Front Row Seat: An Inside Look at the White House Photo Office and the History of Presidential Photography

As a White House Photo Editor, I had a front row seat to history. From photographs of President George W. Bush standing atop the rubble of the World Trade Center to images of President Barack Obama monitoring the raid on Osama Bin Laden, I have touched consequential pictures and witnessed firsthand the power of Presidential photographs to document and shape not only the national conversation but also global culture and politics. The documentation of the Presidency has evolved in step with the medium of photography, moving from Matthew Brady’s studio portraits of Lincoln to the creation and worldwide dissemination of former Chief White House Photographer Pete Souza’s 1.9 million digital images during the Obama administration. By tracing the lineage of Brady’s first portraits of Lincoln at the Cooper Union to Souza’s images of Obama in Situation Room, this paper will combine anecdotal accounts, historical research, and critical analysis to survey Presidential photography. Specific case studies and personal accounts drawn from the Bush 43 and Obama administrations will be used to consider the role of the Presidential photograph from multiple perspectives – as both archival document and political propaganda – while examining the profound means by which White House photographs influence the “Presidential Look.”