10 Questions With Anthony Quintano (S1, Ep12)

The photojournalist and tech enthusiast explains how media outlets can build rapport with readers and how to tell a better story.

As cliche as it may sound, as Tyrion Lannister once said on Game of Thrones: “There’s nothing more powerful in the world than a good story.” And when you look at a photograph, that’s exactly what it conveys: a tale about someone’s life that gets passed down to others. For Anthony Quintano, photography is much more than a hobby — it’s a way for his audience to experience what’s going on in the world beyond a text-based reality. It’s all about feeling like you’re a part of the moment.

Whether it’s providing a behind-the-scenes look at one of television’s most popular morning shows or offering a different vantage point at Times Square during New Year’s Eve, chasing storm patterns, or experiencing a volcano explode in Hawaii, Anthony has told remarkable stories that do more than anything an 800-word article could convey.

As an early tech adopter, he’s also explored how to use tools like Twitter, video, and other social media platforms to build a community and engage with viewers. He was one of the first evangelists at livestreaming service Twitch and also helped establish communities at NBC News, Recode, and Honolulu Civil Beat.

For this week’s “10 Questions”, I chatted with Anthony to learn more about his experiences, how he views storytelling, what he can offer companies in the way of marketing and photojournalism, and what newsrooms can do to better reach their audience.

This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

As someone who has produced content on social media for companies like NBC News/TODAY show, Recode, and Civil Beat, what is your approach to using technology? Is taking a photo and plastering it across numerous social networks enough?

My approach is experiment first. I use my personal accounts for this effort. The only way to find out how content and tech work with social platforms is to play. Many of my family and friends see me experimenting with 360 cameras, live-streaming and different types of photography techniques. I do post similar content on multiple platforms but I repurpose that content for how it’s meant to be displayed within them.

You’re an accomplished photographer, someone who has led communities (and has a loyal following themselves) and knows technology. How did you get your start and what amazing things have you done?

I started by putting myself out there. It was very scary at first but eventually, I developed enough of a tough skin to not worry what other people thought of me. I’m a self-taught photographer and videographer but I spent my early days experimenting, learning from others and sharing those learnings on my social accounts. It was my authenticity in sharing my growth that helped me build a loyal audience over time.

What does it mean to be a photojournalist in 2019?

I think about this a lot lately. So many people can just label themselves whatever they want without any professional experience. I often wondered, how do I become a photojournalist? Is there a course? A degree?

I never set out to become a photojournalist myself. I’ve always had a passion for sharing what I see through my eyes with others through taking photos and recording video. It was because of the jobs I acquired over the years that really developed my skills.

I was never hired as a photojournalist but because I worked for NBC News and they began sharing the photos I would take, people, started labeling me as such. The more I learned from other photojournalists and reporters, the more I improved. I never went to journalism school but I have learned from some of the best journalists in the business.

For years, newsrooms have been trying to promote more with less. What strategies would you advise editors and community managers to try in order to win back readers?

Newsrooms really need to get back to the basics. The tired gimmicks and stunts pulled by digital teams in newsrooms are tired. I have always been one to lead by example and I take my own experience of how I built my audience and use that as my guide to help newsrooms build theirs.

It’s taking time out to talk to each reader, by email, social media responses, answering phone calls or even getting out in the community and meeting them in person. It takes this dedicated effort to truly reach your readership and give them a reason to invest in you. This is why TV journalists in local newsrooms are more well-known than print journalists. TV journalists are always out in the community and visible in their homes every day. Print journalists have a tendency to stay in the newsroom or just go directly to the capital and rarely engage with people.

You were an early adopter and participant of livestreaming in the early 2000s with Justin.tv. What has that taught you about technology? What interests you about technology these days?

The growth of livestreaming has been interesting. At first, it was very hard to get people to tune into them. It has been a long roller coaster ride of timing for the mainstream audience to adopt it. It was very difficult in the early days to get outside and stream. We had to have a laptop with a broadband card attached in order to do it and it wasn’t always reliable. Now it’s just so easy with mobile phones. Livestreaming has always excited me because of its real-time communication with the audience. You essentially have your own TV show. There are so many people to this day who still don’t do it right and don’t respect the power of it. What we really need now is for more of the areas with weak or no cell signal to get coverage so we can share more with the world in real-time. The only limitation I feel now is a lack of cellular coverage. It will be interesting to see what 5G does for livestreaming.

What thinking should companies take when considering adopting new technologies? Should they immediately jump on the newest application that receives a lot of buzz?

Companies should always be experimenting. You should never get comfortable with anyone new method of storytelling, especially when it comes to tech. You can get left behind very quickly and lose an audience all because someone has advanced to the next thing. Companies need to take the time to see if a platform or piece of tech is worth using for your audience and not all of them will be. Best to not assume it won’t work for you. Prove it won’t work. I’m tired of having meetings with my superiors and getting shut down in a pitch simply because they assume something isn’t “on brand” or not the right fit. This is why I use my personal accounts. If I get told no, I don’t let that stop me. I have sometimes gone to the lengths of purchasing that tech for myself and testing on my own platforms to prove it out.

Please share your approach to your photography. From behind-the-scenes at NBC News to Times Square on New Year’s Eve, helicopter rides over Manhattan, photographing monk seals and documenting a volcanic eruption, why are your photographs more than just pictures?

Much of the reason I do what I do has been to show others what I’m capable of. It was never about just attention to me but wanting to show employers my skills so I could land a job. My photography grew out of that.

I rarely ever focus on one particular type of photography. I just don’t want to limit myself. I’ve always been so excited to try and capture something I never captured before and eventually I became so addicted to that idea that I would carry my camera around me everywhere. This is what got me into capturing behind-the-scenes photos as well. When my eye sees a moment, I want to capture it. It doesn’t matter what it is. I grew to a point where I now monitor possible photo ideas or news events to capture.

Sometimes I spend thousands of dollars of my own money just to capture an event that will be once in a lifetime. I dragged my wife at the last minute to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from Hawaii, to experience the total solar eclipse in 2017. Not only did I want to photograph it but I wanted to experience it, with Kim. It is now a moment we will never forget and we have the photos and video to look back on it. Now I’m so grateful for all I’ve captured over the years because I can now look back on these memories and have something physical to cherish them with.

How does one build a community? Please share some of your experiences and how you’ve been able to bring companies closer to their customers/readers.

Much of this answer was included in the earlier question about newsrooms regaining readership. I never look at ways to quickly do this because it just isn’t possible. Now when I’m hired to manage social for a newsroom or company, I start out with saying that this is a long game. You will not see changes or growth overnight. It will take years of small successes to build. I spend much of my time on little wins. Making sure I respond to every comment or email. Going out of my way to help someone with a problem or question. Working hard on one specific project that directly engages the audience so they get to know you as a person.

One of my efforts was “Office Hours” at Honolulu Civil Beat. My main goal was to do a livestream without a lot of setup that would be easy to do once a week for a short period of time. But we had to do it no matter what. We set a goal of doing a show once a week at a set time for one year. We did miss a handful of days but they were very few. Overtime not only did we see growth, but we built a dedicated audience. This audience got to know us very well and looked forward to our broadcasts. Our project was even used as case studies for other newsrooms to build engagement using live-streaming.

What does it mean to tell a “story”, in your opinion?

To tell a story means to have a beginning, middle, and end to a situation. Not just to tell someone what happened but how it started, how it progressed and what was the result. Giving the reader the context instead of just a headline is very important to help them understand the information you are providing.

Tell us something we don’t know about Anthony Quintano.

I have a deep love for space. Ever since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut and to this day I still wish I was. I will most likely never get to travel in space in my lifetime but I watch almost every rocket launch and I get so very excited about all the advancements we have to look forward to over the next decade when it comes to space travel. I dream of one day being able to photograph a rocket or shuttle launch, up close. I’ve attended one once but they tend to keep the public too far away to really experience it. It’s still on my bucket list.

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Special thanks go out to Anthony Quintano for participating in this discussion. “10 Questions” is a project designed to learn more from the people in tech and how it relates to businesses. If you’d like to be interviewed, I’d love to hear from you — send me a note on Twitter (@thekenyeung), Facebook, or here on LinkedIn. You can also find this entire series shared on Flipboard and also on Medium.

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