The Way I See It

During my eight years as

the Chief Official White House Photographer

for the Obama administration,

I documented all the important moments of his presidency.

The emotion,

the tough decisions,

the stressful times,

the fun times.

But also showing what he was like as a dad...

...as a husband,

just as a human being.

To me, that shows

how the job of the president should be done.

I think it's my right as an American citizen

to speak out when I see wrong.

And I really come at this from a unique perspective,

not just as a former photojournalist

but also having worked for

both the Obama and Reagan administrations,

and seeing what it's like on the inside of a presidency...

...whether you agree or disagree

with a president's policies,

how that president should behave.

I'm gonna throw some shade tonight, if that's okay.

But I want to tell you first how I... how I got there.

So, if we go back to January 20, 2017,

President Obama left his successor a personal note

and stuck it in the drawer of the Resolute desk.

And the last line of the note was:

"Michelle and I wish you and Melania the very best

"as you embark on this great adventure.

"And know that we stand ready to help

"in any ways which we can.

Good luck, and Godspeed."

With that, he left the Oval Office for the last time.

Good morning, everybody.

Good morning, sir.

Take care, sir.

Thank you.

- Bye, sir. - Thank you, guys.

He went and said good bye to the household staff:

butlers, ushers, groundkeepers.

And Von Everett, who is one of the butlers

and had been there since the Reagan years...

you can imagine what it was like for him

to have been there for the first

African American president.

There's a tradition that

the incoming president comes to the White House

the morning before the inauguration for a reception.

After everyone else had finally boarded the motorcade,

President Obama took Trump aside

to brief him on a pending national security issue.

Uh, he escorted Trump to the limousine.

They had to ride in the limousine

to the Capitol together.

The guy on the far left is Mike White.

He was the head of

the Presidential Protective Division

of the Secret Service.

And you always see the person in that position

behind the president or behind the first lady.

As they were leaving the podium,

I now notice that Mike White and his deputy

were behind Trump and Melania and not behind President Obama.

That's when it really hit me

that this for real had happened.

You know, if I go back to January 20, 2017...

...I'm ready for the job to be done

because, you know, it just takes

so much out of you physically and mentally.

There was a sense of relief...

almost excitement...

that I would not have a BlackBerry with me

24-7-365 for eight years anymore.

You have no idea

how good of a feeling it was to be done with that.

But there was a sense of disbelief

and worry.

I was...I really was concerned

for the... the country.

To this day, I have that same feeling.

I'm not literally in the room anymore,

but I know what happens in the room,

and that's what scares me

about what's happening today in the Oval Office.

After I left the White House,

I started this personal Instagram account.

My intention was to highlight some of the photographs

that I had made throughout my career.

I never intended to be vocal

in any way about what was going on.

So, the first day, he came to me

with his photo that he wanted to post on Instagram

with the president sitting on the Resolute desk

and the red curtains,

and he wrote a caption, something like,

"I like the old curtains better.

What did you think?"

And I said, "You can't say that."

Because he had spent eight years having no voice

and no opinion of what was going on,

and suddenly, here's an opinion about drapes.

And I said, "You can't do that."

Now, what I didn't tell you is I had just seen a picture

of the redecorated Oval Office

with these gold, ornate curtains.

And there was even a comment on that very first post

from somebody that said,

"Pete is dropping shade with a comment on drapes."

And I-I have to admit

I had no idea what "dropping shade" meant.

I knew what I was doing.

I just didn't know it was calleddropping or throwing shade.

- Don't be rude. - Mr. President-elect,

- can you give us a question? - Don't be rude.

You're attacking us. Can you give us a question?

- Don't be rude. - Can you give us a question?

No, I'm not gonna give you a que...

When you report fake news, which CNN does a lot,

you are the enemy of the people.

- Go ahead. - Mr. President...

Hi, Pete.

Welcome to India.

Thank you. It's-it's nice to be here.

Is there hope for photojournalism?

I think there's a lot of people doing a lot of great work,

but it-it doesn't help

when the president of the United States

calls journalists fake news and the enemy of the people.

I think that's really dangerous.

I-I think our president is causing grave damage

to the institution of the free press.

We have with us the former

Chief Official White House Photographer

to the U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.

Please welcome to the stage

Pete Joseph Souza!

I want to ask you as a photojournalist...

your commitment while photographing is to the truth,

but when you're the Chief White House Photographer,

uh, when you're consciously or subconsciously building

a public image of brand Obama, was there ever a conflict?

Yeah, I think that's a good question.

I often say to people, though my background

is-is a photojournalist,

certainly, when you're the Chief White House Photographer,

you're-you're working for the government.

But so, I didn't ever think of it as a conflict,

because it wasn't... I wasn't a PR photographer.

I look at myself as a historian with a camera.

The job as the Chief Official White House Photographer

is to visually document the presidency for history.

So, when inauguration rolled around,

I had in the back of my mind,

for the journey I was about to take,

this thought:

make authentic photographs.

Think mood,

emotion,

context.

Be ready for the fleeting moments

both big and small.

My goal was to create

the best photographic archive of a president

that had ever been done.

Lasting images for history.

The origination of my office was a military office

during the Kennedy administration.

LBJ wanted somebody to cover everything,

and he hired this guy named Yoichi Okamoto,

who had traveled with him as vice president.

And, you know, Johnson was such a character

and Okamoto was such a great photographer

that his pictures are just amazing.

You know, more than anyone,

his work was the kind of work that I wanted to do.

I wanted the level of access that Okamoto had to Johnson.

That's sort of what I was striving for with Obama.

Photographs can tell a story

just as a book can tell a story.

And it's a very special thing because it breaks down

the idea that these people are somehow different from us.

Yes, they have different responsibilities,

yes, they have greater anxieties,

but they're leading a life that has a daily ritual to it.

Think I knew how the job should be done,

having worked for the Reagan administration, too.

The White House photo editor

called me up one day out of the blue

and said, "We want you to apply for this job."

It was totally unexpected.

You know, I'm in my 20s,

and I'd never met a president before.

And I was just nervous.

It was kind of, like, just sort of overwhelming to me.

I actually turned it down at first.

A, I was not really that into politics.

B, I was really not the biggest fan of Reagan.

Five ways of photography.