Shot over the span of several years, San Francisco State University professor Ken Kobré’s latest documentary Deadline Every Second provides a vivid look at what goes into Associated Press photos of national and international hot spots. Among the AP photographers profiled is SoCal staffer Chris Carlson, who confesses at the beginning of his segment about covering California wildfires that he now makes sure to closes the windows of his car, even when parked far from the flames. That’s because he once came back to his vehicle to find his floor mats burning.

“I think most people take these photographs for granted and don’t realize what goes into making them,” Kobré (pictured) tells FishbowlLA via telephone. “The other issue is how involved these photographers become in the story, and how they must work to stay neutral.”

Following recent east coast showings at D.C.’s Corcoran Gallery and Columbia University journalism school, Kobré’s one-hour film is scheduled to be shown next on May 8 at UCLA, with a Q&A panel featuring Carlson. Then it’s back to San Francisco for a hometown screening May 17.

Kobré says that through an international agent, he has just made his first foreign sale for Deadline Every Second in Turkey. Domestically, he is repping the film himself. The documentary has aired on Long Island PBS affiliate WLIW and may soon possibly hit the airwaves of WNET in New York.

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