The Associated Press receives many applications every day. The main concern for Horst Faas, besides picture quality, is reliability. There are cases where equipment is supplied to an outside person, particularly a proven photographer living in a country where he or she cannot possibly buy the correct equipment for AP's needs. Faas looks for maturity and the ability to handle any situation. At AP the captions are delivered with the data package.
Any pertinent material missing makes the image unusable.
Faas added that if a photographer editorializes and does not heed the editor's warning to stick to the facts that person will no longer work for the organization. Many photographers approach editors wishing to be sent to a hot spot in global news. Sometimes they want to live in Africa or India where something newsworthy happens frequently. Robert Stevens pointed out that a photographer could call him before or after the trip and talk about his aims. On return Stevens speaks to the photographer by phone to get a sense of the work brought back.