That indelible picture of Barack Obama and five-year-old Jacob Philadelphia was shot in 2009 by the Chief Official White House Photographer, Pete Souza, who spent all day, every day with the president, capturing thousands of images. What led to the photo is one of the many stories Souza shared in his 2017 book, “Obama: An Intimate Portrait.”
He followed that up with “Shade: A Tale Of Two Presidents,” in which he juxtaposed images from the Obama and Trump administrations, usually in response to yet another outrageous remark from the Liar-In-Chief. Martha and I saw Souza when he came to St. Louis on his book tour in 2018, and marveled at not only the access he had, but how quickly he was able to capture so many historic moments.
Now, Souza’s work (in the White House of both Obama and Reagan) is featured in a documentary, “The Way I See It,” which debuts tonight on MSNBC. If it’s anything like the slide show presentation we saw, it will be fascinating, and a vivid reminder of the longing so many of us share for a return to a sane, competent leader in the Oval Office.