It was a week of firsts.
On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn into office as America’s 44th president. For the first time in our country’s history, we felt as if the veil of racism could be lifted.
From the whistle stop train ride to the performances by Bruce Springsteen and Yo-Yo Ma to the first family’s move into their new home on Pennsylvania Avenue, we thrilled at every detail of the spectacle.
While we watched from afar, former White House photographer Robert McNeely and a team of award-winning photojournalists documented the inaugural events.
In another first, on April 29, the 100th day of Obama’s presidency, their photographs were published in the Official Barack Obama Inaugural Album the first ever print-on-demand album that documents, celebrates, and personalizes a major American historical moment.
Here’s how it works: Utilizing Kodak’s print-on-demand technology, consumers can visit www.InauguralAlbum.com, upload their own Inaugural photographs alongside the professional images and immediately create their own personalized 42-page hardcover commemorative keepsake, marking a new era in photography, and in politics.
Also available is the Official Barack Obama Inaugural Book, a large-format coffee table book that can be customized with a personal photograph on the back cover. The 196-page book contains 200 photographs and essays by leading authors.
In addition, large-scale photographic archival prints from the Inaugural Project were featured in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History exhibition, “I Do Solemnly Swear: Photographs of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration,” which runs through July 12, 2009.
Read on as we talk with McNeely, who has been covering presidents and politics since 1972 about where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re heading.
First of all, thanks for taking time to talk with us. What amazed you most about this year’s inauguration?
It was a real experience watching a totally unknown candidate rise as people became more aware of his abilities, and his hopes for America. I’m amazed by the process of the American primary system. Every four years, we get the incredible opportunity to see parts of the country where the candidates are traveling. I’m also excited about the inaugural book and the inaugural album, which we created with the pictures coming up though kodak.com and galleries. They’re real remembrances of this time, of the beginning of the Obama presidency, a time of a lot of hope in the country.
The Inaugural Week
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What was the actual inauguration like?
It was such an intense time. Washington being a predominantly African-American city, there was an extraordinary sense of excitement in that community. I haven’t seen a true crowd count for the inaugural day, but I’m sure that I have never seen that many people in Washington in all the years I was there. And photographing both the president and first lady was enjoyable. They’re sharp people — they deal with people directly. They’re both very animated, which makes for good pictures. And they’re comfortable having photographers around. They understand that’s part of what it means to be public figures.
Of course, on the inaugural day itself, I chose to be on the mall, photographing the millions of people participating. It was visually and photographically rewarding to walk through the crowds and get a sense of what people were thinking and feeling.
How did you start out as a photographer?
I didn’t get started till I was in the Army. They had a recreational photo lab in Viet Nam where we could take our film. I still remember having someone show me how to develop the film, how to use the enlarger, and you make that first image and it starts coming in. It’s a great process. Trying to communicate what you want through that image. I don’t get the same satisfaction out of printing an image that I’ve downloaded to my computer and run through a printer. As for entering into the profession, I started out as a street photographer, which is a niche. Other than a few gallery shows and a book every 10 or 15 years, it’s not hugely rewarding in terms of making a living. It’s more of a creative and artistic outlet. But I discovered that I liked politics. And that was the area that I found most fit into my aesthetics. I could bring my sense of street photography and people watching, and make the pictures that I wanted to make.
Like Organized Street Photography
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What was your first political campaign?
My first campaign was in 1972 with George McGovern. I was living in San Francisco at the time, working in a camera store for materials, and spending all my free time wandering the streets. I had a darkroom in my apartment. I found working with McGovern was like organized street photography. Rather than wandering out on the street with people, I actually flew all over the country in an airplane with a guy running for president. Obviously, I made pictures of the candidate that they could put on posters, the commercial side of political photography, but at the same time, I was able to make my pictures. And since I liked politics, at the end of that, I decided there was only one thing to do, and that was move to Washington, D.C.
What did you do when you first got there?
I covered Nixon’s impeachment, which was a pretty exciting time in Washington, and continued to photograph, working for Time magazine. Then in 1976, I covered the presidential primaries in New Hampshire, and worked with a lot of really great journalists, and started enjoying the political process even more. I ended up going into the Carter White House for three years, as a White House photographer, beginning in 1977. I spent most of that time photographing Vice President Walter Mondale, who traveled more, and was more interesting to photograph. I did photograph Carter in the Oval Office, and went on some small trips with him, but he rarely traveled and had little appreciation for photography.
When that ended, I went back out into the magazine world and did a lot of projects and portraiture, and I had a studio in Washington for a few years. But in 1992, I was asked to be Clinton’s photographer. I worked as his personal photographer for six years. I left primarily to work on my book, The Clinton Years — which was shot entirely on KODAK PROFESSIONAL Black-and-White Film — but also because it was the end of his effectiveness as President. The Lewinski scandal had become the dominant news story at that point.
Where do your politics come in and how do you keep that separate?
I don’t know that you can keep them separate. I’ve photographed tons of people in politics. I always try to take the photograph that is cleanly in front of me. When you spend six years photographing somebody, like I did with Clinton, you have to like the person. But I wanted to make pictures that would capture a sense of reality. That would hold up in a historical sense. Not every day was a perfect day at the Clinton White House, like anywhere, so you feel as a journalist, your job is to make pictures of what you see in front of you, objectively.
But, you can’t become someone who only takes pictures of people you like, or someone who makes pictures of people you don’t like to make them look bad. When I photographed Nixon during his impeachment, I didn’t set out to make him look like the evil man I thought he was. At the same time, you take the picture that is there. You bring to any photographic assignment your own outlook, ideas, and point of view. You can’t hide from that. But you have to be objective if what you’re doing is trying to represent history.
It’s like time capsules. When you make a picture, you’re taking little time capsules and burying them. I hope people will find them and keep them and get something from them.
Given all the political figures you’ve chronicled, and the history that you’ve witnessed, what strikes you as different about Obama?
I think a lot of people go into politics because they need the acclaim, they need to be the center of attention. I don’t get that from him. I get a real sense of service. I don’t think he got into it to prove to himself that he was worthwhile. There have been some tragic presidencies. Look at Richard Nixon, and the combination of his need to be loved with the paranoia and hatred. Look at Bill Clinton. I liked the man’s politics, I like him personally, but at the same time, his presidency suffered from some things that were self-inflicted. I don’t sense that in Obama. I see a very bright and thoughtful intellectual. The time I spent around Obama, I found him to be a “comfortable in his own skin” kind of person. Someone who enjoys people, enjoys life, but also feels a sense of mission.
Do you see yourself getting back into the realm of politics, or was the inaugural project a one-time event?
I think it’s a one-time event. I’m very optimistic about Obama’s presidency. But I have no curiosity or interest in staying in Washington. By that I mean, if I have an assignment around a specific story that would involve black-and-white photography, I would probably enjoy doing it, because I’m that optimistic about this presidency. But I feel that those six years in the White House really satisfied my desire. And there’s a really good photographer in the White House right now, Pete Souza. And I don’t know if he’s going to have the opportunity to shoot black-and-white. The White House has changed the way it’s documented now. I had a complete black-and-white darkroom and I had great printers, and technicians doing my film. It’s pretty much done all digitally now.
Reducing Distraction with Black-and-White
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Speaking of black-and-white, you’re a big fan of KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX Film. Why?
The fascinating thing about KODAK T-MAX Film is that with the 100, 400, and 3200 speeds, it offers an across-the-board ability to work in all different lights. From bright sun to open shade to moderate light. From fast action to very low light. And they all have textural and tonal similarity. There is continuity.
You’ve talked in the past about your love of black-and-white. Can you elaborate for us today?
It captures detail. There’s obviously a sense of realism in color. You look at it and go, “Yep, that’s the way it looks.” Black-and-white pulls out some of the distractions, the eye candy aspect of it. You’ve reduced it to a place where certain details and certain aspects become more important. And I have found that emotion is more readable with black-and-white. There’s more of who people are, what they’re thinking. Obviously, there have been striking images made of people in color. But black-and-white, by reducing a lot of the visual distraction, brings up certain details that can then communicate an awful lot.
What’s your criteria for a good image?
I love pictures that make the eye move around, that give you a sense of seeing something you haven’t seen before in the world. A good picture entertains you, it makes you laugh, makes you cry, shows you something of the world that you might not have known, or didn’t know as well as you thought you did. It reveals something.
The large-scale images for the Smithsonian exhibition, “I Do Solemnly Swear: Photographs of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration” were printed on KODAK SUPRA ENDURA Paper. Why that paper?
It’s such a beautiful paper. What can I say? It’s the color. The contrast. The archival properties — And the fact that the prints look so gorgeous hanging on the wall.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Take lots of pictures. Just keep taking pictures and do it in a way that allows you to enjoy the process. I’m kind of curious about someone starting today — if they’re shooting digitally, how do they deal with their imagery over time? I find the picture sort of opens up and communicates to you over time when you’re able to look at it in a book, hold a print in your hands, or put a print on the wall. You can continue to look at it, and learn from it. You can do that with a digital frame, but I would encourage that process of actually having a print in your hand to look at over time.
What’s next?
I’ve got a few projects in the works. One of which is a body of portraits of people where I live — from carpenters to veterinarians to family farmers. I’ve found our culture’s infatuation and deification of celebrities to be part and parcel of the situation we find ourselves in. We’ve glorified the materialistic surface of our culture. But basically, I’m looking forward to continuing to photograph. That’s one of the things you can do your whole life. Arnold Newman continued to work through his 80s and made wonderful pictures. It’s a creative medium that’s very satisfying and is one of those things I feel very lucky to do. I’ll be doing it as long as I can get the camera up to my eye and push the button.
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