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If the eyes are the window to the soul, a lens may be the window to the soul of a presidency. Especially if the photographs were taken by Pete Souza, an official White House photographer for six years of the Reagan administration and chief official White House photographer for President Barack Obama's two terms.
At an event on Wednesday evening at the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis, Souza will present presidential photographs that "show the kind of persons they were, what their humanity was like, what kind of president they were."
He'll also provide the back story behind the images, including iconic ones like the photograph of Obama and several key administration figures, including then-Vice President Joe Biden and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, watching the Navy SEALs raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. Because of fears of losing the feed from Pakistan, the military and civilian officials squeezed into a tight room in the Situation Room complex, shoulder-to-shoulder as the gut-wrenching operation took place.
"That photograph," Souza said, "says so many things to me. One, the president of the United States is not even at the head of the table." Obama, recalled Souza, told the military officer, " 'No, you stay right there, I'll just pull up a chair next to you.' And because it was Sunday, he was not even in a suitcoat and tie." Recalling all the "most powerful people" in government there, Souza said, "And yet, in that picture, these guys that make all these important decisions were helpless, right? It's totally up to those guys on the ground. And so for [the] 40 minutes we were in that room you could just sort of feel the anxiety and the tension knowing how risky this raid was." Cognizant it could have ended up like former President Jimmy Carter's failed rescue mission to free hostages in Iran, "you can sort of see that etched on their faces in my photograph."
Such history means a different approach to photography, the former Chicago Tribune photographer said. "I totally consider the role as documenting the presidency for history, unlike working in a newspaper, where your concern is what's the best picture for tomorrow."
As examples, Souza recalled that every time Reagan or Obama phoned a foreign leader he thought about the historical context. "Now you'd say, 'it's just a picture of a guy on the phone.' " But "I want to be able to show if you can detect some mood or emotion taking place in this phone call just by the way he's interacting with this head of state on the phone." And: "Who else is in the room?"