Photographer Pete Souza Reflects On 8 Years (And 1.9 Million Photos) Of Obama
As the chief official White House photographer for President Obama, Pete Souza had top security clearance and sat in on most meetings and major events with the president.
“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.”
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.”
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. His new book, Obama: An Intimate Portrait, is a collection of his favorites.
Photos: Pete Souza/Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company, New York.
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