Jonah M. Kessel - Director of Cinematography - New York Times

Gen X photo bum finds journalism, makes good. Well, ok, there’s about 15 more steps in the middle that leaves out. And like 60+ countries. Jonah Kessel (@jonah_kessel) is proof that the right camera can change someone’s life. Now at The New York Times, he is constantly trying to push the limits of what video and visuals can do, even when those limits are the visible spectrum of light. 

Countries featured: China, USA, Algeria, Hong Kong

Publications featured: Burlington Free Press, Tahoe Daily Tribune, La Voix de l'Oranie, Sawt Al Gharb ( صوت الغرب ), China Daily, The New York Times

Jonah discusses growing up in Vermont (6:24), dropping out of Tulane University to wander the U.S. for 3 years (9:58), going back to school for journalism...in three different countries (14:10), sweet-talking his way into a job at a Lake Tahoe newspaper (19:14), working in Algeria as a newspaper consultant (26:54), being recruited to redesign the China daily (29:32), the glory days freelancing and joining the NYT in not-so-old Beijing (35:28), an exit from China that was complicated in terms of his visa and medically (49:58), the insane plane-flying, ice-cold-camera-sensor shooting behind the groundbreaking NYT story about methane leaks (1:01:36) and the lightning round (1:11:13)

 

Here are links to some of the things we talked about:

Jonah's first NYT piece on Zhao Liang (scroll half way down for video) - https://nyti.ms/33qmFNQ

Jonah’s NYT project on methane emissions - https://nyti.ms/33qV0wg

How he did the methane story - https://nyti.ms/3inP6jO

The Social Dilemma on Netflix - https://bit.ly/3d3bfTt

Nicholas Kristof on Twitter - https://bit.ly/2HKJtiX

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Amazon - https://amzn.to/2Spb2k2

 

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