The congratulations are still pouring in for Southold photographer Randee Daddona, who won her first Emmy Saturday night. At a press event yesterday in Greenport, over and over, friends and colleagues stopped Daddona to tell her how happy they were to hear that she’d received such a great honor.
“My kids say I’m famous,” Daddona said, laughing as she described the outpouring of hometown love she’s received since the win.
Daddona, a photographer, videographer and photojournalist, took home the Emmy for a video and feature photo essay she created for Newsday about Scott Bollman’s North Fork Sea Salt. The Emmys took place Saturday night at the Marriot Marquis in New York.
And this week, Daddona described the exciting night, which began with a cocktail hour. “I was looking around, and I still didn’t believe where I was,” she said, adding that when she got her hair and makeup done, it was easier to imagine she was heading to a wedding than to the Emmys.
“I’m more of a behind the scenes person,” she said. “There were celebrities, newscasters and paparazzi and at first, I thought, ‘Oh, no, I didn’t bring my camera. I’m supposed to be taking photos.’ I felt as though I should be working.”
But it was Daddona’s night to shine, hobnobbing with the likes of Dr. Ruth, news anchor Michael Gargiulo, and others.
“Eventually, they opened the doors and I got really nervous, it was a really big room and there were lots of cameras,” she said.
Seated with the rest of her Newsday colleagues for dinner, Daddona was surprised when a cameraman asked to interview her. “I said, ‘You want to interview me?’ I’m the one who always does the interviews. What was I doing in front of the camera? It was very unnerving. It was very different, being on that side.”
Next, Daddona and her husband Lenny relaxed and enjoyed dinner; she was told that if she won, she’d have 20 seconds to give her acceptance speech.
“I didn’t write a speech,” she said. “I didn’t think was going to win.”
Sitting at their table, Daddona said a video was shown on a big screen of the nominated works, and hers was included in the montage. “All of a sudden, I saw my clip, and I said, ‘That’s mine!’ Even if I hadn’t won, the fact that they put my work up there, that was fun.”
Seated far in the back of the room, Daddona said the award ceremony went at a rapid clip and soon, Dr. Ruth was presenting to the nominee right before Dadonna’s category, “Best Environmental Feature.”
Then, Daddona said, the moment arrived. “I drew a blank of everyone around me,” she said. “I was shaking. Then, the presenter said, ‘And the Emmy goes to. . . .'” Dadonna said. “But there was a delay because she couldn’t open the envelope.”
And then came the moment of a lifteime: Daddona’s name and the name of her feature were announced.
“Everyone was screaming at my table. I said, ‘I have to go up there?’ I was so afraid.” Accompanied by her editor and producer, “I felt like I needed Mapquest to get to the stage; it was so far away,” she said. “There was music playing, and I was almost running, until I got to the steps.”
Accepting the award, Daddona said, “The first thing I said was, ‘Hi, I’m speechless. I’m really speechless, because I didn’t write a speech.'”
Once she started to speak, however, Daddona relaxed and even began to joke, thanking her husband Lenny and her five children “all with the same husband.”
She also thanked her junior high school teacher from Brooklyn, Sylvia Lederman-Hyland, who inspired her. Later in life, Daddona was able to meet her teacher again and thank her in person. “I felt like I was going to meet a rock star; she was my idol,” she said, “I gave her a photograph and I told her that I was doing what I love, because of her. She took me to galleries, she inspired me. She took me under her wing and she told me she believed in me, that I loved what I was doing and I was going to go far.”
Her teacher, she said, was so touched by Daddona’s thanks that when she passed away, her husband sent her a note explaining what her words of gratitude had meant to his wife. “It’s important, if someone out there inspires you, whether it’s a teacher or anyone else, don’t wait until it’s too late,” she said.
After her win, Daddona felt the lights and the cameras shining on her big moment. “You’re smiling with the Emmy and you don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know how I got back to the table. Lenny showed up and he said, ‘Randee, you won!’ While I was there, I kept telling myself to stop and remember every moment because it was awesome. It was just surreal.”
Another newscaster heard Daddona talk about her children and was so impressed with the working mom’s ability to juggle her family and work responsibilities, she mentioned Dadonna on the news the next morning.
The night was one she will always remember, Daddona said; after the Emmy ceremony, she and her husband attended an after-party at the Hard Rock Cafe.
Back at home, Daddona’s friends and loved ones feel as though they’ve got a bonafide celebrity in their midst. Daddona, whose Emmy is still on her desk right now — the band engraved with her name hasn’t yet arrived — said when she got back home, her kids ran up to her and said, ‘Mom, You’re famous. Everyone is talking about you.”
But even sprinkled with the stardust of the red carpet experience, Daddona still has her feet firmly planted on North Fork soil.
“All I did was film something that pretty much spoke for itself,” she said. “Look where we live. My job was easy.”
And while the Emmy was a lifetime honor, Daddona said she finds satisfaction in her job with every new assignment and person whose story she brings to life. “I just want to tell more stories,” she said.
Jet-lagged from all the excitement and feeling much as Cinderella must have, after the ball, Daddona is back, camera around her neck, doing what she loves best. “Now, I want to get back to work,” she said. “On to the next story. It was a nice honor, and it’s great to have, but to me, the ones whose lives I’m documenting are the winners. They’re all working so hard, inspiring others, giving us good things. I want to be a story teller, and there’s a story everywhere, and it’s always different, every day.”
As for the huge outpouring of excitement from her North Fork peeps, Daddona said, “I’m kind of bashful. I’m taking it with a grain of salt, pun intended.”
