Summer 2017 Edition
Alumni & Friends Magazine
Pete Souza: Behind the images
What’s one of your first stops after spending eight years photographing the leader of the world’s most influential nation? For Pete Souza, it was to return to Ohio University and deliver his first presentation of work from his past life as the former President Barack Obama’s chief official White House photographer.
By Kelee Garrison Riesbeck, BSJ, CERT ’91 | June 15, 2017
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Souza was an assistant professor in the Scripps College of Communication’s School of Visual Communication when Obama called and asked him to serve as the photojournalist who would document Obama’s presidency. He said yes. After eight years, Souza and his staff amassed thousands of images documenting the 44th president’s formal and personal moments. He also developed a strong bond and friendship with Obama, born when Souza covered then Senator Obama for The Chicago Tribune.
Souza’s book, Obama: An Intimate Portrait: The Historic Presidency in Photographs, is scheduled for publication in November by Little, Brown and Company and will contain a collection of more than 300 of Souza’s photographs.
Watch ohiotoday.org’s “Pete Souza: Behind the Images,” and listen to Souza and former colleague Marcia Nighswander, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and Professor of Visual Communications, discuss the stories behind the photos he curated for OHIO’s spring, 2017 “Pete Souza Exhibit,” a collection of select images from the Obama presidency. The exhibit, his visit, and his presentation were part of the Scripps College of Communication’s annual Schuneman Symposium for Photojournalism & New Media.— Kelee Garrison Riesbeck, BSJ, CERT ’91, editor, Ohio Today
