The Way I See It – Pete Souza
As the chief official White House photographer for President Barack Obama, Pete Souza had top security clearance and sat in on most meetings and major events with the president. In the role of White House photographer, Souza had unprecedented access behind-the-scenes to both presidents’ administrations, documented in his books “Obama: An Intimate Portrait,” and “Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents,” in which he compares Obama to President Donald Trump. In The Way I See It, you’ll get access to see the Obama and Reagan administrations through the eyes of Souza.
“I was there all the time,” he says. “I wasn’t talking to [Obama] all the time, but I was always in every meeting and pretty much every situation that he had as president.”
May 8, 2009
“A temporary White House staffer, Carlton Philadelphia, brought his family to the Oval Office for a farewell photo with President Obama. Carlton’s son softly told the President he had just gotten a haircut like President Obama, and asked if he could feel the President’s head to see if it felt the same as his.”
(Official White House photo by Pete Souza)
Obama and his national security team monitor the raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011.
Even today, Souza — a Boston University alum — and Obama still stay in touch. “We text occasionally, usually about sports. He’s a White Sox fan, I’m a Red Sox. He roots for the Bears, and usually, he’s rooting for whoever’s playing the Patriots,” Souza, 64, said with a laugh. “But I did get him to acknowledge that Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time.”
In Souza’s 2017 book, “Obama: An Intimate Portrait,” Obama wrote in the foreword:
“Over the course of eight years in the White House, I probably spent more time with Pete Souza than with anybody other than my family… Over those eight years, Pete became more than my photographer — he became a friend, a confidant, and a brother… We broke up long overnight flights with fiercely competitive card games… Having Pete around made my life better.”
During the Obama years, Souza posted current and archival photographs of the president’s daily life and amassed several hundred thousand followers. Although Souza left the White House in 2017, he remained on Instagram as a private citizen. But his choice of photos — and the captions he wrote — changed. Over the course of Obama’s eight years in office, Souza estimates that he took approximately 1.9 million photos — sometimes more than 2,000 each day.
Souza sought to minimize his presence at the White House by working with what he calls a “small footprint” — not using a noisy camera, not using flash, and moving around gingerly. “I’m not sure if ‘invisible’ is the right word,” he says. “But I was certainly trying to be a piece of the woodwork.”
To learn more please visit: The Way I See It