A photojournalist for the Associated Press (AP) reflected on his career and advised students to take advantage of the experiences they have at a Georgetown University Lecture Fund event Oct. 9.

Evan Vucci, the AP’s chief photographer in Washington, D.C., has captured several famous moments throughout his career, including the “raised-fist” photo of President Donald Trump after his attempted assassination in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. At the Georgetown event, Vucci recounted taking that photo of Trump, positioning it as the pinnacle of his career.

Vucci said that when he heard the shots go off, he immediately knew he had to capture the following moments.

“At that moment I knew exactly what it was, and I told myself, ‘Okay, this is going to be the most important thing you’ve ever covered, so you’ve got to do the best job you can,’” Vucci said at the event. “The first thing is — I always tell young journalists, I was telling myself over and over — ‘slow down, slow down.’”

Vucci said until that moment, he expected the rally to be just like countless others he had attended throughout his career.

“As a photographer, I’m just looking for anything that stands out to me,” Vucci said. “How can I paint this day? I did this probably the day before and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that, for months and months and months. It is a grind. So every single day as a photographer, I’m like, ‘Okay, I gotta find something different today. I gotta find some light, find some shadow.’”

Vucci said he used his years of rally experience to help him navigate the minutes after the assassination attempt.

“So I ran to the front, he came to the front of the lectern, he started pumping his fists, I saw his face, I had something,” Vucci said. “Then I know they’re going to come down, so I got next to the ramp, I got into this spot.”

Vucci said in the heat of the moment, relying on the discipline and technique he had developed over the years helped him execute the now-famous shot.

“I have taken this photo 1,000 times before; the only difference is the events around it changed,” Vucci said. “As a photographer, as a journalist, you are still going to do your job the exact same way. I am going to compose, I am going to think about where my light is coming from, I’m going to think about what I’m doing. I’m going to think about where I’m standing. I’m thinking about where they’re going. None of that changes just because everything’s been amped up a billion degrees.”

“When it cleared out like this, and he puts his fist up and he’s got the blood going down his face, I knew I had something,” Vucci added.

Vucci grew up in Olney, Md. As a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he fell in love with photojournalism after hearing Michael Williamson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, speak about his adventures as a photographer for The Washington Post.

Vucci said he began his career to make a difference, which he thought best worked through photography.

“I wanted to tell the story of the world,” Vucci said at the event. “I hate to say I wanted to change the world because I never had those kinds of aspirations, but I just wanted to make some sort of difference, and I thought photography was the best way for me to do that.”

Rebecca Sinderbrand, who interviewed Vucci at the event and serves as director of Georgetown’s journalism program, said other journalists similarly harness this focus in high-stress situations.

“I’ve heard this from other reporters as well: that focusing on the task at hand helps to power you through and just remove the emotion,” Sinderbrand said at the event.

Vucci said the shot gives him a sense of pride to be in the long line of photojournalists who have captured iconic moments.

“At the end of the day, your job as a journalist, and especially a photojournalist, is to get the shot no matter what,” Vucci said. “I work for AP, and we have a long, distinguished history of photojournalism. I don’t care about the work I did that day, but I am super proud that when it was my time to hold that standard in that situation, I didn’t let anyone down. I’m walking in the footsteps of giants.”