, David tells how he first discovered fly fishing, how the movie "A River Runs Through It" baited the hook, and how just holding a fly rod in your hand can make the world a better place. SHOW NOTES You can find this episode’s photos - and lots more at our INSTAGRAM – @just_the_...

THE BLURB: Photographer Noah Berger stands out among photojournalists. He's got a great eye and an outside-the-box approach to finding the right angles. He also stands out because he stands six foot seven. Noah shares his stories of covering demonstrations in Portland, Oregon where he found himself on the inside (taking photos) looking out. Photography is all about perspective. So's Noah Berger. S...

THE BLURB: NICK STERN's no stranger to literal battle. Like David, he's covered war zones, natural disasters and civil unrest. Also like David, Nick's been wounded on the job. Multiple times, as you'll hear. In 2025, while covering the Battle Of LA ( Episode 4 ) Nick ended up in the hospital for weeks after a piece of projectile lodged in his leg. There are costs to covering stories - but, they do...

THE BLURB: In this episode, David takes you another kind of war zone - red carpets. Covering the Oscars may be less death-defying than covering a war, but there are challenges nonetheless. David also will take you backstage to "The Slap" with LA Times photographer Robert Gauthier - when actor Will Smith slapped Oscar presenter Chris Rock across the face for making a joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith's...

THE BLURB: Journalism requires people willing to run toward danger instead of away from it. In this episode, photojournalists Chelsea Lauren, Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, Mel Buer and Sergio Olmos return to describe the physical threats they face especially when covering civil unrest. That threat, shockingly, is coming from law enforcement. SHOW NOTES Our guests: SEAN BECKNER-CARMITCHEL has spent the...

THE BLURB: Even 25 years after it happened, 911 still haunts us. Photos from that day can still take us back to that day and all the complex emotions we felt. In this episode, David and photojournalists SPENCER PLATT and MARIO TAMA will discuss the photos they took that day that became iconic. While others rushed away from the twin towers as they burned and then collapsed, some people - first resp...

THE BLURB: Always a dangerous job, photojournalism (journalism period!) has become exponentially more dangerous. In this episode, David discusses the newest danger - law enforcement and its confusion over who exactly IS a journalist these days. Joining David in the discussion are multimedia journalists Chelsea Lauren, Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, Mel Buer and Sergio Olmos. SHOW NOTES Our guests: SEAN...

THE BLURB: In January 2025, two massive wildfires devastated two different Los Angeles neighborhoods - Pacific Palisades on the west side and Altadena on the east side, just above Pasadena. In this episode David describes the differences and similarities between covering a fire and covering a firefight. How exactly does a journalist go about covering a natural disaster like a wild fire without bec...

THE BLURB: In June 2025, a war zone came to Los Angeles, the place David now calls home. Marines, ICE agents, LAPD and other law enforcement started grabbing people off LA's streets and the people of LA resisted and spoke up about it. What happens when your home town becomes a war zone and your job is covering it? SHOW NOTES: The journalist wounded on camera during the Battle Of LA is the US corre...

THE BLURB: In his new book "UNREMITTING", former USA Today journalist and editorial page writer GREGG ZOROYA tells the story of The Battle of Ramadi - the battle where David got shot in the arm. In fact, David is one of the characters in Gregg's amazing book. What's especially ironic - because David and a German photographer were the only journalists covering the story in real time, David didn't k...

THE BLURB: In this episode, David takes you "In Country" with him - right to the middle of war, chaos and danger. He shares the surprising joys and camaraderie that spring from war zones and the strangely disconnected experience of being shot in battle. In war zones, all normal rules of civility vanish. Normalcy itself vanishes. That's what makes being in country such an unpredictable, terrifying...

THE BLURB: Meet David Swanson, Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist. In this thumbnail introduction to the real world of photojournalism, David tells the stories of how he became a photojournalist and how being one has impacted every facet of his life. It's impossible to see and photograph wars, natural disasters and life's strange twists and turns without getting impacted in return. But, as cra...