Pictures of the Day: Syria and Elsewhere

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Photos from Syria, Indonesia, Mexico and Washington.

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Turning Point: Light, Composition, Revelation

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Jake Naughton, 25, is enrolled at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism and is an intern at the Lens blog. He has an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he also studied fine arts photography and African studies. He lived in Washington, D.C., for three years, pursuing photography while working as the multimedia projects coordinator at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. He left that position because he felt he needed “a framework to drill down my skills as a photographer and videographer.”

His conversation with James Estrin has been edited.

Q.

Tell me about the photo that you chose.

A.

It was the first time I had covered anything remotely close to breaking news. I was in Turkey, working on a story about Syrian presence in Turkey and refugees and arms. It was the first time I was traveling internationally for a story as a visual storyteller. Previously, I had done so as a project manager for the Pulitzer Center, where I used to work.

I had never been to the Middle East. I had never worked with a driver or translator. We really hadn’t been planning on doing anything on this camp, and we kind of stumbled into it.

Q.

Tell me about this girl.

A.

She was very striking. Her eyes were very sharp. I followed her and her mother back to their tent. I was getting tea with a bunch of people in a common area of the camp, and she stepped out of the tent and there was this perfect moment where the light was really beautiful and she had this gaze that was piercing.

Q.

So what was different about this image?

A.

It was the story and the process of being there. I felt like I had been able to make a picture that was technically good and visually good and was a result of the reporting process coming together in a situation that I was unfamiliar with. It felt like I had done something right. I’m not sure that it’s the greatest picture I made on that trip, but it was the moment for me that felt special.

It was really a moment where I sat down at the end of the day and I was like, “Wow, I’m working on a story that I think is important and I’m taking pictures that I think are good and â€" yes, I can do this.”

Tomás Munita for The New York Times

Inspiration: Tomás Munita
Image: Members of an anti-gang intervention group searched young men for weapons or tattoos that might identify them as a gang member. San Salvador, 2012.

Q.

How did Tomás Munita influence you and why did you choose this image?

A.

Tomás Munita was one of the photographers whose name I knew before I knew any other photographers’ names. When I was in college and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be a serious photographer, I remember looking at his photographs and thinking, “He’s doing something unbelievable, and beautiful.”

His images are so painterly, and the way he captures light and color and mood â€" he’s an artist and a storyteller. It was the first time that I had seen those things really come together.

His photographs of gangs from El Salvador are classic Munita images â€" beautiful light, beautiful composition, but they’re also surprising and revelatory in some way. And this picture just so perfectly captured the bizarre surreality of gangs in El Salvador, but also, the light is perfect and the color is perfect. It was an exceptional moment to capture, but he does that so well.

In this particular picture, he does such a good job, in such limited circumstances, of giving us so much information about such a complicated idea. It’s something I aspire to, but this particular image does a great job of condensing all of that â€" all the best things about what a single image can tell us. That’s always on my mind.

Follow @jakenaughton, @JamesEstrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.