Rafa Fariña, photographer

Today´s post focuses on how Diario de Pontevedra covered a fire that happened late at night. We have paid attention to everything, but especially to the role of its photographer, Rafa Fariña. To know why, it is not enough to look at his pictures; we must read what his colleague Adrián Rodríguez has told us.

“We were told about the fire after 9 pm. Our closing hour is 12 pm, so we needed to act quickly: we had to make space in pages that were almost finished and to assess the importance of what was happening. We kept in permanent touch with the photographer who was already on his way home and had to go to Ponte Caldelas,  20km from Pontevedra. At the beginning we were not going to give much importance to the story but at the end we gave it a double-page. The photographer, Rafa Fariña, told us the topic was important and that there would be good pictures, so it was fundamental to use them.  That is why we did such a graphic double-page. There was another factor to bear in mind: some houses had been affected and the neighbors fight against the fire had altered the course of it. That meant that even though houses were going to be saved, dozens of hectares were going to burn throughout the night and it was useless to give any number as it was going to be out-dated. This is the result of three hours of work”:

"The photograph´s work didn´t end there. He uploaded the pictures into our system with his iPad and he stayed up in the mountain until 5 a.m. The work was still going to be difficult the next day, so we had to call in the cavalry. Águeda Piñeiro, the correspondent in that area was on vacation and wasn´t coming back until two days after. But we called her and asked for the possibility of coming back earlier. She had no obligation to do it but she accepted and the next morning she went with the photographer and looked for the eye-witness accounts of those who had been fighting the fire. We also needed to use those great pictures we already had".

"Once the fire was under control, it was time to find an explanation for what had happened, something that generates a lot of debate in Galicia. We did not want to get enmeshed in the political debate, so we turn to those who best know the mountain. We asked Xan Sabarís´ team to make an infographic report that could help understand the size of the burned area".

"There was still time for the flames to revive and for the photographer Rafa Rariña to show us how it is worth having an experienced professional on your team".

"Víctor Méndez, our specialized editor in events, got a beautiful ending for the story: an anonymous hero (not so anonymous now) that studies 6th grade at Elementary School".