TRADITION OF
DOCUMENTING HISTORY
Souza would end up returning to the venerated position of official White House photographer. “Before Kennedy, there would be
photographers from the Department of the
Interior assigned to photograph ceremonial
events at the White House,” Souza says,
adding that Yoichi Okamoto was eventually
awarded the first permanent gig.
“With Kennedy, there were just two
military guys that were assigned to the White
House. After the assassination, Lyndon B.
Johnson hired Okamoto to document his
presidency. LBJ was really the first president to officially appoint a photographer to
document his history, and Okamoto set the
bar so high that everybody’s been trying to
reach his level since then. If you look at
Okamoto’s photographs, that’s most certainly the bar that I try to meet.
“I’m documenting for history,” he adds. “I
have a window to Obama’s world that nobody
else does. I’m trying to make the most of it,
making pictures for the archives that hopefully people in 50 years will be able to go
back to and study and get a good sense of
what this president was like.”
WORKING THROUGH
CONTROVERSY
Not everyone views the president and his
policies in a positive light—and that includes
a number of news photographers on the White
House beat who’ve accused the administration
of shutting them out of important presidential events. Described by The New York
Times as a “mutiny” in response to a “Sovietstyle news service,” the long-simmering dispute came to its denouement when the
White House Correspondents’ Association
and 37 news organizations sent a protest
letter to White House Press Secretary Jay
Carney, which read in part:
“Journalists are routinely being denied
April 2014 • Professional Photographer • 77