Pete Souza Reflects on His Eight Years With Former President Barack Obama, Offers Photography Advice

After 8 years and 1.9 million pictures (none of which were deleted), Pete Souza can tell you quite a bit about working with former President Barack Obama. In this great video, he talks about his photographic philosophy and experiences and gives advice to aspiring photographers.

Coming to you from B&H, this awesome video spends a few minutes with the legendary photographer. Souza is well known for his ability to move past pure documentary photography and to tell intimate stories both of his subjects' work and of their personal lives, and in this interview, he reveals that that came partially from a keen awareness of the delicate balance of being a professional photojournalist who was essentially never off duty and knowing when to give the people in front of his camera a little space. I think most agree that he did a spectacular job in his second turn as White House Photographer, and it's both interesting and informative to hear his take on what went into the job and how he continually turned out amazing work.

Souza is currently on tour for his new book, "Obama: An Intimate Portrait." You can see more of his work on his website and Instagram

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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6 Comments

There's Still Hope

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@Alex Cooke did you receive my private message ?

that's 982 pics a day, every day. dam that's a lot.

He may say of himself that he’s not the best photojournalist but he took some really amazing images over those years. He did do a great job, IMHO.

got my mom the book for christmas and she nearly cried, i won xmas for sure.