It’s common knowledge now that the best thing to come out of those numb-skull riots that hit Vancouver a few weeks back was this photo. You’ve possibly seen it on one of a million possible places, perhaps Jay Leno or Esquire. It’s been hailed as iconic, historic and one of the greatest images of all time (mostly by random people on the Internet. Not that their opinion doesn’t count.)

I used to work at The Canadian Press with Rich Lam, the freelance photographer who took the photo. He’s a low-key and super friendly guy. Always a lot of fun to work with. So I was beyond thrilled to see him getting the attention he so rightly deserved.

When there was the inevitable Internet chatter that the photo was staged, I didn’t worry that the truth would soon come out. Rich doesn’t do his job to be famous or recognized. He does it because he loves taking photos of action. He’s not one of them artistic types. He’s a news photographer.

Anyhow, we met up this week to chat about what happens to your life after you go viral. Rich has a pretty chill vibe, but when I saw him, I could tell he was still high from the last few weeks.

Since I’d already read about how things went down the night he got the shot, I wanted to pick up on how he’s handling all the attention.

It started the morning after the riots, when he got a call from NPR. They asked him how he felt that his photo was the third most-searched image on the Internet. After he did a brief interview, he checked his email. He had 40, which was surprisingly high. Then the interviews started coming in. He spent the next two days talking to the press (which Getty compensated him for), replying to emails and defending his work.

“I took it as a personal attack on me, my ethics, my integrity as a newspaper photographer,” he said of the accusations that the photo was staged. “By the end of [the day he had worked covering Game 7], it’s like at 13 hours in, and we’re not sitting around screwing around with an image. That’s the last thing we want to do.”

Getty had never received that kind of media attention and were apprehensive on how to deal with the backlash. Many of Rich’s colleagues and employers stood up for him and his work. That made him feel really nice in his heart.

After the couple came forward, the accusations died down and Rich was able to keep on enjoying his moment. At a recent industry event he was shooting, the emcee mentioned Rich was in the crowd and he suddenly became part of the night’s entertainment, taking photos with people and signing autographs. (I’m jealous.)

While Rich doesn’t consider himself an artist, most of the feedback he’s received praises his artistic merit. And he’s gotten a lot of praise. People from around the world have contacted him through his (desperately dated) website to request copies.

He credits Getty for the success of the photo, because of their international reach. The company owns the rights to it, though Rich is allowed to use it for self-promotion. Since the image hit the wire, Getty offices around the world have been flooded with rabid interest. They’re currently in talks with an art website to sell it as a print.

I was most surprised to hear that Rich hasn’t gotten any lucrative offers from all this craziness. Unlike how I’d imagine I’d be, he’s not terribly concerned or bitter. He sees this whole experience as fun, and is clearly grateful for the recognition. And to end on a cliché, he’s just going to keep doing his thing.

“I really enjoy shooting and I’m blessed that I’m still able to do it because it’s tough out there,” he said. “We’re not here to get rich. If I wanted to be rich, I’d go back to school and be an investment banker.”

This post originally appeared at Elianna Lev's I'm A Good Story.