Pope Francis: The Story Behind National Geographic's Cover Photo | Nat Geo Live

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Dave: What was tougher, covering the pope for six months or slogging through a Honduran jungle looking for a lost city?

Oh well, it was definitely much harder to access the Vatican than the jungle. For me, when you work around the pope, you have to wear a suit, and I'm really uncomfortable in suits. In the jungle, I was wet and muddy for two weeks, and I was much more comfortable in that environment.

Did you start getting nervous? Like, did you have the picture?

Well, I was in desperate need of a cover as the deadline was approaching, and I had nothing. I mean, I had nothing. On Christmas day, I had high hopes that when he gave his address on the balcony of the facade to the people in St. Peter Square— I'd done everything that I could to be out on the balcony with him, and I thought I had it lined up. I had really high hopes for it, and at the last minute, somebody got nervous about it, and it fell through.

So I was standing beside Franchesco, sort of the photographer, while Pope Francis was greeting the long, fairly long line of people who were there. I knew him well enough by that time to know that when he was done greeting them, wishing everybody a happy Christmas, he would then turn to us and greet us.

Sure enough, he did! Then he turns away and starts mentioning something, and Franchesco turns to me and whispers very excitedly, "He's going to the Sistine Chapel." Obviously, right away, I was like, "This might be my opportunity! This might be finally it!"

He crosses Salara here and walks into the Sistine Chapel. He walks in at first, and the lights are off and it just doesn't work. Then they turn the lights on, and he's there for three or four seconds. I get maybe three or four frames, and then he turns around and walks out, ever after having contemplated the scene for a short time.

When we saw this picture, when this picture came in, our creative director just sort of came running into my office and said, "We've got the cover!" I mean, it was so clearly this cover photo. This is the only picture of the Pope—of any Pope—ever alone in the Sistine Chapel.

I knew that, you know, this was the only shot I was going to get. My hands were shaking, and once again, I wasn't really basking in the glow of the moment, but you know, it worked out pretty well.

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