Good evening and welcome to the prince to be Public Library. It is my honor on behalf othe executive director and our staff to welcome you to the program. Before i introduce our speaker, some thanks are in order, first, thanks to the Incredible Team at ten speed press. Natalie, wendy and christian, for offering the opportunity to host the exhibit and talk. We knew we wanted to be a part. As im sure everyone in this rhymes well aware, michelle attended Princeton University from 1981 to 1985. So it did steam fitting to have these photographs in the Public Library where she spent four years of her early life and take partner book tour that lookedded a heir life in the white house. Tanks to the art council of princeton for hang the photographs our reading room. And thanks to the labyrinth books for handling the book signing. He we invite everybody to visit the reading vroom you can see the photos up close and personal once were finished with the formal part of the evening out in it is my great pleasure to intro a amanda lucidon. Who had a front, row seat the obama white house. She was the only female photographer on white house staff and was tasked with covering first Lady Michelle obama. In fact, she is only one of a very few female white photographers in history. A position she held from 2013 to 2017. In addition to this appointment she is an Award Winning filmmaker and photographer and now a published author. She attend Indiana University of pennsylvania where she studied communicationedment media and journalism. Also studied photography at the university of Art Institute of philadelphia, her work has been honored by pictures of the year inter, National National press photographers 0 Association Best of journalism and the white house news photographers association, among several others. She is current lay photographer, filmmaker and public speaker based out of washington washington, d. C. , and we want to welcome amanda to princeton were so glad youre here. [applause] thank you. In other words having me here at this Beautiful Library and thank you for all of you who have come tonight. Thanks to my team at ten speed and for helping me create this beautiful book and the exhibit that traveled with it. One of the points of having this book was to make is at accessible as possible and im traveling to public libraries. I think what i like to do is maybe answer some of the question is get quite often, and the first one is, how did you get a job like that . Did anyone else have that question . A few people. Right. I have no idea. Im still pinching myself it actually happened. But for me, i think an important story to tell is that i was free lance photographer, working for a newspaper and i took a buyout from the newspapers business and move to washington to start a free lance photography business. I knew it would have a lot of opportunities but i forgot to account its supercome petty. I was doing projectses that were really important to me. So even though that whats work that wasnt being funded, that was actually the work that began to win me awards and the work that began to bring me in front of into influential circles in the photography community. I know one of those event its met pete souza. So, pete souza was the chief white house photographer for president barack obama, and so i met him once, at this event, and then two year later he asks me if i wanted to apply nor job, soso my phone rang, this is pete souza, and said you realize this is amanda lucidon. There was only one answer to that question and that was, of course, id love to apply for the job. And surprisingly i got to spend the next four years photographing president obama as well as mrs. Obama itch spent most of the time photographingmilesanhour obama but got travel to 20 countries and i got to see so many cities in the country i also dreams to visit. So, thats probably the most popular question i get. The other question i get is, what is your favorite photo . And i only have one child but its sort of like asking what is your favorite child to a mother. It depends on the day. And how i feel. And theres probably a favorite but im not going to tell you. So, instead of telling you my fav favorite photos, ill tell you about the kind of photos like to may. I like to it would be easy to focus on the first lady. Is the mic okay . So it would be easy to focus on the first lady because she is so extraordinary and so beautiful and but what noticed is the way that people react to her. I was always folked on her fer e her face i would miss how people reacted to her. I remember when i met her and i was at the white house i would see time and time again, how people react, and i love this picture because these students are part of a program called turn around arts program, and sorry they came to the white house to perform. The Turnaround Arts Program was program that goes into the lowest performing schools in the country and its been proven that if you infuse the arts, that it can actually turn the schools around. So, these students were part of Orchard Garden stool and their school improved through the pilot program. They were invited to come to the white house and perform, and so they judd performed in a room next door, and they did a poem and a dance and their poem was about not judging a book by its cover, and about not letting circumstances define you, and so mrs. Obama was moved bit and after the event she said, where are those students in i want to surprise them. So, i was following behind her, and i heard her say this so they were in the map room and i just scooted in front of her and into the room and then just a few second later she walked in and said, hey, everybody, what are yall doing in here . They just erupted with joy. So, you can see i like living in all these faces. Its like theres such joy in each one of these childrens faces. I hear some people laughing. What do you feel when you look at this picture . Fun . Having a good time. Joy. Everyone loves dogs. Can someone just help me wick if the mic . Its a little distracting to me. Technology is so important. Right . Sometime it doesnt work and but im here now. A minute all right. Joy. So, this is one of this early on when i took this picture. The first time i looked at mrs. Obama and was like, she is just like everybody else. I have a dog. I love my dogs and a lot of time wisdom set up for events to cover in the white house and do a taping, like a Public Service announcement or a video that would run on tv and sometimes that was a white house tv doing that and sometimes it was someone from outside that came in to do the taping. So, this time we were setting up to for the easter egg roll, and what i soon found out what there were always these seem to be pretty predictable environments but there was always a chance that something spontaneous would happen. Especially when it involved president obama or the dogs. So, for this picture in particular, bo is always ready to have his picture taken but sunny is the younger dog and always had her own ideas what she whatnotted to. Do this is just a picture where she was trying to get sunny to sit up and be ready. I like to take candid shops and this is a picture i go to when i want to feel joy. Surprise. This picture is we traveled around to innovative garden programs at schools, and mrs. Obama always seemed to have this luck for her wed land in the plane and raining and the skies be dark. This is an eventen in a rooftop garden and we get off the explain the skies would part the plane and the skies would party and the sun would come out. We were able to participate in a composting exercise, and theyed and mrs. Obama if she wanted to have gloves and she said, i dont need gloves, and they were demonstrating and then she just picked up this worm and they found it the worm me and just picked it up and looked at the worm right in the eye and a gust of wind came and put all her hair up night in the hair up flying in the air and i got lucky with the moment. I like having images with some surprise. Again, seeing going back to people dont have to see you know this is mrs. Obama, just her arm, right . But its like that face, that face, and those teeth. Right . I mean you dont really need to say much more than that. Shes glowing, such admiration and those are the kind of fun photos. This is at the national zoo and they were there to name the new panda, and so i just love the way she is looking up at her. This picture this is a group of girls from liberia and morocco, and we went to liberia and morocco as part of the Girls Learn Initiative that sets shedded light on the fact that 16 Million Girls dont have the opportunity to get an education. So, they were actually invited to watch there was a documentary made about this and they were invited to the white house to watch this documentary. So, these girls we met from liberia had never enbeen out of their own town, let alone on a plane, and then brought to the white house. So, they were just so thrilled to be there. And this is another picture that you can sort of live in all of these faces, and thats what love about photos. You can rediscover something new. I just noticed the other day that i had always looked at all the girls faces. You see wonder and joy and shock and disbelief and i just saw this i never noticed her before and she shes a teacher and not looking at mrs. Obama. She is looking at her students and is so proud. And thats what teachers can do and thats what mentors can do and what people in our community can do. Librarians can do and it took me a while to find that im sure maybe in a couple of week is might discover Something Else looking at the picture, or maybe youll discover something and you can share that with me. So i think people think official white house photographer. That sounds like it could be boring. So i wanted to make sure number of the pictures felt official, all felt candid. Those are the picture is like to make. And so i photographed the president president obama and mrs. Obama at a podium many, many times but theres Something Different about this picture. Whats different . Those shoes. What color is the toe nail polish . Its blue. So, i didnt expect that, and so thats why i i like being always have to be ready bus something can surprise you, and this was surprising to me and i included it in the book. I like to make pictures that are visually interesting. This is a picture i took at miln expo, called the pier roar mirror room and its made up of mirrors and a projector to constantly project scenes on the wall and each scene lasts maybe five to ten seconds. So, the interesting challenge was, how do you disappear in a roomful of mirrors as the photographer . You dont see me in there right . So, i found a crack where n the room where the mirrors meet. I turned sideways and made myself as small as possible and i thought thin thoughts. And it worked. So, i also realized as white house photographer glory a very special position bat you have access to space that other people dont have access to. So this is the Kennedy Center honors at the Kennedy Center, washington, and we have all seen this on tv but from the other side of the door when president obama and mrs. Obama walk out and they wave to the crowd. But this is actually a photograph from the president ial box. So at that point there was me, a staff member, and then the secret Service Agent who doesnt really worry about how much time i have to take a picture. It was really just two frames and the door was closed. Always being ready and trying so she something that is different. I like that photo for this rope. Like to make those kinds of images. Moments of quiet reflection. This is in cambodia, and for me i got travel to so many place is had only seen in magazines as a kid. So to be afforded what unique experience and then tools be there with mrs. Obama was such a privilege. And i like this image because it feels very quiet, and you wonder, or i wonder, what was she thinking . I dont know what she was thinking notice. I know what i was think, how luckie am in life to be in such a special place and have such a special experience and to be in a place that is so old and so full of history and so rich with culture, was extraordinary privilege. I like when people say, oh, to your photos. It warms my heart. But thats how file about this picture, too. Oh, because as serious and an Important Role as mrs. Obama had as the first lady, bag mother was the most important to her. So i feel like this picture i hope this picture shows that. We were on the great wall of china. My First International trip and very nervous because i wanted to do a good job and i was the only official photographer traveling, and when you travel, you do encounter obstacles obstacles os constantly brushing yourself off and getting back up again and just keep going, and then always be ready, and then when you are, you get reward our feel like i got rewarded with a picture like this. This is one of my favorites, and mrs. Obama, sasha and malia were looking out to the distance of the wall and thenmilesanhour obama turned around and said, amanda, would you take a picture of us, and i took a posed picture and then put my kamala down put my camera down and she grabbed her girls for a big hug and i took another picture and i like this one much better than my posed picture. Anybody know this picture . What emotion does this picture evoke . Love. Thats what i think is if you take president obama and mrs. Obama out of the picture, or you forget who they are, maybe you put yourself in the picture, maybe thats how you want to feel. Think thats a thing. Thats how we all want to feel when were in love, and i hope that pictures transcend the messages and that maybe we look a little deeper. Going back back to the liberians i told you about, this actually in liberia. So we arrived to africa, place i had always wanted to go to my whole life. So much so that when i finally got there, i think i was 37 at the time, i said, can i sit in thecock pit . We need pictures of this. And they let me. So i got make these pictures of us flying in and landing in the dirt runway in liberia and we land it was raining, and we had 45 minutes to get to the school, and most of the roads were washed out. So, obviously the motorcade drivers and the kryzewski the secret Service Agents were nervous but we made it to the school, and we met these girls, and the school had no electricity, and you cant tell from this photo but theres a wall here that just had cinder blocked that are open so thats how the light is come, in but it was really dark, especially because of the rainstorm, and so i always have a flash with me but i didnt use a flash in this situation because its not about me getting a picture. Its keeping that intimacy. So, for those who are photographers, was shooting at a really low shutter speed to make the image. But there was a dirt floor, there was hardly any books, and these girls were really proud of the school. Some of them had to walk two hours to get to school, sometimes through dangerous situations. A lot of the girls dont get to study until after their done with their chores and ontimes thats by candlelight. So, i was really inspired by these girls and i know mrs. Obama was, too and these are the girl its made the book for. When i was presented the unique opportunity to make the book, i was asked how big i wanted it to be, did i want 0 coffee table book, an art book . It was all about accessibility. If these girls want to carry the book two hours in their backpack i wanted hit to light. Notice it doesnt have a dust jacket because how many of us have struggled with a dust jacket, even in the best circumstances, right . I wanted to keep its price point that was affordable and for those who still cant afford to purchase the book, i wanted them to be able to get at libraries which is why its so important to be here, and to be traveling around. Youll get to see the exhibit, too, and what is really cool about that is those their exact same size prints and the same way we frame them at the white house. So we took all of these photos s and theres four million photos in the obama archives. Yes. Thats a lot. Right . And every two weeks we would go through the images and pick the best pictures and that would hang in the hall in the east and west wing. It was always cool when people stopped. Everybody in the white house are working so hard to accomplish so munk but they dont get a chance to celebrate what theyve just done because theyre already work on the next thing. The pictures were a great reminder of what they had accomplished or what we had done or seen. So, it was always greet be able to see people stopping and looking at your pictures and see your pictures hanging on the wall, especially great if that person was mrs. Obama or president obama. I would just sort of, like, secretly cheer. I didnt see that. But thats the explanation of the book, and how it was made and why it was designed the way it was. Then going back to this picture exthe turnaround arts student, mr. Obama and president obama said to work really hard and do well, once you have done well to make sure you turn around and reach back and help others. So this opportunity has allowed me to do. That ive been named the turn around artist so ill be assigned to a school so i can help students like this and share my passion with photography and the arts and also a portion of the proceeds will be donated to turn around arts program. So along with the book tour well be visit turn around arts schools. So that concludes my presentation. But theres still plenty of time for questions. We have a microphone . Did you develop an ongoing relationship where you might at this time still maybe share an email with mrs. Obama or get a note from her . Mrs. Obama and president obama withsuch an inflation any life that it dont see that relationship ever disappears. Im very grateful to have had that experience and that relationship. What cities out west did you go to . What skis in cities in the country . Well, gosh, so many. Probably i would say maybe visited, like, 100, 150 cities, so all we visit all kinds of places and through all the different initiatives and what city are you especially interested in . I could probably tell you a story about each city. Well, l. A. , arizona. How is the copyright compared . There are 4 million pictures and the archive and we were releasing them in a smaller way. All the pictures have been released and are available to the public and they can download them and ive seen others that include some of my photos, so those pictures are open to the public and the pictures that havent been released yet but have permission by the white house. And then it is copyright as a collection i have a question regarding the title. Does the first lady have anything to do with the title . She is one of the lights. For me it represents a transformative time in my life as a photographer it means to draw with light. Then people being pushed to be the person that maybe you are not sure that you can be. Mrs. Obama was an inspiration to me and i think she helped me become the person. I figured along the way i thought i was chasing this light but then i recognized i was polite, too and we can all share that flight. Was there ever a time you were getting ready to take a photograph and you froze . Like the microphone earlier . [laughter] i dont think i ever froze. I recognized early on and im so glad you asked the question, when i started i followed a colleague of mine the first time mrs. Obama was present so i was there to watch how its done and i saw the people react to her. Some people laughed and some people cried. This was the first time a with about 300 people there to meet her there were going to be a bunch of photos. I watched a line of people, 30. Come through. Some people couldnt speak, some were crying and fanning themselves and so i just realized in that moment i felt like that the first time i met her but im not going to be able to do my job effectively so thats the role i am here to do and that is my responsibility. I cant three years, so i have learned that pretty early on. Sometimes people ask did you ever feel like you missed a shot and the truth of the matter is sure theres stuff happening all the time. Just to try to explain how this happens we go somewhere in a motorcade in a long line of cars, youre supposed to know which car you have to jump into in my car or the car that im writing in. The car that im writing in his usually four or five back so when we arrived on the scene i jumped out of the car and try to run ahead so i can get in the door and get an idea of what the light is going to be like and then be positioned to get the right picture so i am 5foot four and even when mrs. Obama is walking, i am still running. [laughter] so there are sometimes things are happening in between that time and you are not always getting i wish i got that shot but just quickly recover and there will be Something Else. But when i look back at my time i dont feel like there was a moment in history like i really missed that and for the bigger events like the state arrivals we had a team of five photographers so often times we were set up in different places. Thanks for that question. What would your parents be thinking as you were growing up and between that and pete calling you because we know there are fewer and fewer photographers to make a living and the second part is how many photos did you have to choose from and how did you go about choosing the then . Great question. In the beginning of the book the last conversation i had with my father was about president barack obama. My dad and i never really talked about politics, so it was an unusual conversation he reminded him of his father and he is a man of integrity and the world is changing. It was the first time in my career when they moved from one host to another and started with my own business i didnt have credentials but i wanted to cover it because it was news and history so i went out just like everyone else i woke up early, got on the bus, and i need pictures and i felt the energy of everybody there that was there to witness history and i tried to call my father on the way home and all the phones were jammed because everyone else was probably trying to call their mom and dad or boyfriend or friend, too. And actually my father passed away the next morning of a heart attack. So i learned later that he spent the night watching obama go from paul duval and wasnt watching the way everybody else was. He was scanning the background trying to look for his daughter so he thought there might be a photographer in the room. I still have a long way to go in dc as a photographer and so i think back on that time maybe he knew something all along. When pete actually called me up, i am sad that he wasnt able to be there for that experience but actually did bring him into the white house with me. I showed a picture earlier on of my father. Anytime any time i would get ner overwhelmed or take myself a little too seriously i would reach into my pocket and take a picture of my dad and look at it and it was a silly picture of him with a mask making a funny face. And so, i did take him to the white house with me and that answers your second question rainbows were really special in our family so i picked out the pictures that looked like rainbows to me. There were some that made me happy and made me feel something that revealed Something Special so thats how i edited it down to 150 pictures, so thank you for that question. I wanted to confirm what i bi think i heard you say earlier. During my time there was the only female photographer during the last four years. There were two female photographers that were there before me. Even fewer of them are women, so it is there are not that many people that had an experience which has been id reached out to other female photographers that have this rule to get their advice. Are they ever assigned to cover the first lady and what is the significance of that. Those are the kind of questions that i had. That just depends on the chief photographer and that can change if thereve been female photographers that cover the Vice President or the male photographer seems to cover the first lady so it just depends on how they structured the administration. I would like to know if you ever took mrs. Obama and her mother in the generations together and my other question at the inauguration did you take both of them as well . I got the opportunity to travel with mrs. Obama and so on the trip to china mrs. Robinson was there and ive taken pictures of the three of them, of the three generations. To answer the second question, i started after the second inauguration so i didnt get the pictures i was curious about your working day. Where you expected to come at 8 a. M. And wait for a staff member to Say Something is coming up or with a schedule you ahead of time and say come tuesday or friday. Was it your fulltim that your . It was. There wasnt a nine to five shift or monday through friday. Ash official white house photographers we knew what the schedule would be which was different than the press so we didnt know when the events were happening but when you cover things there might be a statement or something that president and mrs. Obama is reacting to. We know most of the things that are coming up and we would just structure the day around those events so if it was a long day for them it was a long day for us if they were traveling on the weekend, we were traveling on the weekend. I was there for four years and there were four years when i didnt see very much of my family. They appreciated what a special role it was to have this opportunity. There were some days that were slow in so you just have to be ready. I was fascinated by the picture in the mirror room because the two women were looking at each other and not a nod at the magnt mirror image. Who was the other woman . The prime ministers wife to italy. How much access did you havee to the living quarters . There was a basis we were invited to that could be like if mrs. Obama was hosting a spouse for tea to the yellow oval but it was reserved as their space and you were there when yo are e invited to be there to hav seen pictures from other administrations and heated arguments and so on. Were there any times when these discussions were going on and maybe they didnt even realize you were in the room with the photographers. What happens in situations like that . We are in a trusted role so there was never a time we were told not to take pictures. By the time i came on it was the Second Administration and they had been so used to having a camera that we thought we could really be that fly on the wall. For me there were times it was an intimate setting but when the flash comes on everybody notices that and it sort of disrupts what is happening so just being mindful of what is happening in the room and respectful of what is happening you are still able to make pictures and you still know that those are important moments to make. So i guess when you are in those important scene to just take a breath and know how important it is and also have the courage to make the picture. I have a question. I have quotes on my wall during growing up. Were there times did you ever take a selfie with mrs. Obama . [laughter] i wish i did. Thats a good question. One of the things i admire is we go through these events all over the country and she would give a talk and then afterwards theres something everybody lines up to meet her. It wasnt ideal for the staff member that might have been reminding her time but she would always say that you dont know what that means for the person whos there. So she took time to do these things and i really admire her and i wish i met you a couple years ago than i would have known. But i have a couple pictures of my colleagues have taken of us and i am so grateful because im always behind the camera and so, you know even like a special moment like my daughter i got to bring my daughter when she was two weeks old to president and mrs. Obama so i am grateful i have those pictures as keepsakes. During your travel [inaudible] yes, jamaica a rainbow picture i made i was traveling with president obama sometimes we fly on helicopters to get to access places or save time in the motorcade because of Road Conditions and stuff like that, so our helicopters always landed a little bit sooner than president obamas helicopter. We landed and there was a perfect rainbow above air force one and i knew that it was going to go away soon and the president s helicopter didnt plan this. I was crossing my fingers come on, get here. They were making their way of lookinlooking at the rainbow ann i framed the picture because i wanted to be a different place like i want to compliment his work. Hes down at the bottom of the steps so where can i be to show something a little different. I was at the back of the plane and framed this image with a rainbow coming perfectly down. If president obama walked up the steps it would be perfectly framed in a rainbow. So on the ground looking up at the rainbow i am like you know how long a rainbow lasts and i said no its not going to last. So im like please, please walk up to the stairs into the rainbow. [laughter] and sure enough, he did and the rainbow lasted. Taking this picture is one of my favorite details. Hes perfectly illuminated in a massive air force one. I just want to say that ive taken notice of the way you frame what it is you do and you say that you make pictures. I absolutely love how you make pictures because you deal with all the elements that are there. Thank you. I appreciate that. Is that picture online . He wrote a great blog and sometimes you only get to choose one for the day he wrote about how he was having a hard time taking them so yes you can still find that picture online. Well you have your books come out at the same time wa or was t just a happy coincidence . I was so glad that he had dropped off a book for me and i wind up the covers like i just noticed this but if you lined them up, they are staring adoringly at each other. So i do have the other book on my shelf. We have a whole shelf of obama the books. [applause] thank you for sharing the beautiful photographs its something all of us wish we could have done ourselves im pretty sure. Right now what we are going to do is across the hallway to the right please go in and look at the photograph. It is a and exhibit that her publisher pachuca because the photographs are as they would be hung in the white house so its kind of like if you are viewingg the white house wall and then also there will be a signing line outside with a copy with great gift giving so what better than a signed book to give as a holiday book. Thank you for sharing with us and we hope to see everybody back soon. Thank you, cspan. [applause] [inaudible conversations] we are currently standing in the saratoga room that has been dedicated to collecting materiel about the city of Saratoga Springs for about 40 years now. One of the most important collections that we have here in the room doctor mcclellan was the first medical director at the sarasota spa