Interview: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographer of Seton Hall Dorm Fire

“It was critically important to me then, and it’s still critically important to me now that I do not take advantage of the subject of any photograph…for my benefits or for my agenda. We saw some really tough things, and it could have become gratuitous.”

Matt Rainey won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his series After the Fire, which depicts the recoveries of two badly burned Seton Hall students, injured in a dorm fire. Mr. Rainey was also part of a Newark Star-Ledger team who won a 2005 Pulitzer for Breaking News Reporting. Speaking on June 14th, Matt Rainey and Merion West’s Erich Prince discuss how a photographer avoids detracting from the subject, the line between photography and exploitation, and how the changing economics of the media industry have caused many photographers to leave journalism.

Your career in photography now spans almost three decades, and you’re obviously very well known for your After the Fire series, in particular. You were also part of the team that received the 2005 Pulitzer for Breaking News Reporting, covering the resignation of New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey. I understand you’ve also dabbled in product advertisement and other more commercial aspects of photography. How did your interest in photography begin and how did you get to After the Fire from there?

My photography dates back to—believe it or not—the seventh grade. And, very briefly, I can tell you that my world history class in seventh grade culminated in a Roman chariot races event, and every member of the seventh grade was required to participate in some way. Some people were horses, some people made the chariots, others were people in the crowd. Well, I grabbed my camera, and I documented it and then we posted a display board in the hallway of the school. That was my contribution. So that was kind of the catalyst. And through high school, one of the things that continued to interest me was going to parades or going to football games. I always noticed the guy that had the camera could go places that other people couldn’t go. And that interested me greatly. So that’s kind of where the passion started, and then I went to college for it and nearly immediately started in the newspaper industry. I did 27 years or so in the newspaper industry, all told.