Archie Tse: Filing News Graphics from Baghdad

By Alberto Cairo

Archie Tse, one of the most renowned infographics editors of The New York Times described his experience as the first visual journalist that reports from a warzone. Archie traveled to Bagdad after the invasion was over and created clear and original infographics packages with lots of first hand information.

Tse talked about the problems he and Charles Blow (graphics director) had to persuade reporters that it was necessary for the infographics department to have a person in Iraq. In November 2003 they got the permission and Tse entered the country from Jordan, a 12 hours drive through a dangerous zone. He explained how he worked in several projects there, including the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 2003. (Archie is shown above in Hussein's infamous "spider hole").

He asked how much we can rely on information from the military, as the day of the capture the US Army delivered a rough sketch of the dictator´s lair near Tikrit and it was not accurate at all. The infographics New York Times and other newspapers published was consequently misleading. Only the day after, when Tse and other 50 journalists were allowed to get to Saddam's hut (they traveled from Bagdad in Blackhawk helicopters), take photographs and draw drafts they could make a reliable diagram about the structure.

Tse´s experience, in his own words, will be useful for further projects, as reporters now understand much better the journalistic side of infographics.