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Political Portraits
Obama White House photographer recently shot the official Presidential portrait — you know, the one that will appear on the walls of the post off...
Obama White House photographer recently shot the official Presidential portrait — you know, the one that will appear on the walls of the post office and other federal buildings.
From what I understand, it’s the first official photo that was shot digitally (on a Canon 5D Mk II for those that are interested). This straight-forward image was a pretty stark contrast to the images that I saw next.
Nadav Kander was commissioned by the New York Times magazine to produce portraits of some of Obama’s staff and aides.
I have to be honest, my first reaction was, “What the hell is this?” I assume that Rahm has some pretty dark circles under his eyes, but the lighting wasn’t helping. Here’s a few more.
After all, we have images like this by Platon:
And images like this by Chuck Close.
The Platon photo caused a minor uproar when it came out (“omg, look how big his hands are!”, “He’s obviously grimacing as he exposes his crotch,” “the tie is pointing to his penis!”), and it makes you realize the importance of photography in people’s perception of others.
Henry Leutwyler, one of my favorites, went to the Mayor’s convention and shot a bunch of potraits that don’t look so disimilar from Kander’s, but I like them better.
Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence:
North Highlands Mayor James Joe West — thar’s some character in those highlands.
Photo by Henry Leutwyler
And we can’t forget Ray.
Since the inauguration is less than a week away, it seems appropriate to leave with one last image of 44 taken by my friend Peter Yang for Rolling Stone magazine. He’s not topless, he’s not looking particularly Presidential, but hey, he wants you.