Milton Grant, Chief of the Photo Unit, welcomes me to the department and takes me on an informal tour of the UN. He introduces me to people whom he addresses as Mr. Ambassador, or Your Excellency, depending on whether they are Permanent Representatives, Foreign Ministers, Prime Ministers or Presidents.. My notebook is filled with names. He keeps telling me not to write them down, that I'll remember them...eventually. Some of the most important people I meet today are the Press liaisons in the Department of Public Information, the personal bodyguards of the Secretary General, and people who work the security detail, at every entrance, exit and the many hallways of the Security Council and General Assembly, who, from now on, will ensure that I get the access that I need.

While walking through the Delegates entrance, he introduces me to the Foreign Minister of Namibia, Dr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, who as of next Tuesday will become the President of the 54th General Assembly. I shake hands this day with people whose names and faces fill the international pages of newspapers around the world.

1 PM: During lunch, while navigating my way through the various buildings, I hear snippets of conversation in French, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and Italian. It reminds me of the New York World's Fair in 1963/4, the exhibit entitled "It's a Small World" now a feature at Disney World. While turning the corners of the exhibit's waterway, animatronic dolls, dressed in ethnic costumes of different countries, sing "It's a Small World" in various languages. That sensory auditory and visual recollection plays over and over in my head as I walk throughout the UN seeing people in ethnic dress, hearing so many different languages. Some of the more interesting diplomats hail from Tonga, men wearing long skirts and sandals; Tonga is one of the 3 countries, including Nauru and Kiribati that will be admitted to the UN this week, bringing to 188, the number of UN member nations.

2 PM: East Timor is at the boiling point and the United Nations compound has been attacked in Dili. Secretary General Kofi Annan holds a press conference on the status of the UN mission and the possibility of the UN sending a peacekeeping force there. I am not wielding a camera this day, much to my chagrin; instead, I simply observe. We go to the "stakeout" area, where foreign ministers and ambassadors leaving Security Council meetings, often hold impromptu press conferences.

4 PM: Just before a press briefing, Milton takes me to the office of Secretary General Kofi Annan, affectionately and officially known to the staff, as the "SG." He shakes my hand and welcomes me to the UN and says he hopes I will enjoy it here. I don't have to write his name down in my book.

6:30 PM: Milton gives me the keys to our booth in the General Assembly Hall, and the combination to the lock for the lenses stored there for GA coverage, which will begin next week. I've only been here one day but my head is brimming with information.

Behind the Viewfinder - A Year in the Life of Photojournalism
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