with me it's sort of like if if I happen to catch it and the messages at the top
yeah I'll usually respond yeah and then if I see I've got like 50 other messages
I go like you don't have to just can't do it yeah yeah I wasn't okay
I wasn't even sure if I got you guys like you even like look under that if
somebody else okay I don't all the time but I do occasionally look at the DMS
yeah from people I don't know and I often respond yeah so sorry I did it's all
good I won't believe me all right we're gonna get going here
Pete Sousa former White House photographer thank you for joining us
on focus yeah thanks for having me on I got to start here I kind of stumbled
across your ear and I say stumble I know about your work knew about your work
and I saw I think a picture that you had taken in Madison and I was like Pete
Sousa lives in Madison so like what is your connection to Madison well my
connection is our daughter was doing her residency here at UW and when when I
left the White House my wife came and visited her several times and came to
me one day and said I want to move to Madison to be near Cali and so that was
it so we bought a house here in Madison and now now we're following them again
to Illinois yeah because they have moved and we've got a four-year-old and a
one-year-old granddaughter so we want to be close to them in Illinois and how
long did you live here so we lived here for almost five years and so I was trying
to make the connection because the picture I saw was a picture from the
state capitol of someone singing and I thought I'd seen it in the capitol
times but I think I just saw it on your on your Instagram so you you still just
kind of take your camera around and just shoot pictures sure yeah no I yeah I
often go out and photograph my mate made two subjects these days are those two
granddaughters but I'm also like I photographed the eclipse on Monday in
Illinois we weren't quite at 100% totality but still I you know made
attempt to photograph I better picture an attempt from Pete Susan's probably
gonna be a pretty good photo good snap well I tried I experimented and got a
lot of reaction to the picture I posted on Instagram yeah now a lot of people
know you your work from being a White House photographer but you also work
for National Geographic for a little bit tell me a little bit about some of
the photos you did for that yeah I did I think three book assignments and two
for the magazine so this would have been in the 90s I did a photo essay on the
Big South Fork River in Kentucky and Tennessee and I did an essay photo essay
on the Piedmont region of North Carolina and both of those were published in
the magazine in I can't remember what year like I think the first one 93 and
the second one in 95 and then I did two travel books for them for National
Geographic and I did a photo essay on a hiking trail all that was in a book on
hiking trails yeah what's your preference on whether being a White House
photographer versus you mentioned your graphic those well that's your
geographic is completely different you know just completely different they're
two two different animals I will say that the experience that I had at National
Geographic really helped me I think when I became President Obama's photographer
because there's such an emphasis on light and color when you're worried
for National Geographic and and the way you compose a picture and so I think I
honed my craft you know a lot better with the experience from National
Geographic which I tried to carry through into the Obama White House yeah I'd be
curious to know what your thoughts are in terms of what was cool about taking
pictures in Wisconsin would you like would you see well I've lived three
blocks from the Capitol so that the Capitol was often either in the
background or the main subject in my photo but also you know you've got on
the isthas you've got a lake on either side and so there's you know
opportunities at each lake had the Arboretum I was in the Arboretum a lot
photographing just you know the and the fact that the Capitol is kind of the
center for big events whether it be a protest or you know some sort of a
rally and so in terms of like news type situations you know I only had to walk
three blocks and there I was yeah excuse me that gave me some water we'll get
some water that was are you good came out of nowhere that's okay
oh man sorry no you're good
let's hope that doesn't keep happening okay
no you're good I'll pick it up here so do you think we'll ever see a Madison
photo book probably not by me but I will say that I am hoping someday to do a
retrospective photo book you know from throughout my career and certainly there
will be photographs from Madison in that book I imagine you've seen a lot of our
state capitals what do you think of Madison's well this the state Capitol
Madison is very similar to the one in DC I mean it's almost you have to almost
do a double take they're so similar I think that was about design if I'm not
yeah yeah the big difference is you can just walk into the state Capitol here in
Madison anytime you want I mean you know when they're open whereas security in DC
is a little different just a little bit right yeah I love to hear your journey
in photography like how did you know this was going to be the career for you
like in what age did that kick in I mean it didn't really kick in until I was
19 or 20 I took a photography class my junior year of college I think the
first print I made in the darkroom this is back in the analog black and white
days when you're having to develop your own film and then you go into the dark
room to make a print and I think the first print that came up in the tray of
developer I was like this is what I want to do I mean it was the whole thing was
magic to me it took me you know a good four or five years to get any good but I
kind of knew right away that this was what I wanted to do and do you how did
you transition from those days of being in that lab smelling all those chemicals
developing photos to the digital age how'd you how'd you transition and how'd
you handle that well I think it was quite the transition I mean I switched to
mostly digital in 2000 that that was when I think Nikon came out with a
digital camera that the resolution was good enough that you can get a picture
published in the newspaper with a digital camera it was you know it was
it was challenging at first in many ways having to learn new technical
skills and how to manage digital files and not film but it was also easier in
many respects and more immediate right you could within minutes have the
photograph on your laptop and sending it to you know the home office if you will
whereas previously with with film you'd have to obviously develop the film
process to film make a print or make a scan and then eventually you know you
you then send that photo to the newspaper or the magazine so it's you
know it's it was a it was not a seamless transition let's put it that way I feel
like when I was doing that early in my journalism career that that whole
process was part of what made you know the photo you know I say better and just
fun it was part of the thrill of doing it too but I don't know if you missed
any of that at all or not I miss it in some respects but on the other hand you
know I don't want to expose myself to you know those chemicals every day and
you're sticking your hands in the developer 70s and 80s that was no big
then it's just you know to to do that every day now would just not be a good
thing I don't think yeah let's take a look at some of your photos we just have
a few to look at here so what's this one here I grabbed this side of I forget
which book this was in but I grabbed it I don't want to yeah so this one of the
things that I tried to do when I worked at the White House was you know I had
one main subject right Barack Obama that's my main subject but there's so many
things going on that you may not if you go back to that flag one that you may
not really necessarily focus on but I try to so that one with the flag it's at an
event and the wind was kind of blowing the flag it was the backdrop and I
noticed that there were these two guys trying to hold the flag up from blowing
down so I just thought it was kind of a cool shot is that under a bridge or
something because the flag looks nasty my recollection is this this was the
backdrop at an event and this was these guys run some sort of a ledge that was
I don't know if it was a crane that was holding up the flag I just honestly
don't remember and do you anticipate something like that or you just kind of
see it and then it happens how do you how do you yeah I mean it's it's I think
everything I do is either anticipation or recognition where you see something
interesting visually going on and you know probably in this case just waiting
for those two hands to pop out like that let's look at the next one here I this
one called my because the symmetry on this caught my eye yeah so this I I forget if
this is either at the White House or at Arlington National Cemetery and the
president's about to walk out very there's a lot of formality in the
presidency obviously and you see these two guys are about to open the door to
let you know as the president is announced I'd love to wait clubs to so
as part of it is just trying to show the formality of the presidency without
showing the president that kind of probably the formality probably helps
you predict kind of what to expect sometimes sometimes yeah although you
know Barack Obama is a pretty informal guy but at certain events that it's the
trappings of the presidency that are the you know the formal part yeah and we
should point out you also were the white photographer Ronald Reagan that's
great yeah let's go to the next photo here yeah again so this you know I talked
about Barack Obama being an informal guy and so it wasn't uncommon I wouldn't
say this happened all the time but occasionally he'd be in a meeting with
some of his aides in the Oval Office and he just sit on the edge of the desk
like this this is the resolute desk and you know I had made many photographs of
him sitting on the desk but I was really struck by the placement of where his
feet were dangling down and you see the great seal on the desk yeah and so this
is the way I shot it this is not a crop photo it looks like a crop photo it's
not a crop photo this is the way I actually shot it because to me it was
just interesting the juxtaposition of his feet with the you know ornate
structure of that wood from the HMS resolute and then the great seal and I
read it in the Ford and one of your books that he said outside of his wife and
his kids he spent more time with you than anybody
for I mean well that's definitely true so I mean so tell us how it works in
terms of and we'll get to this picture in a second but in terms of like are you
do you only have a few moments before things start to kind of be in there when
he's doing things or how long do you have access in those spaces with the
president to take those long as I want really long as I want now the the only
caveat is when I am overseas and I'm having to deal with foreign governments
and security they may have a different outlook on whether I could be in the
room the entire time or not right and so oftentimes in some countries as
restricted in how much access I had but in Washington no I had I had complete
total access Wow now this photograph here looks like it's on Air Force One this
is on Air Force One we were going to some summit meeting in which I don't
remember if this was a packet was one of those meetings where at the formal
dinner they were gonna have to all wear the same kind of outfit and they were
showing him previous outfits that presidents had to wear at these dinners
okay and there was one in particular of Bill Clinton I think it was wearing
some outfit that just looked you know hideous but it wasn't because it was
Bill Clinton it was because all the heads of state had to wear the same
hideous outfit and they were just showing him a picture of that I love the big
smile there what's is it is there oh that's Air Force One yeah this is Air
Force One upon arrival at dusk in Los Angeles this was at the end of a long
day and this is that's not the president in the doorway this is one of the Air
Force One guys getting the stairway ready for the president to walk down but I
was just really struck by the lighting because it was dusk so the and you saw
those clouds and just the incandescent light aboard Air Force One gave that
orange color and to me it was just the contrast between that little orange and
the you know the dark blue sky just I thought was just a you know a nice
graphic picture yeah and I've had the pleasure of covering a few different
presidents and this is before the digital age so I didn't have the greatest
cameras and those sort of things to take pictures but the one time that I did
take a picture the president was on and I think it was GW he was on a smaller
airport and he was on a DC-9 I think airplane so it was a smaller airplane
so it's not as impressive as the big boy there yeah so I was a little
disappointed from that standpoint but it was still Air Force One what's the
next photo there now this one caught my attention because of just the lighting
and like I don't even know what that is a photograph of but yeah this is in
St. Petersburg Russia another big summit meeting with a bunch of heads of state
and I think Russia and China would always spend a lot of money on lighting and
effects this is the they had a the Russians had this big laser show at the
end of the dinner and that's what this is depicting in front of you know some
some castle yeah I did a story with a White House photographer during the
Clinton era her name was Sheryl and that kind of thing of her name she was a
Sharon Farmer that's her yeah I did a profile on her and she explained that it
was she under that wasn't under you because she wasn't doing it so she
explained to me that like you guys are all assigned to different like the
president the vice president the first lady and I forget but there might be a
floating person but like wherever the president or vice president goes that day
you guys end up going with them and so if they leave the country for a week
you're gone for that week or is that is that how that works yeah I was the
president's photographer so I I was with him 24-7 so you're assigned to him
nobody else yeah nobody else had that role and then we had somebody on my
staff did the same with the vice president and then somebody on my staff
we had people rotate with the first lady that's a great photo out of the
window there just yeah just there for us one coming in the land and you've
probably seen that photograph who knows how many times in your life just yeah
usually though the shadows not quite that prominent you know it depends on
time of day and then also very unusual to have just before landing this kind of
wide open space where usually there's too many distracting elements but just
to have this field of grass just before we touch down does it ever get OP does
ever get old yeah just seeing these I mean some of these photographs I've I've
kind of forgotten about well how many have you taken you think over the years
well during the Obama administration 1.9 million so 1.9 million yeah and who
gets to count all those I wonder well the National Archives has the exact
number it's like 1.9 you know 132 or I don't know what it is but yeah the
round number is 1.9 million that's a lot of pictures a lot of snaps now or this
is Paul Ryan this is a he's a Wisconsin this Paul Ryan when he was Speaker of
the House or at least the leader of the House Republicans during this is before
the ACA Affordable Care Act passed and he had a meeting bipartisan meeting at
the Playerhouse in DC to discuss you know the details of the Affordable Care
Act and this is at the conclusion of the meeting him just chatting with Paul Ryan
yeah I want to touch bases a little bit about your event that you took part in
last night that was kind of sponsored for me go ahead you need some water
no I think I'm okay I don't know where this cough is coming I but sorry okay
it could be sorry could be the weather but then you're in Illinois now so you
probably used to it I wanted to shift a little bit and talk about the event that
you took part in last night here on the University of Wisconsin's campus
sponsored by a few different organizations and I thought it was really
interesting because you know you showed the photographs but then you had these
other folks given this perspective on their potential meaning of these things
they think about thought about when you take your photographs most of the time
no to be honest with you but I think it's valuable to hear other people's
perspective especially noted people like Theon Hill and and Cara Finn again so
I thought I thought it was an interesting event for me to listen to their
perspective on some of my photographs what you learned about your work that you
didn't and thought about maybe I mean I think I it's important for me to hear
the how the photographs resonate with with people in the community at large
you know so oftentimes it's things I don't really think about or you know
maybe a little bit aware of but to hear it articulated by those two prominent
historians it was I think valuable for me to hear yeah I thought it was interesting
how they put his kind of historical perspective on yeah you know because
when you're living it you don't maybe always think about it and we look back
at these things years later and it's like oh wow that says something got another
group of photographs you want to look at here oh yeah this is a really really
famous picture yeah so this young kid was a nephew of the you can kind of see
the guy in the background with the blue tie he worked for Dennis McDonough who
was then the chief of staff and this is his nephew coming in and I think he was
taken aback that the President United States was actually right in front of
them like you know he was told we're gonna go meet President Obama but then
when you actually walk in and this is a reaction that I saw oftentimes from
people just overwhelmed at the presence of you know meeting the
President United States yeah let's take a look the next one here oh yeah this is
interesting and this is like sort of me actually this the this a picture taken
with my iPhone Pete Susan uses an iPhone to take photographs I did for for a
while the White House asked me to start an Instagram account you know official
White House Instagram account and so I tried to do mostly iPhone photos not I
never of the President just of some you know scenes away from the presidency
and this is the day of the Easter egg roll and the Easter egg bunny was waiting
to be introduced the President was inside the blue room thus there was a
Secret Service agent you know at the door so just the juxtaposition of the
Easter Bunny and the Secret Service agent I just thought was just a hilarious scene
making of a horror movie to me yeah next photo there oh well all the
President's mean are almost yeah this was at the dedication of the George W.
Bush Presidential Library in Texas Bush 41 so Bush's father was also there but
he had been wheeled out ahead of the other four because by then he was not
he was confined to a wheelchair and this is just before the four these guys get
introduced and it looks like either Clinton or Bush just told a joke I
forget who it was now do you ever get overwhelmed of when you're looking through
that lens in terms of what you're experiencing I mean all that power in
one space like that I mean I think for me part of it was the fact that I was a
you know a seasoned guy and in terms of you know I had a long career already up
to that point had seen a lot had been in many different situations so I didn't
feel nervous or anxious very often at all I mean I was totally
comfortable in in photographing whoever I mean does that come from your chops
working those streets in Chicago for the newspaper there I think it's all the
experiences that I had throughout my career to be honest with you know not
just you know I covered a couple war zones and had been in a lot of you know
tense situations this comparatively it was was easier and safer than you know
a lot of things I did in my career so yeah let's see the next one here you know
again this is just trying to expand my vision this was in the cabinet room
waiting waiting for President Obama to walk in and this is traditionally
everybody is standing until the president walks in and they let him sit down
first and everybody sits down that's part of the formality of the presidency and
I just just saw all the hands on the chairs and I thought it was just an
interesting you know photograph that spoke to you know the office of the
presidency not about any particular president yeah she's the next one there
so you yeah you you mentioned that you get to sit in for as long as you kind of
want to until certain situations come up but I'd imagine you were around a lot of
classified situations oh yeah for sure I mean I had a top secret clearance so I
was allowed to be in any meeting that the president was in I wouldn't you know I
wouldn't get the the memos this top secret memos but but it enabled me to be
in the room where where they were discussing you know top secret information
you mentioned last night too that you being there as a documentarian is part
of what our democracy is about and part of just you know the you know the
documentation of the presidency how important is that do you think I mean I
think it's really important for his story for history to to have somebody
documenting you know what takes place inside a warehouse you know more more you
know away from the event itself but what's what's actually happening behind the
scenes I think that's an important part for history to have somebody making those
kinds of pictures yeah and we talk about you shooting for Reagan as well I think
this is from this is from the Reagan this is actually the old Air Force one so
this would have been the seven what was that a 707 or 727 and this is coming
back from a long trip long overseas trip and you can see everybody's sleeping
except the guy on the left with who is Pat Buchanan who for about a year was
Reagan's communication director I remember that yeah and what was it like
what's the difference in terms of each another great shot of Air Force one the
difference in shooting the different presidents like what's how did that feel
like and could you tell a difference like in terms of being around President
Reagan versus being around President Obama like like their comfortness with you
and that sort of thing I think you well I think there's so many differences I
mean the the one similarity between Reagan and Obama is both of them were
fairly even killed at a very even killed disposition right so it sometimes was
was difficult to to see their emotion visually I don't know if that makes
sense I also you know with Reagan Reagan was an older guy very formal in his
mannerisms you know didn't ever take a suit coat off in the Oval Office so he's
formal in that kind of way whereas you know Barack Obama was much more
informal than that was a younger guy had a young family you know Reagan's family
was all grown and they weren't around that much so you know with Reagan I
shot all film with Obama I shot all digital like there's so many differences
I could probably write a whole book about the differences between you know
photographing Reagan versus a versus versus Obama yeah you want to go on some
water I think I'm okay sure yeah okay I'd love to get your perspective on what
makes a good photograph well I think it depends I mean ultimately a good
photograph is authentic and has a moment there's like a moment in time that can't
be repeated and it's it's one of those unexpected moments hopefully there's
oh hopefully it has some intimacy to it hopefully it has good composition good
lighting there there are other you know we showed that one picture of Air Force
one in the fog that's that's more trying to establish a you know a scene
setting picture to show that the entire scene this is a leaving Seattle early
one one morning with it was foggy and in this case I backed way off because I
wanted to show the motorcade near the plane and the number of people that were
actually on the ground as Reagan was I mean as Obama was waving goodbye to
board the plane and then I had to run fast so they didn't leave without me
right oh no I missed my ride now we saw the picture of Springsteen I'd
imagine you've taken photos of a lot of high profile delivery type folks yeah
I mean some kid last night asked me Ruthie's son asked me you know what
what famous musicians did I photograph at the White House and it's like how can
you like I there's so many I couldn't really you know I did say Springsteen
and Paul McCartney and Beyonce and Jay-Z and things like that but I'm a huge
Springsteen fan so he was this is actually the last week of the
administration he was gonna do a one-person concert for just 80 people in
the East Room and I remember calling our social office saying one Springsteen
gonna do the sound check because I wanted to go over there and get this
photograph of him doing the the sound check you know with the empty room
Wow and do you ever get overwhelmed from seeing somebody that you're a fan of
like that I was a little overwhelmed that with with the you know with
Springsteen being there because this was an unusual situation in that I was an
invited guest because it was a it was actually a concert for all of us that
had been there all eight years and and our plus one and so there were that many
people but you know they said no you're a guess you're a guest I go well I'm also
gonna be taking photos so I was able to choose my seat and I chose a seat on the
aisle so that I could at times watch the concert but then easily also get up and
move around and make some pictures couldn't help yourself couldn't help
myself yeah we're almost wrapping it up here I'm just gonna ask you pretty obvious
you have a personal friendship with President Obama how did you separate
the friendship from the professionalism in terms of you know doing your job and
that sort of thing it had that affect your approach yeah I don't think it
affected me I mean it was a professional friendship I don't know if there's such
a word but I that's the way I refer to it you know I'm not one of those friends
that gets invited over for dinner you know that's not the kind of friend I am
but at the same time you know every emotion that he experienced this
president I was in the room for and in many ways I experienced that with him I
so we have that kind of a bond that you know is different than any of his
other friends had the other thing is that if I didn't have that kind of
friendship that kind of relationship with him I never would have been able to
make many pictures especially family photos you know I was in many ways you
know part of the family in terms of documenting his you know his two daughters
growing up and you know if you really want to make those kinds of intimate
pictures you got to be you know have some kind of relationship with with the
person that you're photographing did you ever feel like I shouldn't be here in
this space in this moment kind of thing I mean I think that's a very intuitive
thing to think and so I tried to put myself just in the shoes of you know a
fellow human being who's having a private one-on-one conversation with one of his
daughters saying okay let me get a couple pictures and then I'm going to back
away and let let them have their conversation they don't need me to be
here so I aired on the side of getting the picture but I also tried to as I
said put myself in his shoes just as a fellow human being saying okay maybe
this is the time to let him have some privacy with his you know with his
daughter yeah now this photograph caught my attention because again excuse me the
lines yeah I'm gonna say that again because I burped this photocop my
attention because of the lines in it what's going on here yeah so this was a
secret trip to Iraq we were leaving Europe and unbeknownst to pretty much
everybody other than this group of people the plane was headed to Baghdad we had
the National Security Advisor on the far left the head of the Secret Service on
the right in communication with their counterparts that were already on the
ground Baghdad trying to make a determination is it safe to land this is
while the war was still going on and very tense on whether we were gonna be
able to land safely or not wow let's see the next one here and then this would
have been I can't remember if this is 2009 or 2010 but this is at West Point
when President Obama had made a decision on how many troops to keep in
Afghanistan and was going to present this decision to the cadets at West
Point first and you know these these are these are guys that would
eventually graduate from West Point US Military Academy and possibly be headed
to Afghanistan yeah let's see the next one here now this caught my eye because
I remember President Obama saying to Jerry Seinfeld when he did communities
and cars getting coffee that he missed driving driving and I know he's not
driving he's not driving I know that but this is I can't remember if this is a
Ford or a GM plant and those are all UAW workers in the background and
somebody they had a couple of cars set up near the stage and somebody suggested
hey why don't you get in the car you know so he got in the car and then I shot
this through the passenger window of everybody trying to like shake his
hand through the window or and somebody had said something to him that made him
laugh yeah he did drive a couple times I've got pictures of him one day Robert
Gibbs brought his new hybrid car to the White House and and President Obama
said let's take it for a spin and he drove kind of around the the South Lawn
and I remember his Secret Service was radio radioing to the gates whatever you
do don't let this car outside the White House you know so Obama just did a
couple of laps around the South Lawn I remember seeing that also in that episode
Seinfeld he also drove yeah that Corvette Corvette that that Seinfeld
brought and I'm trying to think oh there was another time we went to Secret
Service the training facility out in Bellville, Maryland and and they let him
drive out there too now this picture was cool I'm surprised you pulled this one
up well it cut the spacing caught caught it and then I read the back story that
caught me too yeah so this is this is the day of the bin Laden raid believe it
or not and we were walking I'm trying to remember at what point during the day
this was but the White House was very quiet that day because tours were had
been closed and so there was nobody at the White House other than his
national security aides so it's very unusual for the White House to be that
quiet usually you would you know there'd be people walking along the
call and aid so a duck would not land on the steps like that and I just thought
it was such an unusual picture that I made a couple frames of this I feel like
you couldn't you could wait a hundred years and that would never happen again
yeah I know I don't know how that duck got there now this is probably does that
same day believe it or was this the same day that's the same day yeah wow and this
would have been when the sale team was making the raid on bin Laden's yes so
May 1st 2011 late afternoon probably between 3 30 and 4 15 and you know as I
said last night you've got the most powerful people in the executive branch
of our government decision makers in that room but for those 40 minutes they
were there was nothing they could do to affect the outcome right it was
completely up to those guys on the ground and that's like when you're taking a
photo like that you're not thinking that when you're taking it are you or this is
something you notice afterwards in a sense or how does that work say that in
terms of like when you when you're framing this photograph are you thinking
I'm going to take a photograph that shows how power powerless they are or is
that something you kind of notice kind of afterwards as you see all the little
bits and pieces that you captured here I mean I guess I wasn't inherently
thinking that thought at the time what I was thinking is what's what's what's
the mood that I see in front of me what's and trying to try to capture that in
in a single frame and did that mood last for a period of time or is that just a
moment in that space no that that that mood lasted for the I think the entire
40 minutes we were in that room and so when I'm going through my photographs
trying to choose the best one obviously photography in many ways is subjective
medium right but it it was I think initially myself and a photo editor we
zeroed in on maybe four frames from the 40 minutes in this room and we just try
to compare one to another trying to like which do you think is the best and this
just seemed to work the best the way everybody's faces sort of expressed what
I felt I think what they all felt yeah next photo here I think this gets into
the transition what was that like for you in terms of not just a different
president coming in but for your you know position to kind of well I mean I
think the the I was concerned that the country had voted this guy in you know
I didn't feel he understood what it meant to respect the office of the
presidency and so I've got to kind of put those feelings aside but I'm also a
human being and so you know I tried to as best I could take the high road as
President Obama had taken by inviting him to the White House two days after the
election because he wanted to try to like you know calm people down as best he
could but it was very unsettling feeling for me that this is the guy that was
going to succeed Barack Obama and this we didn't make this picture public but
I thought it was a good picture to include in my book as you know not
having to necessarily show his face you know who that is just by looking at him
what's he peeking what so this is just there's a little hallway off the Oval
Office that leads into the private dining room the private dining room is
what you see in the back room and to the left is like what's called the
presidential study which President Obama hardly ever used that little room so it
had mostly mementos in there there was a little desk with a computer but it was
mostly pictures of the family on the wall and it was a picture of Thurgood
Marshall on the wall and he was just giving President Obama's actually inside
the study and he's just showing the president elect you know the study the
dining room and so this is on their little tour so President Obama's actually doing
the tour yeah yeah yeah yeah what's this one here and then this is on January 20th
2017 I'm inside the helicopter just before President Obama and Michelle
board the helicopter and he's saying goodbye to to now President Trump this
would have been right after the swearing-in ceremony Wow so Pete do you miss the
action now that you've been away from for a while do you miss the action of that
job I know I was worn out after eight years in many ways both physically and
I think emotionally so I I don't miss I don't miss what haven't you taken
pictures of that you'd like to take pictures of what haven't I taken picture
yeah anything let's see I really want to photograph Bruce Springsteen in Europe
like I photographed him many times at many of his shows including a couple last
year I guess three last year but but I but I hear the the shows in Europe are
completely different I'd also like to photograph I don't know I might my main
subject these days are are a four-year-old and a one-year-old my two grand
daughters and then we have a cabinet in northern Michigan and I've been been
doing some artsy nature photos at the cabin that I'm hoping to do a little
book from eventually yeah so I'm just gonna continue on those projects have
you ever messed up a photograph missed it never Pete all the time I mean that's
I mean I think that in many ways that especially when you're starting out in
photography that's how you learn is messing up I messed up as much as
anybody especially when I was starting out and I think that that's what makes
you better is to learn from your mistakes yeah last question here your
advice to any aspiring photographer out there what do they need to focus on
what should they be doing well first of all what kind of photographer do you
want to be because the the world of photography has so many genres to it I
think I think you've got to decide what kind of photographer you want to be
whether you know whether it's journalism whether it's art you know
whether it's a music photographer you've got a you've got to make you got a you
got to follow your passion within photography to figure out you know who
what kind of photographer you're gonna be and then just make pictures every day
you can't like pick up a camera once a week and be a great photographer you've
just got to do it every day I mean it's very similar to writing right you need
to write every day if you want to be a really good writer it's same with
photography you've just got to get out there and make pictures Henry Cartier
Burson the great French photographer who captured so many decisive moments he
once said that his worst photographs were his first 10,000 and I think that's
that's pretty good advice you know learn learn as I said learn from your
mistakes get them out of the way early and just get out there every day and
photograph every day I know I said last question but I had to get this in you
talked last night about the selfie and what President Obama kind of thought of
that in terms of how people would you know things you know they talked about
the history of how you know people used to take pictures of presidents and then
all of a sudden they started to do the selfies where they'd have to be in the
frame can you touch on that just a little bit in terms of how you felt that
in fact impacted you know I made for some interesting pictures for me right to
see this kind of change taking place and it really is it's it's traced to
exactly when the majority of people got a smartphone you know because at first
smartphones are so expensive that it not everybody could afford them now
everybody has a smartphone everybody like almost everybody and so that is
something that is just a part of who we are now as Americans and for whatever
reason there there's a need for each of us to have to do a selfie in any time
we're in presence of you know a celebrity or a friend or you know if you go out
to dinner with somebody you got to do a selfie with them that's just what we've
become as a society and I think it's it was humorous to me at times to watch
this transition take place because it happened during the Obama administration
go you know I showed those pictures early on in 2009 2010 where he's along a
rope line after an event people excited to meet him and you don't see people
trying to take a selfie they're like trying to shake his hand trying to meet
him and then as the years went by 2012 2013 2014 everybody's out there with
their cell phone trying to get a selfie with him instead of shaking his hand
and look him in the eye so for me it was an interest it's interesting transition
to watch that take place and try to try to document that but like if you're the
President of the United States and all of a sudden people are like turned away
from you to take a picture with their selfie I mean to take a picture with their
iPhone and not lucky that's got to be you know just the difficult situation to
be in I think yeah I've always said that your your selfies are not going to be
as important and memorable as my moment you know dealing with that person and
dealing with that moment pizzas I appreciate you going over time with us
thank you for joining us on in focus thanks for having me appreciate you so
much yep good stuff man thank you so much I'm sorry went a little long there
that's okay would you mind two one taking a photograph with me no two signing my
book for me absolutely
you