HE HAD EYE ON OBAMA
White House photog stars in doc
When Barack Obama celebrated the highs in his presidency, or mourned the loss of innocent lives as the nation grieved, or got word the U.S. had officially ended Osama Bin Laden’s reign of terror, one man was always in the room, preserving history with his camera.
White House photographer Pete Souza photographed the 44th president from the time Obama was a senator, and Souza’s many stories — and gripping images — star in the documentary “The Way I See It,” premiering Friday on MSNBC.
Oscar-winning actress Laura Dern, a producer on the film directed by Dawn Porter, recalled that Souza, who also photographed Ronald Reagan’s presidency, initially required some coaxing.
“We just begged Pete to, you know, let us not only archive the archivist and remind people the power of the truth through captured images, but also what leadership looks like when empathy and a respect for the office and who the president is meant to represent is held, no matter which party you’re involved in,” the “Marriage Story” star told the Daily News last month.
“I think that one of the most interesting things about my job is that all those highs and lows that [Obama] went through, I was in the room when it happened,” Souza, 65, told The News.
“So there’s this sort of unspeakable bond, in some ways, between us that I kind of shared those moments with him, even if it didn’t involve talking to him about it. I felt what he was feeling. And sometimes words didn’t need to be said between us.”
Souza, who often mocks President Trump online by juxtaposing his most outlandish tweets against pictures of a dignified Obama, started shooting the Illinois senator in 2004 during Obama’s first year in office.
When Obama was elected president four years later, Souza agreed to be the White House photographer on the condition he be guaranteed unfettered access to the Oval Office and beyond.
He was with Obama and his national security team in
2011 when they got confirmation that the U.S. has killed 9-11 evil mastermind Bin Laden, as seen in the photograph, “Situation Room.”
He and the president both endured the “competing emotions” of the Supreme Court upholding same-sex marriage on the same day Obama gave the eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, the
South Carolina senator killed in the racially motivated 2015 Charleston church shooting.
Two-and-a-half years earlier on Dec. 14, 2012, Souza witnessed Obama react to the devastating Sandy Hook shooting, which saw 20 elementary school children and six staffers brutally murdered.
“You never know the truth of how a moment impacts a human being without the intimacy of a relationship with that person,” said Dern.
“To watch as Pete captured the images from the same day when [Obama] came home and was holding his daughter after school and watch his heartbreak in his face, you knew that that man, that president was living through the experience of what another American was going through that day.”
Documenting the presidency wasn’t just about the days that shaped the nation, however. In his role as a professional fly on the wall, the “Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents” author also covered the little moments that make up a life, even one occupying the White House.
“[These photos are] a great window into the particular president, not only what they were like as president, but what they’re like as human beings,” said Souza.
While a definite rallying call meant to mobilize voters next month, Dern and Souza hope viewers focus on the actions of the current administration and the legacy of the Oval Office.
“I’m not doing this because Donald Trump is a Republican,” explained Souza. “I’m doing this because Donald Trump doesn’t understand what it means to be president, that being president means you’re president for everybody, that the presidency is not about you. It’s about us.
“And I didn’t want people to lose sight of that.”