RIT Alumnus Captures Iconic Photo of Donald Trump

Evan Vucci ’00 (professional photographic illustration) is a chief photographer for the Associated Press (AP). On July 13, 2024, Vucci, covering a Donald Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, captured the viral photograph of a wounded Trump raising his fist in the air. Reporter reached out to Vucci to discuss his experiences on the campaign trail and at RIT.

Transcription edited for conciseness and clarification purposes.

Question: So, you’re still covering this election cycle. How have the last few months been?

Answer: Things are busy, man. We have been traveling the country, chasing candidates around. [The AP has] a team that follows Harris and a team that follows Trump. So I have been on the Trump side of things for months now.

Q: You’ve been following [former President Donald Trump] on the campaign trail for some time now. How long have you been covering him?

A: I started following him in 2015 when I was in Iowa... my editors called, and they said, ‘Hey, do you mind doing a few of these Trump rallies?’ And at the time, we weren’t sure if this was serious or not, or whether it was, I don’t want to say, a sideshow, but we didn’t know. The first rally I showed up to there were thousands of people there. I was like, ‘What is going on?’ It’s way more people than I had seen at any other of these rallies that I’d covered ... I was on the campaign trail for the entire year leading up to the [2016] election. And then [Trump] won, and I covered him again throughout the White House years, through COVID, through all the George Floyd protests [in 2020]. And then I covered Biden. Once the election cycle started this year, I covered Trump ... I’ve been covering him basically since he’s been on the national stage.

Q: What have you learned in your years of covering Trump?

A: As a photographer, my job is to show you the world through my eyes, and that’s what I’ve been doing since the first day [Trump] showed up. My goal is, at the end of this, to have a good record of what was happening during this time in American history. And that’s all I’m worried about. I’m not concerned about my impressions, my thoughts or any of those things. We’re all doing the job, and we’re going to look back one day and say, ‘Man, you know, we did a really good job documenting that moment ...’ and that’s all we care about. That goes for anyone we’ve covered ... I started with George W. Bush, I covered Obama, I covered Trump, I covered Biden. I’ve covered them all.

Q: Describe the experience of capturing the iconic photograph of Donald Trump.

A: I’ve covered hundreds, if not thousands, of political rallies. It was like any other rally. At first, I was in the buffer, which was that area right in front of the lectern, and over my shoulder I heard the shots, and I knew immediately what was happening. I had my longer lens trained on the stage, and I saw the Secret Service jumping on top of [Trump], and I ran to the stage ... and all I’m thinking about is documenting this moment. People always ask about the photo, and when you’re in that moment you’re not thinking about the impact of the photo. People will ask, ‘Well, what did you think when you captured the image?’ And I wasn’t thinking about anything. I hate to say it, but you’re on autopilot because you’ve done this so many times, you just need to do the job. At that moment, all I cared about was [that] this is going to be one of the most important things I’ll ever document.

You’ve got to do your job to the best of your ability [and] stay focused on what you’re doing and look around you. What’s happening in the periphery? Am I missing anything? Where’s the light coming from? What’s my composition? I tell people: whether that rally ends with him being carried off by Secret Service after an assassination attempt or him just walking off the stage like he’s done thousands of other times, I’m going to document it in the same way. What’s happening in front of me is changing, but as far as how I deal with the situation, nothing changes.

The way we work nowadays is I’m hardwired directly into a MiFi device that sends my photos directly to an editor ... so the editors are seeing [the photos] basically in real time. So I didn’t know the kind of impact that the photos would have. But while my MiFi device did work, my phone did not. I had no communication for probably another hour or so [after the shooting]. I knew on some level that everyone there had got something like [Doug Mills from the New York Times’] amazing photo of the bullet. We kept our heads and did our jobs which was great, very rewarding.

Q: You’re an RIT photography alumnus. How did your alma mater shape your career?

A:  I loved my time at RIT. It was great. RIT made me fall in love with photography. I had a teacher named Bill DuBois. I don’t think he’s still there anymore [DuBois retired in 2011] but he ran the [photography] department. [DuBois] just had so much excitement and so much passion for photography. From day one, I knew that photography was what I wanted to do. The reason I became a photojournalist is because RIT invited Washington Post photographer Michael Williamson to speak on campus. He showed all his amazing work from the end of apartheid [in South Africa] and all kinds of stuff from around the world. I was just in awe of this man. I was going to go into advertising photography, and then once Williamson gave this talk, I was like, ‘Man, I’m switching my major.’ So I switched to photojournalism. RIT shaped me completely, and now I try to give back. I try to meet with the students every year and I do my best to keep in contact with people and help them. The thing about going to RIT is you’re going to spend a lot of money, so that network[ing] is important. Yeah, I had a great time at RIT — [the winters are a] little cold for my liking, but it’s good.

Q: Is there anything else that you’d like to leave our readers with?

A: Work hard. For the [photojournalism] kids, reach out to me. Use your network. Find the people in the industry that you know you can make contact with, and [reach out to] them. Especially now, getting into journalism, photojournalism, editing, all of those things ... It’s such a competitive field, so use the network that you’re gaining at RIT.  Not only that, don’t be lazy at RIT. It’s right now you have a chance to really work hard and take chances with building up a portfolio and work hard.