I have always been fascinated by behind-the-scenes/backstage photography - actors, musicians, comedians, sportsmen - and more recently, politicians. I still remember very well the vibrant, uplifting feel of the 2008 US presidential campaign - and the way it was perceived abroad - and the question is, how is that "vibrant, uplifting feel" constructed through photography? Back then, I found that backstage photography covering the long and intense campaign was especial efficient rhetorically, because of the feeling of intimacy, ability to relate, constant zooming in/zooming out, human scale/superhuman scale, person/country.
Here are two collections of behind the scenes photographs by Pete Souza, a White House photographer, covering the Obama presidency:
1) Time Magazine http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2043164,00.html
2) USNews http://www.usnews.com/photos/obama-behind-the-scenes
and two (rather random) personal picks:
By the way, the White House also has an account on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/
These photographs are "behind the scenes", "insider views", yet they are meant to be published and exposed to a large audience - how are they different from "official", "public" photography? How do they complement it? How does the presence of a photographer/many photographers affect what is going on? What role do captions play - i.e. how would our perception be different without them? What kind of image of the president do these photographs construct and how?
Here are two collections of behind the scenes photographs by Pete Souza, a White House photographer, covering the Obama presidency:
1) Time Magazine http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2043164,00.html
2) USNews http://www.usnews.com/photos/obama-behind-the-scenes
and two (rather random) personal picks:
By the way, the White House also has an account on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/
These photographs are "behind the scenes", "insider views", yet they are meant to be published and exposed to a large audience - how are they different from "official", "public" photography? How do they complement it? How does the presence of a photographer/many photographers affect what is going on? What role do captions play - i.e. how would our perception be different without them? What kind of image of the president do these photographs construct and how?
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