Pete Souza reflects on his time photographing Barack Obama’s administration
The photographer says he took about two million photos during his eight years covering Obama.
The official White House press photographer has always been crucial in keeping a record of the behind the scenes work of an administration. During Pete Souza’s time documenting Obama’s eight years in office the work of photographing POTUS had to keep pace with the the rise of social media apps like Instagram.
August 4, 2015
In a new video from Adorama, Souza looks back on his time documenting the Obama administration and working with the digital team. He digs into fascinating topics like the thought process behind his editing, and even the types of gear that he used on the job.
June 4, 2015
“One of the main criteria for choosing which cameras to use is that I wanted quiet cameras,” he says in the video. “You are in a lot of sensitive meetings and I didn’t want to disturb what was going on.”
April 9, 2015
It’s pretty amazing to think just how much digital camera technology has improved since Souza took the job in 2009. Initially he selected a Canon 5D Mark II for the job—it seemed to have a quieter shutter than the Nikon options, and Sony’s line of mirrorless cameras didn’t even exist yet. Eventually he upgraded to the Canon 5D Mark III.
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Jan. 22, 2015
“If the administration was starting today, I may have made a different choice in which camera to use,” he says. “It’s just a tool, it’s not the camera that makes the picture, it’s the photographer. At the time I used what I thought as the best tool for the circumstance.”
Check out the full video above.
