March 2024 Dean Musgrove
What is your current position and who is your employer?
I work for the Southern California News Group, 11 publications, as one of three photo editors. I'm responsible for the Los Angeles Daily News, the three San Gabriel papers Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Whittier Daily News, the Torrance Daily Breeze and the Long Beach Press-Telegram. I coordinate with photo editors, Michele Cardon and Eric Vilchis. I have been a photo editor longer than my time as a staff photographer. Today I put on the hat of an editor and a photographer. I became a licensed drone pilot four years ago and very much enjoy the photo opportunities the flying camera can produce.
Dean Musgrove · Director of Photography at Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG (Photo by Hans Gutknecht).
When did you become a PPAGLA member?
I'm guessing 1978 or 1979 shortly after joining the Herald Examiner.
Klansmen attack an anti-Klan demonstrator with bats during a riot in Oceanside, March 16, 1980. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Herald Examiner)
How long have you been a photojournalist and how did you get started?
While in college at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, I earned a 1977 Summer internship at the Pasadena Star-News. A young photographer who had been at the Star-News a couple of years was tasked by the photo editor to mentor me during that summer. I to this day appreciate what I learned from Walt Mancini. Walt was always so calm and clearly enjoyed his work. Any stress I had washed away because of his enthusiasm. I transferred to CSULB and became a Wayne "Kelly Commando" At Pierce and Long Beach the school newspapers had a slew of young talented photographers. We all pushed each other to be better. In January of 1978, Janice and I married during winter break and I was hired by James Roark that May at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. I still had 7 months of school to get my degree, Roark accommodated my schedule to help me accomplish that. I worked nights and weekends for some time.
Arnold Schwarzenegger became an American citizen at a ceremony held at the Shrine Auditorium. He held out his flag and smiled following the ceremony on September 16, 1983. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Herald Examiner)
Please share some career highlights:
By 1984 I became an assistant photo editor. I would work some photo assignments and work the desk. During the 1984 Summer Olympics I worked closely with our credentialed and non credentialed staff to produce a daily photo report that we were very proud of. I worked editing, shooting press conferences at the convention center and making film runs for our staff. During opening ceremonies while I was picking up film and giving our photographers more film, I realized our three positions in the coliseum were mostly low positions that they could not move from. I had a Nikkormat with a 24mm lens in my bag of exposed and fresh film. I was free to move around as a messenger but not credentialed as a photographer. I went to the back of the stadium and saw a LA Times photographer in an ideal spot. I joined him and was granted to share the spot on top of a tunnel. Roark selected my image for A1. Lesson: Don't always ask for permission, sometimes better to beg for forgiveness. For me my highlights were more about the people I met and the stories they told. Everyone I worked with was better than I with some aspect of photojournalism. I just tried to do as well as I could whenever I could. I went to the Los Angeles Daily News after the Herald Examiner closed. The talent I got to work with every day at both publications was and is today truly amazing.
What advice do you have for students and those hoping to become photojournalists?
Understand, you will remain a student your entire career. Be honest with your subjects and your colleagues. Reporters and editors can teach you a thing or two. Listen and consider your impact on those around you. Promise yourself to communicate your work and images ethically, always. It's about your journey, have fun, you will have a lot to give and you will develop an amazing portfolio with even more amazing experiences.
Four of the faithful who braved inclement weather outside the Chandler Pavilion to glimpse the famous at the 54th Academy Awards held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on March 29, 1982. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Herald Examiner)
Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson are the stars of the movie "Twilight". they were photographed at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Saturday, November 11, 2008. Dean Musgrove/Staff Photographer
What is something you know now that you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?
No one told me but I realized early on that I gained so much from many fellow staffers, editors and those that worked across the street at AP or 11 blocks away at the LA Times like Reed Saxon and Rick Meyer.
What is your favorite part of being a PPAGLA member?
It's a community of mostly like minded journalists that truly want to help each other. There have been some incredibly talented student journalists that I always enjoy meeting at the awards banquets.
A very recent goodbye for an incredable photographer, Watchara Phomicinda, surrounded by (l-r) former photo editor Rick Sforza, yours truly, Eric Vilchis, Watchara and Michele Cardon.