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 its 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 pho photojournalist. But also, having worked for both the obama and reagan administrations, and seeing what its like on the inside of a presidency. Whether you agree or disagree with a president s policies, how that president should behave. Im going to throw some shade tonight, if thats okay. But i want to tell you, first, how i how i got there. So, if we go back to january 20th, 2017, president obama left his successor a personal note. And stuck it in the drawer of the re
pete would always tell me the stories of what happened on the road that day and when you go back, you are constantly reminded why you re working so hard. everything you gave and nothing escape you touched me so much. nothing you would take, everything you gave hold me until i die meet you on the other side your c nsurance, so you only pay for what you need. [ nautical horn blows ] i mean just because you look like someone else doesn t mean you eat off the floor, or yell at the vacuum, or need flea medication. oh, yeah. that s the spot. only pay for what you need. liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty
this was when my mom met president obama for the first time. and he wrote to lillian, it was a joy to meet you, thanks for doing such a great job with pete. so this is my grandmother and grandfather. they were both born in azors. they immigrated within a year or two of each other. my parents both worked. my mom was a nurse. my dad was a boat mechanic. i had no interest in anything other than sports. i didn t get interested in photography until i was in college. if there was such a category, i would have been in the most unlikely to succeed. i think when he was at b.u. he took a course in photography
need to get these online. pete said the white house wants us to put pictures out on flicker, which was a photo streaming platform. my job was to make an edit of from 10,000 down to what would be about 50 pictures a week. that was unprecedented. no previous administration had ever put out as many pictures. i thought it was a great way for the public to see what was happening behind the scenes. when you get to be my age, and you look back at things that happen earlier in your life you start sort of connecting the dots a little bit.
the starkest possible contrast. and i think that s why pete s images have triggered such emotion in people. it s like no, that s my america. my america is in these pictures. when history has been written yes, we did, yes, we can. how we ll be remembered thank you, god bless you. will you be someone a reference with wise words to quote a paragraph, a page a simple as the questions asked the answer i propose. is to look beyond the days gone past see tomorrow and know that the