White House photo editor, but 
I thought it would be a once in a 
lifetime opportunity to document 
a president for history, because 
that’s the primary function of that 
job is to create an archive that lives 
in perpetuity.”

 
While 
many 
of 
the 

circumstances 
were 
different 

when he was working for the 
Reagan administration compared 
to when he was working for the 
Obama 
administration, 
Souza 

acknowledged 
how 
vital 
the 

experience was for his career.

 “It taught me the inner 

workings of the White House,” 
he said. “I never thought that (I 
would) have another chance to 
be at the White House. But I said 
to myself if I did ever get a chance 
to go back, I would only go back 
as the chief photographer and I 

(would) make sure to get the best 
access that anyone has ever gotten 
and that I would try to create the 
best photographic archive that 
anybody have ever done.”

 Ensuring he received all-access 

to the president was incredibly 
important to Souza, and it was the 
pre-condition he gave to Obama 
upon 
accepting 
the 
position. 

This meant Souza received top-
security clearance, allowing him 
to document historic moments 
like the Osama Bin-Laden raid in 
the Situation Room. 

However, he noted gaining 

this trust was not easy at first, 
despite his four years of previous 
experience with Obama when he 
photographed him for the Sun-
Times.

 “You can have the president-

elect say you have access to 
everything but then as soon as 
you step in the Oval Office, things 
change,” Souza said. “So I had to 
earn the trust of the staff and the 

president. It took a few months 
but I think people understood 
that the president trusted me and 
was willing to give me access to 
these top secret meetings. It’s 
just something that you develop 
relationships with the people 
you’re photographing which is like 
a family type atmosphere.”

When 
reminiscing 
on 
his 

favorite 
photographs, 
Souza 

highlighted the smaller moments 
that revealed more about Obama 
as a human being.

 “One thing you can tell about 

a person is how they interact 
with other people,” Souza said. 
“(Obama) 
genuinely 
respects 

people from all walks of life. 
Whether it was the White House 
custodian or, you know, the chief 
of staff. And I think that that 
respect shows through in my 
photographs.” 

 
LSA 
junior 
Catharine 

Greenberg said she was excited 
to see hear more about working 

intimately with Obama.

 “What I appreciated 

most was the change to gain 
such an inside and intimate 
look into a presidency that 
meant so much to me and 
played such a crucial role in 
my life when I was growing 
up,” Greenberg said. 

 This 
sentiment 
was 

echoed 
by 
LSA 
junior 

Sydney 
Eisenberg, 
who 

lauded the genuine nature 
of Souza’s work. 

 “Souza 
made 
such 

a 
point 
to 
show 
the 

authenticity of every single 
photograph that he showed 
in 
his 
presentation 
or 

showed in his book. And 
he was so funny and it was 
a breath of fresh air from 
the 
Trump 
presidency, 

like getting this little kick-
back on Obama’s term,” 
Eisenberg said. 

 Souza also discussed 

that as chief White House 
photographer, he held the 
power of final review for all 
photographs released to the 
public. He wanted to ensure 
that if the wrong photo was 

released, the responsibility would 
fall solely on him.

 When asked if Souza released 

any pictures he wished he hadn’t, 
Souza chuckled and responded 
that “there were many.”

Specifically, 
he 
recalls 
a 

picture he released toward the 
end of Obama’s first term when 
the government was nearing a 
shutdown. The picture he took 
featured 
Obama 
surrounded 

by 10 to 12 advisers who were 
all male. This coincided with a 
story that there weren’t going to 
be enough women in the White 
House because Hillary Clinton 
was replaced with John Kerry as 
secretary of state. 

“The most prominent woman 

was being replaced by a man, so 
this was a very tone-deaf photo 
to put out. When in fact, as I like 
to point out to people, his top 
three national security advisers 
in the second term — the National 
Security 
adviser, 
the 
deputy 

National Security Adviser and 
the Homeland Security adviser — 
were all women,” Souza said. “But 
it was sort of a tone-deaf picture 
and it fed into this misconception 
of how he was staffing the second 
term.”

Toward 
the 
end 
of 
the 

presentation, Souza argued his 
Instagram posts serve as a form 
of resistance against Trump’s 
presidency.

“I think I’m part of the ‘Truth 

Squad,’ you know, that we have 
a president that disrespects the 
Office of the Presidency the 
way he constantly lies to the 
American people, bullies people 
that disagrees with him, doesn’t 
believe 
his 
own 
intelligence 

agency, has love affairs with 
dictators instead of our allies, 
makes racist comments, treats 
women with reckless disregard at 
times and I could go on and on,” 
Souza said. 

“And for me, politics aside, 

I worked for both Reagan and 
Obama (and) both of them 
respected the Office of the 

2 — Tuesday, November 27, 2018
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