"Crazy" cameraman shares works of wisdom with young journalists

CBS' "60 Minutes" photojournalist Ray Bribiesca talks to Gaylord College students about his experiences with filming combat in the field Monday, Nov. 1. (PHOTOS: Katie Piper)

   When Ray Bribiesca spoke to OU's Gaylord College students Monday, Nov. 1, he said he could count on one hand how many hot showers and hot food he had while in Vietnam on business.

   That business was filming the intense overseas combat as a Marines combat cameraman when he was 17. 

   Having worked at CBS for more than 30 years as an Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning photojournalist, Bribiesca recently had his newest documentary segment, "A Relentless Enemy," aired on "CBS News" about American soldiers fighting the war in Afghanistan in September, where he put himself on the line several times while filming scenes of the conflict.

   A so-called "crazy" cameraman by his family and friends, Bribiesca said he has just reacted to the battles without paying attention to the very real dangers. 

Photojournalist Ray Bribiesca

   "The quote-on-quote 'crazy shots?'" he said in a video on for "60 Minutes," "Lara Logan Under Fire." "Those are the shots that when I see combat I always say, 'What does the face look like?'"

   Lara Logan, the "60 Minutes" CBS News chief foreign correspondent who traveled with Bribiesca to the Afghani-Pakistani border for the segment, recalled in the video that Bribiesca didn't get back in the truck during an ambush attack in a dried riverbed. 

   "You are literally being lurched from side to side, smashing your head [in the truck]," Logan said. "The tension is building, building, building, and you're just waiting for it."

   It happened when shots were fired soon after the truck had been pulled off a boulder. While Logan said she ran for cover, Bribiesca calmly stood outside with the soldiers looking for the best shots, effectively putting himself in the line of enemy fire at the same time.

   "You don't think," he said to the students. "You just react to that [scene] as a cameraperson. That's all you're thinking about ... not of anything else." 

   He said he is aware of the dangers involved in his job, but it doesn't deter Bribiesca from capturing the real stories.

   "We as journalists think we're invincible, [like] "No one can hurt me,'" he said. "You're wrong."

   While serving in Vietnam as a combat cameraman, Bribiesca was injured twice and taken hostage once.

   After his last story, a segment for CBS on Yemen, where he and Logan will travel to tell the story, Bribiesca plans to retire. Bribiesca even had his camera and equipment in the car ready to go after speaking to the students.

   "You're only as good as your last story," Briebiesca said. "As a journalist, I listen [and] I watch, because everyone has a good story to tell."

   Having worked for 46 years as a journalist, he told the student journalist his job has always required complete dedication.

   "Doing this took me years," Bribiesca said. "But that's another story..."