I’m guessing it was just the author, but as someone who has done portraits in a food production facility…it’s not easy. I was using off camera lights but finding a backdrop that isn’t insanely busy, balancing that with the terrible overhead lighting, and trying to get good expressions out of people when it’s so loud you need to wear ear muffs is portrait photography on very hard mode.
About a decade ago, newspapers started laying off all their photographers and handing out iPhones to reporters. It's why the quality of photographs in almost all news stories absolutely sucks. Poor autofocus, huge depth of field, no perspective control because it's a fixed focal length lens and wide one at that...and at least back then, lackluster exposure control - all operated by someone with no experience in photography, much less an actual degree in photojournalism.
