He describes hearing about the opportunity as a fluke. But it was no fluke that Luke Sharrett’s portfolio would land him a White House Photo Office internship in the summer of 2008.
As a photojournalism major at Western Kentucky University, Sharrett was drawn to political photography. He used his press pass with the school’s newspaper to gain access to rallies in his region, including those for presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. Through those opportunities, Sharrett heard about the internship.
“I applied during [President] George W. Bush’s very last summer in office, which is normally when people are leaving an administration,” he explains, “so there wasn’t a whole lot of competition for this internship.” Suddenly, Sharrett was in Washington, D.C., with a front row seat to political photography.
“At that point, I am an 18-year-old kid walking through the West Wing with a camera,” he says. “Totally crazy stuff.”
PLAYING HOOKY
That was just the beginning of Sharrett’s photojournalism journey. In his second year of college, an email went out to the photography students that the editors of The New York Times were looking for an intern for their Washington, D.C., bureau. “I thought, Man, that is exactly what I want to be doing,” recalls Sharrett, who applied and was selected. What was supposed to be a three-month internship morphed into six months, and then a year. While “playing hooky from school,” Sharrett says, he photographed the action at the Obama White House and on Capitol Hill, learning from the seasoned photographers in the White House press corps he calls his heroes. “They were the photographers I wanted to be like,” Sharrett says.
He learned valuable photojournalism lessons that year, including the importance of telling the truth with your camera, he adds. “That was something I really began to take seriously: I am a representative of a news organization here, and it’s very important that I deliver our readers a truthful account of what is happening in our nation’s capital and around the country,” he says. “When you are covering the White House, there’s the photo the White House wants you to take, and there’s the photo that you want to take, and those are not always the same picture.” Public relations teams want the press to capture political figures in a certain light. But political figures are human beings, Sharrett says, “and it’s not my job to make someone look good every day. It’s my job to tell the truth.” His mentors in the press corps helped him navigate that tension. There was “a cool camaraderie,” then among the press, Sharrett says, “of, We know why we’re here, and we know the job we are trying to do.”
After a year interning with The New York Times, the union for the newspaper declared it was time for him to return to college. Sharrett disagreed. “I wanted to stay there longer,” he says. “I wanted to stay there forever.” On his last trip on Air Force One, Sharrett was called to the front of the plane to speak with President Obama. “Someone had tipped him off that I was leaving and going back to school, and he said, ‘Luke, I don’t understand. Why do you have to go back to school when you’re already doing the job that you want to do here in Washington? Why can’t you just stay here?’” Sharrett recalls. “And I was like, ‘Mr. President, that is what I’ve been trying to tell everybody. Can you put in a good word for me with the bosses of The New York Times?’” The two bantered back and forth before Sharrett finally said, “Mr. President, it’s just something I have to do. I have to go back to school. And [the president] said, ‘All right, we will see you when you get back.’”
THE BEST MOMENT
The president wasn’t wrong about Sharrett’s eventual return. In 2012, his phone rang. “It was my photo editor who hired me for my original internship, and she said, ‘How would you like to come back for another year?’” She offered Sharrett a one-year contract position covering the White House and President Obama’s reelection campaign, which he happily accepted. Other than when his children were born, Sharrett says, that job offer from The New York Times “was one of the happiest moments of my life.”
With that job came incredible opportunities few people experience. “I remember asking myself, What is a kid from Kentucky doing flying on the president’s plane?” But recognizing the privileges only motivated him to “be the absolute best photojournalist I could be and take advantage of every opportunity to do my best to make my parents, my editors, and my colleagues proud,” he says.
Sharrett’s favorite photo from that time was one he made of President Obama on the campaign trail (below). In the middle of a speech at an outdoor rally in Richmond, Virginia, a thunderstorm erupted. The television lights illuminated the raindrops, and the president’s dress shirt was so soaked it was plastered to his skin. It was photo-making gold. Sharrett positioned himself next to the stage beside renowned White House photographer Pete Souza and captured a profile image of President Obama passionately making a point in his speech; the president is in the corner of the frame and the other two-thirds of the composition feature the glowing raindrops.
GOING FREELANCE
Sharrett’s experience with The New York Times enabled him to launch a successful freelance photojournalism career. Today, he is based in Louisville, Kentucky, and has spent the last 15 years working for major media outlets including National Geographic, NPR, The Washington Post, Time, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. Sharrett doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges of editorial work. He takes on anywhere from zero to nine assignments per month depending on the news cycle and budgets, he explains. “Photojournalism is very much feast or famine,” he says. “It’s not easy.”
About 50% of the time, editors come to Sharrett with assignments, and the other half of his business is him pitching editors. “More and more I’ve realized that when I generate an idea, when I come up with it on my own and go out and shoot, I feel ownership over the project,” he explains, “and for whatever reason, some of my best work has been self-generated.” He tries not to work on spec, he adds, but sometimes he must take the photographs first to show an editor what a story would look like. Other times, he says, he crafts a compelling enough email that an editor gives him the green light. Editors are much more willing to accept pitches that include both images and written content, Sharrett says, so he’s polished his writing skills as well.
INCLEMENT WEATHER
Covering hurricanes has also been exciting over the years. As a photojournalist, “Experiencing the power and fury of a hurricane’s eye wall up close is thrilling and unforgettable,” he says. But at the same time, these storms destroy communities and often take people’s lives. “In these situations, being a good human first is way more important than being a journalist. ... Training a camera toward someone on the worst day of their life is my least favorite part of the job.”
Sharrett often navigates the treacherous weather conditions alone, even slipping into a pair of waders to walk into murky flood waters for the perfect image. Sometimes, he says, he pairs up with another photographer. In 2020, he and a friend who worked with the news agency Reuters drove together to photograph the devastating Hurricane Laura as it made landfall at Holly Beach in Louisiana. He also appreciates riding with first responders amidst the storm as they rescue people. “Just the courage and the selflessness of first responders,” Sharrett says, “it doesn’t matter how many times I see it or how many storms I cover, it always blows me away.”
Sharrett says he is inspired by the ordinary citizens who help in the aftermath of hurricanes. When Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston, Texas, in 2017, volunteers from surrounding communities arrived in droves with their own boats to launch rescue missions. He makes a point to talk to them, and ask if he can accompany them and take photographs while they work. The trick is to keep asking until you get a yes, he says. “You can go through official channels, but a lot of the time, the Coast Guard or the National Guard, they actually take a while—just because of the way they are as organizations—to mobilize,” Sharrett explains. “You are almost always better off asking some dude with a pickup truck who has a fishing boat, because those guys, they don’t have to deal with the bureaucracy in terms of getting where they need to go.”
GIVING BACK
Lately, Sharrett has been drawn to a longtime personal passion: World War II history. In 2016, he restored an old WWII jeep to drive during Veterans Day parades. After purchasing a WWII uniform to wear while driving the jeep, he decided to attend a WWII reenactment to connect with others who share his passion. There, he witnessed the WWII Airborne Demonstration Team from Oklahoma parachute out of vintage aircraft. He was so moved that he joined the group himself. In 2018, Sharrett spent a week in training to earn his jump wings. Now he jumps with the team and photographs the action both in the air and on the ground.
Volunteering his photography skills like this is strictly for pleasure, Sharrett says. “It’s important to have an outlet for photography that doesn’t have to do with making money,” he explains. The WWII Airborne Demonstration Team uses his photos for social media and its website, and Sharrett also shares images with individual members. “It has really been a joy, and in a way, it kind of rejuvenates me creatively to where when I head back home and pick up my camera for work, I am ready to hit the ground running.” It also feels good to give back to the WWII veterans he’s always admired. For example, a few years ago, Sharrett photographed a WWII veteran on a flight for his 101st birthday. He also participated in and photographed a jump in Normandy, France, in 2019 for the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
Sharrett is only half joking when he advises against specializing in photojournalism “because the hours are long and the pay is terrible.” But he follows up with a different tip: Find stories you’re passionate about. “It doesn’t matter if no one else is interested in what you’re interested in. It doesn’t matter if it is obscure or off the wall,” he says. “If you are passionate about it, go for it.”
Sharrett definitely went for it when he first toured the photojournalism department at Western Kentucky University and realized it was where he belonged. The income in photojournalism may be less stable than another photography niche, he says, “but I don’t feel like I have ever worked a day in my life.”
Amanda Arnold is a senior editor.
Tags: documentary photography
