Remember a five-year-old boy touching the former US President Barack Obama’s head at Oval House? Or Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin together on the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings? Or the tense Situation Room during the mission against Osama Bin Laden? These pictures and such like, which became Internet’s most viewed and shared pictures from the Barack Obama presidency, were largely captured by the celebrated former White House photographer Pete Souza.
Over the course of eight years as the Chief Official White House Photographer, Souza took about two million pictures (now at the National Archives), most became online sensations within a few hours after getting uploaded. Not many are aware, however, that this was Souza’s second stint at the White House. He had earlier worked with the 40th US President, Ronald Reagan. One notable difference in both times was certainly the Internet and social media — giving the world a glimpse of the inner workings of the Oval House. “Honestly, I didn’t look at the job any differently because of social media.
A lot of the pictures were largely shared on the Internet though. But you don’t click thinking it’ll go viral,” says the 64-year-old, recently in Hyderabad for a masterclass at the PEP Summit (photography meet) 2019. The second time around, Souza was also shooting in digital format, which he mentions didn’t change the approach, but only made it reach a larger audience.
“The primary function for me was to create a body of work that people can look back at and remember Obama’s presidency for years to come — irrespective of the format. The challenge has always been to make unique photographs. So many people use smartphones to capture moments today. One could take a bad picture either way. The tool doesn’t matter as much,” he explains.
History in the making
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Souza worked with many news media organisations and magazines, before his posting as the official White House photographer. “When I worked with a newspaper, I had different things to click. These were also planned, but at the White House your subject is the President, and that was the challenge.” Souza further adds that he never knew when history was going to happen. “While driving to the White House, sometimes I’d wonder why there was no schedule and nothing was exciting. But you still need to be ready knowing that any particular day could become historic.”
Capturing contrasts
Post his tenure with the White House, Souza has published two books — Obama: An Intimate Portrait and Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents — the first, featuring photographs of Obama and the latter of Obama with tweets from Donald Trump. He also continues to share pictures, mostly of the Obamas, on his personal Instagram account. About his posts, you can say, appear like a political commentary on the current administration.
“My photographs portray how people in the White House during Obama’s time took things seriously and looked at the evidence. There were intelligent discussions before taking the right decisions for the people. The current administration disregards these things,” he explains, saying that he would rather just let his pictures do the talking.