Muscle Memory Kicks in as Photographers React to Violence at White House Correspondents’ Dinner
It was supposed to be a night off, an evening of pleasure for the hard-working news photographers of Washington, D.C. But the biggest story of the weekend came to them as a gunman burst into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) and opened fire.
Photographers belonging to major news agencies have since recalled how they automatically sprang into action and began covering the story, despite not having their professional cameras with them.
“I really just reached for whatever was closest to me and hit the button, and unfortunately, that was my iPhone instead of my professional camera,” says photojournalist Andrew Harnick of Getty Images, who shot dramatic video of the Secret Service dragging away President Trump and Vice President Vance from the dinner table.
Harnick, who was at the WHCD to pick up an award, was speaking to Jacqui Heinrich on The Sunday Briefing on Fox News. Heinrich was next to Harnick at the WHCD when the incident happened and said an agent was motioning at the photographer to keep his head down while everyone else was lying on the floor. But Harnick was busy recording history.
“It’s 100 percent muscle memory,” says Harnick. “Last night was supposed to be a fun event for me; Getty Images had an entire staff that was working that night, but things just clicked over.”
“We heard boom, boom, boom,” he continues. “And from the vantage point you and I had, there was a sea of Secret Service agents rushing at us from across the ballroom, and something just clicked, you go into work mode, and you’re capturing what happens in the moment.”
It was a similar story for Associated Press photographer Alex Brandon, who was also meant to be enjoying a well-earned night off. When he heard the gunshots ring out, Brandon grabbed the only camera he had on him, his phone, and began capturing photos of Trump surrounded by Secret Service agents.
But once he’d captured the photos, Brandon had a problem: there was no cellphone coverage, meaning he couldn’t wire his pictures. But that inconvenience actually led to him capturing another important photo: as he rushed to the exit to try and get bars on his phone, he spotted a person lying on the ground surrounded by cops. Brandon rightly figured this was the suspect and got a photo of that, too.
“Frankly, it was muscle memory,” the veteran photographer says, per The Independent. “The whole thing was muscle memory.”
The suspect that Brandon photographed shirtless on the ground was 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, who has been charged with trying to assassinate President Trump, among other crimes.
