The way I see ‘Pete Souza: The Way I See It’
His attention to detail, his instinct for the emotion and his professionalism under fire made me want to study Pete Souza for my Advanced Photojournalism midterm project. As a Chief official White House photographer, Souza, is someone I look up to as a visual storyteller. Here is my take on his work as the timestamp for America during multiple presidencies and how he was able to bring us into the office that few understand and even fewer get to experience.
A screen capture of the official trailer for the 2020 documentary “Pete Souza: The Way I See It.” The original photo caption: ‘President Barack Obama walks along the West Colonnade of the White House with Chief White House Photographer Pete Souza Feb. 18, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)’
Pete Souza, who served as the ‘chief official White House photographer for the Obama administration’, was featured in the 2020 documentary “Pete Souza: The Way I See It.” He shot approximately 2 million photos during the 2 terms of Barack Obama’s presidency, as many as 2,000 pictures a day. In those 8 years, his role was to document the presidency for history - to ‘always be ready, because you never know when history is going to be made.” His goal though was to go beyond that and show what kind of man he was. “Not only what he was like as a president, but what he was like as a human being.” His task: be a fly on the wall. His request: “I have to have access to everything.”
Souza’s history included having formally served as official WH photographer for the Reagan administration, and knew from personal experience how exhausting the job would be: physically and emotionally. He met Obama when he pitched taking photos for a series of articles for the Chicago Tribune to document the new senators first year. Obama said that he liked the photos Souza took and that he became someone he could trust. “He knows how to get his shot, without being intrusive.”
Souza’s photos have a warmth to them. They could easily have been a bunch of stiff pictures of stiff people shaking hands and ‘grin and bear it’ for the camera. But then there was an honesty to them. Because of his demand to have access all the time where he was sometimes the only outsider in the room, and his presence touted the president’s arrival. I appreciate that he took that responsibility seriously. He may have been a ‘historian with a camera’ but it was not partisan for him. He even mentioned that some of his best photos of Reagan, whom he did not agree with on much, were those unplanned moments. A lesser photographer could have used that proximity to tinge his photographs with that- but Souza chose to share the human side and the complexity of a man.
“Hair Like Mine” is a photograph made by chief official White House photographer for the Obama administration, Pete Souza. (Wikimedia Commons)
Souza at one point in the documentary spoke seriously about feeling the importance of documenting not only Obama as president but as an African American making great strides in history and the importance of
incorporating what that meant into his photography. When looking at these photos he’s speaking of how they ‘evoke past’ and ‘preserve the here and now.’ Photos like Obama meeting Ruby Bridges standing in front of the
famous painting, the photo of Obama sitting on the bus of Rosa Parks featuring the whites only and colored section, and the photo of Jacob Philadelphia rubbing the president's head because he was proud that he had the same haircut.
I appreciated how Souza spoke about how especially for this job in the White House he had to anticipate movements and moments. “Boom, it happens and then it’s gone.” This showed he took pride in his work and was
not willing to be content with just point and click. I plan to be more mindful of this and watch the room to see where the story is - where the emotion is. In this, I was also shocked to see so many detail shots. In my mind, I see mid level shots showing the action and wide scene setting shots of the Oval Office and White House. To see photos of Obama’s marked up speech with scribbles and doodles, a close up of Barack and Michelle holding hands, young Clark Reynolds looking up at the president showed a lot of emotion and this really struck me to sit up and take notice of the extra oomph it brought to the story.
Something else that struck me was how Souza still takes his role seriously. “I'm not literally in the room anymore, but I know what happens in the room.” He was there to visually document history, but left so much more in his photos. It could have been just the who, what, where, when... but he added the why with his eye. People look at that time and say “That is my America in these pictures.” I admit that sometimes, the assignment can get the better of you and you just need to take photos, but I see that the quality over the
quantity is what I want to aspire for.
Souza brought up something that I have wondered about and didn’t know how to achieve: his appreciation of quiet cameras, and leaving a ‘Small footprint’ so as to not upset the moment happening in the room. Cameras
are so loud - are there really quiet cameras?
And then something that you, Professor Monica Almeida, have instilled in us: “It's just a tool, it's not the camera that makes the picture, it's the photographer.”
Values that Peter Souza spoke about in all three of the videos I watched were decency, empathy and integrity. These were already things that I hold high in my values, but loved seeing them inspire his photos, his work and
his work ethic.
These photos by Peter Souza say so much about the Obama Presidency and about him as a man, but do not even show his face. I think this says a lot about Souza’s craft. One could see these photos and could have a strong sense of the time in history we are looking at and who is being represented in the images. Wow.
Sources:
White House photographer Pete Souza (CBS Sunday Morning)
SPOTLIGHT: Pete Souza (Adorama)
Pete Souza: The Way I See It, 2020 (by Dawn Porter)
