Barack Obama, under the lens
Talk about being ahead of the curve...
Photographer Pete Souza began making Barack Obama the focus of his work back in early January 2005 -- on the day Obama was sworn in as a U.S. senator from Illinois, in fact.
Obama already was identified as a comer in Democratic politics but at that point, few anticipated how far and how quickly he would ascend. So Souza -- who takes a bipartisan approach to his craft; he served as the official White House photographer for Ronald Reagan-- was able to document much of Obama's path to the precipice of the Democratic presidential nomination without the impediments that now surround the candidate.
The result is a just-published photo-book, "The Rise of Barack Obama." More can be read about it and Souza in this post on The Swamp.
-- Don Frederick
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Posted by Don Frederick on July 1, 2008 in Books , Campaigning , Congress , Democratic Politics , Presidential Campaign , Senate | Permalink
Don Frederick has served as an editor helping guide coverage of every presidential election since 1984. He is a third-generation Washingtonian, so watching the political world comes naturally to him.
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000.
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This story seems vaguely familiar. Hmmm. Could it be because similar photo spreads were done for Bill Clinton during the 1992 election?
I remember getting it, free!, as a CD with a new Mac computer I purchased the next year. It was filled with dramatic shots sure to make the Clintons seems more heroic. Apple's way of helping the Clintons, I guess.
And now, the publisher of this new book, and the Swamp, and the Top of the Ticket are helping Obama. The question is, Is it intentional or not?
-Wm Tate,
http://www.atimelikethis.us/
Posted by: Wm Tate | July 02, 2008 at 06:19 AM