After Charlie Kirk Was Shot, a Younger Press Photographer Stored Her Cool

A younger press photographer who was overlaying Charlie Kirk’s look at Utah Valley University when he was assassinated tells PetaPixel how she was in a position to stay calm and seize dramatic images which have been revealed all the world over.

Tess Crowley, who works for Salt Lake City-based Deseret News, has solely been a employees photographer since April. When she acquired the project to cowl Kirk’s look at UVU, it was simply one other talking occasion, the sort she had lined quite a few instances already.

But what unfolded final Wednesday was probably the most surprising acts of political violence in American historical past as 1000’s in attendance witnessed Kirk’s homicide, and grotesque movies of it had been beamed world wide to hundreds of thousands within the moments after.

The 23-year-old photographer was not solely there to cowl the occasion itself but additionally to seize loads of inventory images of the right-wing provocateur for future articles.

“I took photos of Kirk throwing hats to the crowd and their reactions to seeing him. The atmosphere was full of excitement,” Crowley tells PetaPixel over e-mail.

“Because there were no designated spots for the press, and I had managed to get as close as I could get, I didn’t want to move from my spot. I stayed there, even though it was incredibly crowded.”

Expecting the talking occasion to unfold as ordinary, Crowley started taking images of Kirk, in addition to capturing photos of the debaters and the gang. But at 12:23 PM, roughly 10 minutes after he had begun talking, Kirk was killed by a gunshot fired from a campus roof reverse the stage.

“I didn’t even register what I had heard,” Crowley says. “I was swept down to the ground with the crowd. Everyone ducked within seconds of the shot. On the ground, I realized the noise that I had heard was a gunshot, which meant that this was a shooting.”

Crowley says she felt “shock and fear” and was afraid of what may occur subsequent. “Would more shots be fired? Where did the shot come from? I, thankfully, didn’t see Kirk get shot,” she provides.

Seconds after the gunshot had rang out, Crowley picked up her cameras and began documenting.

“People were screaming, crying, running, and ducking. It was chaos. I was next to a man and a woman lying on the ground. The man was covering her body and face with his body and hands. He was yelling at everyone to stay down as he protected her. I took photos of them. I stayed down for a bit, taking photos of the people who had started running away,” the photographer remembers.

“Once more people started to get up, I did too. I ran with them and ran into a man being handcuffed by the police, who was later cleared and released. I followed him and the police to the police car near the fountain behind the tent Charlie Kirk had been speaking in when he was shot.”

“I started documenting everyone gathered on the lawn by the fountain,” she continues. “People were crying and holding each other. I was shaking and could barely speak. At this point, I tried to ask a couple of people their names for captions. I approached two people I thought were mother and daughter holding each other. They were crying, and I started crying too. I asked them about their relationship to each other, and they told me that they were complete strangers.”

Crowley’s images are sharp, well-composed, and impactful. PetaPixel requested her how she was in a position to maintain her nerve in such a terrifying and chaotic state of affairs.

“Everything happened so fast. The photos I took of people fleeing during the immediate aftermath of the shooting were taken within the span of about five minutes,” she explains.

“As I was photographing, my hands were shaking and it was difficult to breathe. But the act of taking photos was second nature to me. I take pictures every single day. I think that for me, picking up the camera felt like a reflex. I think I was feeling the physical effects of fear in that moment, with the shakiness and the tears, but mentally, I felt sharp.”

Crowley says she remembered do her job however felt pissed off within the second as a result of she felt her digital camera was “lagging” whereas taking images.

“I thought it was just my shaky hands or a weird, undiagnosed camera problem. I realized while photographing another press conference that my camera was in single-shot mode the whole time. During it all, I had no time to diagnose or even think about the problem. I just had to keep photographing.”

Afterward, Crowley checked in on her Deseret News reporter colleagues who had been hiding beneath desks in a constructing close by.

“I called the other news photographer there, Trent Nelson from the Salt Lake Tribune, when I saw that he had texted me asking if I was OK,” Crowley says.

“I walked back to the scene of the shooting in the courtyard and found him getting overview shots of law enforcement descending upon the scene. It felt good to see a familiar face.”

After documenting police placing up tape, Crowley left to wire her images to her editor from her automotive. She got here again to the scene and noticed fellow Deseret News photographer Laura Seitz, overwhelmed with emotion; the pair hugged.

Crowley’s images had been syndicated by way of Associated Press and wound up on the entrance pages of native, nationwide, and worldwide newspapers.

“I’m feeling overwhelmed, and a bit numb,” Crowley displays. “I have been too busy with work to really let it all sink in. I’ve had a tremendous amount of thoughtful messages come in from family, friends, strangers, and co-workers.”

Crowley solely moved to Salt Lake City in January from Michigan to be a photograph intern at Deseret News and has since been employed full-time. She beforehand interned on the Chicago Tribune and The Virginian-Pilot.

More of Crowley’s work could be discovered on her website and Instagram.

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Image credit: Tess Crowley / Deseret News