A New York Magazine cover story in August featuring portraits and testimonials from 35 women who have publicly accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault garnered national attention.

The Daily Orange spoke to Jody Quon, the director of photography at New York Magazine about her involvement in the Cosby cover ahead of her appearance with senior editor Noreen Malone Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

 The Daily Orange: How do you approach issues that have gotten a lot of media coverage nationally? How do you approach those issues from a different angle?

Jody Quon: For the Cosby story there was a lot of individual tiny news items of citing the different cases of women coming forward starting at the end of November through December and into January. … What we did was accumulate all of the data from the various news organizations, the data of all the women. What we saw was that when you accumulate all that material and you lay it out in front of you — the name, the year the alleged assault happened, where the women are from, their ages — you start to see it from a different perspective. … So we saw an opportunity to produce a photographic portfolio where we could really give the women their voices and also give them a platform and a kind of consistent, elegant approach to presenting them in this grouping.

The Daily Orange: When you were calling these women did you approach them any differently than how you would approach anyone to be photographed?

JQ: For this project specifically, the project didn’t actually get greenlit until we were able to get a temperature to how the women were feeling. So, in other words, we weren’t sure if this was a good idea or not. And then I thought, what if I just cold call half a dozen women? … So the first six women that I called were like a feeler calls where I would talk to them about their story briefly and then propose the project just to get a feel if this was something they would absolutely want to do or if it was something that would make them feel uncomfortable. And so when I called those six women, all of them were so excited to be a part of a collective to give their voice. So to be part of a group — a community — they were thrilled with that possibility.

The Daily Orange: How have you reacted to the overwhelming positive response that the cover has gotten?

JQ: The reaction has been incredible. It’s not every day that you can work on a story and it could have that kind of impact. It’s such a feel-good moment because it’s in those moments that you really recognize the power of journalism and how journalism can make a difference. So when this story came out we had no idea the kind of impact it would have. You become so close to a story and we were very heavily invested in it and we were working on it, really, since January. It had been brewing and brewing for a while. … But I don’t think we realized the public’s reaction to this.

The Daily Orange: From the beginning, did you and the staff at New York Magazine always want to approach this story visually as opposed to a written story?

JQ: It was always going to be a portfolio, but we didn’t know how big the portfolio was going to be. … We actually didn’t know it was going to be a cover. But it was when I had my first photo meeting where I could show Adam (Moss) maybe 70 percent of the pictures that had been taken thus far and I could show him the visual voice, he loved it and gained more faith in the project. It really comes down to the pictures and how the pictures represented these women. That’s the power of photography.

The Daily Orange: Do you have any advice for college students who are looking to enter the magazine industry or photojournalism?

JQ: I guess my advice is to believe in the power of journalism and that it’s really important and that it can be an incredibly satisfying thing know that journalism can actually make a difference in people’s lives. I would also say to never discount an instinct you might have and to let your instinct play out to see if you have an idea that’s worth pursuing. You have to be driven and you have to be persistent and you have to be passionate about wanting to share a story, whether that is through the written word or through a photographic, visual voice. You know, I would also say that there’s no magazine or journalistic institution that’s too big to approach. Journalistic institutions are always looking for new, young voices. There’s such a big divide between the younger generation and my more established generation and we’re always hungry for those younger voices and there’s always room for that, much more than people realize.

Published on October 5, 2015 at 9:50 pm

Contact Rachel: rsandler@syr.edu