IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 4

bacK StorY_
Editor in chiEf

Susan Hassler, s.hassler@ieee.org
ExEcutivE Editor

Glenn Zorpette, g.zorpette@ieee.org
Editorial dirEctor, digital

Harry Goldstein, h.goldstein@ieee.org
Managing Editor

Elizabeth A. Bretz, e.bretz@ieee.org
SEnior art dirEctor

Mark Montgomery, m.montgomery@ieee.org
SEnior EditorS

Stephen Cass (Resources), cass.s@ieee.org
Erico Guizzo (Digital), e.guizzo@ieee.org
Jean Kumagai, j.kumagai@ieee.org
Samuel K. Moore (News), s.k.moore@ieee.org
Tekla S. Perry, t.perry@ieee.org
Joshua J. Romero (Interactive), j.j.romero@ieee.org
Philip E. Ross, p.ross@ieee.org
David Schneider, d.a.schneider@ieee.org
dEputy art dirEctor Brandon Palacio
photography dirEctor Randi Klett
aSSociatE art dirEctor Erik Vrielink
aSSociatE EditorS

Ariel Bleicher, a.bleicher@ieee.org
Rachel Courtland, r.courtland@ieee.org
Celia Gorman (Multimedia), celia.gorman@ieee.org
Eliza Strickland, e.strickland@ieee.org
aSSiStant Editor Willie D. Jones, w.jones@ieee.org
SEnior copy Editor Joseph N. Levine, j.levine@ieee.org
copy Editor Michele Kogon, m.kogon@ieee.org
Editorial rESEarchEr Alan Gardner, a.gardner@ieee.org

Special Delivery

ExEcutivE producEr, SpEctruM radio
aSSiStant producEr, SpEctruM radio

f.ferorelli@ieee.org

hotogr a pher gr egg sega l is used to odd assignments. Three
years ago, for instance, IEEE Spectrum sent him to Des Moines to
document a group of linguistically adept bonobo apes.
For the photo-essay in this issue, Segal and his assistant Tom
Mishima went to the far northwest corner of Minnesota, to Thief
River Falls (population 8661). The assignment was to bring to life the
vast warehouse and corporate nerve center of the global electronic
components distributor Digi-Key Corp.
Segal found no shortage of material. He specializes in what he calls the
environmental portrait. "It's more than just a picture of a person," he says.
"It's in a place that says something about the person."
For this shoot, he says, "finding people who are idiosyncratic and interesting
is part of what makes the assignment fulfilling." Like the engineer whose desk
is littered with obscure instruments, spare parts, and personal projects, or the
warehouse worker captured in a rare moment of repose, an aura of beatitude
illuminating her face. "The pictures are about the personality and character of
Digi-Key's employees, who seem to represent small-town America," Segal says.
One woman's shrine to Barry Manilow caught his eye. "In her cubicle, she
had a disco ball, ticket stubs from shows, a concert poster from decades ago,"
he recalls. "I complimented her on the display and mentioned that I'd taken
the photos for Manilow's last album. She was speechless."
As for the scooter delivery cart in the photo above, Segal says, "As soon as
I saw somebody riding one of those, picking up some part from some shelf
somewhere, I wanted to hop on." His chance finally came at the tail end of the
two-day shoot. "It's an excuse to act like a kid at work." n

feb 2014

north american

SPectrUm.ieee.orG

adMiniStrativE aSSiStantS

Ramona Foster, r.foster@ieee.org
Nancy T. Hantman, n.hantman@ieee.org
contributing EditorS

Evan Ackerman, Mark Anderson, John Blau, Robert N.
Charette, Steven Cherry, Peter Fairley, Mark Harris, David
Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, Paul McFedries, Prachi Patel,
Richard Stevenson, Lawrence Ulrich, Paul Wallich
dirEctor, pEriodicalS production SErvicES Peter Tuohy
Editorial & WEb production ManagEr Roy Carubia
SEnior ElEctronic layout SpEcialiSt Bonnie Nani
SpEctruM onlinE
lEad dEvElopEr Kenneth Liu
WEb production coordinator Jacqueline L. Parker
MultiMEdia production SpEcialiSt Michael Spector
Editorial adviSory board

Susan Hassler, Chair; Gerard A. Alphonse, Francine D. Berman,
Jason Cong*, Sudhir Dixit, Limor Fried, Kenneth Y. Goldberg,
Bin He, Robert Hebner, Chenming Hu*, Grant Jacoby,
Christopher J. James, Norberto Lerendegui, John P. Lewis,
Steve Mann, Jacob Ostergaard, Umit Ozguner, John Rogers,
Jonathan Rothberg, Umar Saif, Takao Someya, Sergio Verdú,
Jeffrey M. Voas, Kazuo Yano, Larry Zhang*, Yu Zheng, Kun Zhou
* Chinese-language edition
Editorial / advErtiSing corrESpondEncE

IEEE Spectrum
733 Third Ave., 16th Floor
New York, NY 10017-3204
Editorial dEpartMEnt
tEl: +1 212 419 7555 fax: +1 212 419 7570
burEau Palo Alto, Calif.; Tekla S. Perry +1 650 752 6661
advErtiSing dEpartMEnt +1 212 705 8939
rESponSibility for thE SubStancE of articlES rests upon
the authors, not IEEE, its organizational units, or its members.
Articles do not represent official positions of IEEE. Reader
comments will be posted online, or published in print as space
allows, and may be excerpted for publication. The publisher
reserves the right to reject any advertising

02.14

citing articlES in iEEE SpEctruM IEEE Spectrum publishes an international and a North American edition, as
indicated at the bottom of each page. Both have the same editorial content, but because of differences in advertising, page
numbers may differ. In citations, you should include the issue designation. For example, Dataflow is in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 51,
no. 2 (INT), February 2014, p. 60, or in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 51, no. 2 (NA), February 2014, p. 72.

Sharon Basco
Francesco Ferorelli,

rEprint pErMiSSion / librariES Articles may be photocopied for
private use of patrons. A per-copy fee must be paid to the Copyright
Clearance Center, 29 Congress St., Salem, MA 01970. For other
copying or republication, contact Business Manager, IEEE Spectrum.
copyrightS and tradEMarkS IEEE Spectrum is a registered
trademark owned by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers Inc. Careers, EEs' Tools & Toys, EV Watch, Progress,
Reflections, Spectral Lines, and Technically Speaking are
trademarks of IEEE.

photograph by

Tom Mishima

http://SPectrUm.ieee.orG

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum February, 2014