Life Highlights: Pete Souza Event

Today my boss generously gave me a seat in the auditorium to hear Pete Souza, the official photographer of the Obama Administration, talk about his new book and some of the pictures therein.  It was above and beyond anything I expected (which was, mainly, a slideshow of his work with a comment here or there).  Instead, I got an inside look into the stories behind the book, who Obama was like as a president, father, husband, and individual, and what it was like to be the official documentarian of a presidency.  Below were some of the photography notes I took during the event:

• The official job of the White House Photographer - to visually document a presidency for history (a position since the Kennedy Administration)
• Be there for the "little moments"
• Know where a "contrast moment" could be had (ie Obama sitting in a windowless, basement office as a senator versus at the Oval Office; him unknown in Moscow versus now, etc.)
• Inserts offer insight to character (ie Obama's speech edits - demonstrate how he thinks, works, edits, talks with others, etc.)
• Blend in with the room, don't interfere, and get a quiet camera
• Your shot doesn't have to be perfectly composed if you can still get the vulnerable moments (ie Obama being petted on the head by the five-year-old boy - you can still see the eyes of the boy, the posture of Obama, etc. even if it wasn't perfectly composed)
• "You run an election to win; once you get there you need to get things done." - Obama
• Contrasts are key - ie the tension in the Bin Laden room with the most powerful people in the federal government now powerless to watch the people on the ground
• Obama was constantly editing up until he was live
• "Aesthetic versus Narrative" - what the presidency is like versus the personal narrative of the subject
• Little slice of life moments can't be planned - be willing to be there for them and they can show you aspects of the subject's character
• Before/After shots of wounded soldiers - again, contrast for the emotional response
• Being true to history versus subjective sympathetic leanings (ie should Souza include a photo of Trump in his book about the Obama presidency - not to mention sales impact)
• Contrast of a day - ie the day Trump went to meet with Obama (hopeless) versus the young boy to meet with Obama later in the day (hopeful)
• Social media exploded during the Obama administration, so the popularity of photos shared changed drastically
• The role of the photographer - observer versus participant; essentially being so close to a subject for so long allowed a type of confidant relationship regarding a shared experience
• "Make versus Take" photos - changes the agency of the photographer (you can't plan on certain moments happening)