The Reuters photojournalist was one of the photographers capturing the moment on Sunday, and his photo – of Smith smacking Rock at the moment of contact – would soon be all over the place and instantly go viral.
“Right after that, my reaction was, ‘Did that just happen?'” Snyder told CNN Business on Monday. “Initially the other photographers and I weren’t sure if it was a planned part of the show or something else. When Will Smith was back in his seat and yelling back at the stage, we didn’t think it was part of the script. And then I started looking through my camera for reactions.”
Snyder was among a pool of photographers from various news outlets who covered the show from the projection booth at the back of the Dolby Theater. He said he has two long lenses (200-400mm and a 600mm) and his responsibility for Reuters is to cover the show – on stage and in the audience.
“It’s about reacting – you see something happening and you react,” he said. “Frame and focus, and then take the picture. When shooting in the theater, the exposure for the stage and the audience were very different, so there are a lot of technical settings to juggle.”
While presenting the award for Best Documentary on Sunday night, Rock joked about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head and said: “Jada, I love you. ‘GI Jane 2’ can’t wait to see him.”
Pinkett Smith – who has spoken openly about her battle with alopecia, an autoimmune condition that causes hair loss – rolled her eyes as she sat next to Smith after the joke. But Smith walked up to Rock on stage, punched him in the face and then yelled twice, “Keep my wife’s name out of your frigging mouth!” Smith apologized to Rock and the Academy on Monday night after the altercation. As for Snyder’s photo, it’s been on the news, social media, and it’s been even became a meme.
“There’s nothing in my Oscars experience that compares to that,” said Snyder, who has previously covered the Oscars but not the show itself.
The craziest part is that Snyder himself didn’t see his photo — or cultural impact — until after the show ended.
Snyder explained that his cameras were networked, so “all my photos were instantly sent to the editors as I took them.”
“Of course, that happened in the middle of the show, so there was a lot to do right after,” he said. “Up in the dressing room, I really didn’t realize the impact of the moment or my photos.”