An intimate conversation with photographer behind 'Obama: An Intimate Portrait'
CHICAGO - The crowd that filed into the International House at the University of Chicago already had books for signing, and their books were uniform and large. Pete Souza's "Obama: An Intimate Portrait" is quite likely the most sought-after book this holiday. It's a $50 slab of a thing. Yet this audience - students, young professionals, professors and South Side residents - carried one, two and even three copies at a time.
They sat and waited for Souza to arrive and discuss his time as chief White House photographer for President Barack Obama. They smoothed their copies across their laps, cuddled their covers. They sought Souza's autograph.
The book, which distills the 1.9 million photographs that Souza took of Obama's eight years in the White House down to about 300 images, is at once warm and nostalgic, worshipful and respectful, sad and wistful - in a sense, not so different from the framed JFK portraits that everyday Americans hung in living rooms, right through the Nixon administration. Less than 12 months since Obama left office (indeed, the very moment he left his office is included), it also reads like a
