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January 15th, 2009 at 12:02 pm

Barack Obama Official Presidential Portrait

Barack Obama official presidential portrait by White House photographer Peter Souza

Here is Barack Obama’s official Presidential portrait by the newly appointed official White House photographer Pete Souza; the first ever taken with a digital camera. See the photo and a video interview with the photographer here.

Souza is a freelance photographer and assistant professor of photojournalism at Ohio University. Previously he was an official White House photographer for President Ronald Reagan, the national photographer for the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau, and a freelance photographer for National Geographic Magazine.

Souza’s latest book, the New York Times bestseller, The Rise of Barack Obama was published in July 2008 and includes exclusive photographs of Obama dating back to 2005. Souza extensively documented Obama’s first year in the Senate and accompanied him on trips to seven countries including Russia, Kenya and South Africa, and also photographed him during the Presidential campaign.

Pete Souza, The Rise of Barack Obama

Souza is also the author of two books documenting President Reagan’s years in the Oval Office, Unguarded Moments: Behind-the-Scenes Photographs of President Reagan (1992) and Images of Greatness: An Intimate Look at the Presidency of Ronald Reagan by Triumph Books (2004.)

In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Souza discussed his new appointment as White House photographer.

“[Barack Obama has] been a great subject for me because presence of the camera in intimate situations doesn’t bother him,” said Souza. “He’s oblivious to it. That’s all a photojournalists wants: to capture real moments.” [...]

“There’s a lot of waiting for things to happen,” he said. “There are a lot of routine, tedious meetings to cover. Yet anytime a meeting involves a president of the United States, by nature, it is historic. You’ve got to try to make good pictures for the sake of history.” [...]

“In order for that to happen, you’ve got to have a president and an administration that allows access for the photographer when real things are going on,” he said. “I’m there for history. I’m not there for photo-ops. I’m there to document what is going on behind the scenes.”

Source: Chicago Tribune: Former Tribune photog gets White House post

Souza’s digital portrait of the 44th President of the United States is indeed a first.

Since the image is digital, the EXIF data can also be seen. According to the information, the portrait was taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II on January 13, 2009 at 5:38pm. The lens used was 105mm stopped to F/10 at a 1/125 exposure, with an ISO setting of 100. Source: Fudzilla: Obama’s presidential portrait first to use digital camera

Photo source: Change.gov Book cover image source: WHNPA

Here is a video interview with Pete Souza discussing his experiences photographing Obama.

YouTube Link

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