An Interview With Former White House Photographer Pete Souza

There are few (if any) photographers with a resume like Pete Souza's. Hear from the man himself in this awesome interview.

Pete Souza has lived quite the life. Souza has worked with National Geographic and Life Magazine, to name a few, and his work has been published by pretty much any major news outlet you care to name. But of course, he's most well known for being the Chief Office White House Photographer for not one, but two presidents (Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama). Souza is also Professor Emeritus of Visual Communication at Ohio University. So of course, it's well worth hearing what he has to say. 

I'm always struck by when Souza talks about his job as the White House photographer, which included not only following the president through his official schedule, but after hours personal time as well. Souza hints at it in the video, but it really seems as if that sort of commitment made the job essentially the majority of his life for those years. As Souza mentions, he never knew when history was going to happen, and he seems to have felt the obligation to be present whenever possible in case it did, as evidenced by the absolutely monumental number of photos he took. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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7 Comments

Regardless of your political affiliation, you have to admit that he took some great photos.

Exactly. But he did shoot for a president of each party, so he's got it covered!

Too bad he thinks he has to maintain his relevance through subjectivity.

Class act. Thanks for sharing

His interview with Debbie Millman on Design Matters is also pretty good. Great podcast in general.

A sweet job if ever there was one. His images are awesome.

Great visual story, thanks Fstoppers