Personal, Politics: Pete Souza's "Obama: An Intimate Portrait" at Ann Arbor Art Center

VISUAL ART REVIEW INTERVIEW

President Obama holding a child wearing an elephant costume. Photo by Pete Souza.

President Obama holding Ella, the daughter of his deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes. Photo by Pete Souza.

If there is a timeliness prize for art gallery exhibitions, the latest offering from the Ann Arbor Arts Center (A2AC) is a shoo-in for a podium finish.

 

Weeks before the 2024 presidential election, A2AC's Obama: An Intimate Portrait displays some of the best photographs by Pete Souza, a veteran photographer who reached the pinnacle of his career by serving as President Barack Obama’s photographer.

 

After Obama left the White House, Souza sorted through approximately 1.9 million photos to select 300 from his eight-year tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a 2017 book called Obama: An Intimate Portrait. He then selected 50 for a traveling show, which started making the rounds in 2019 thanks to Souza’s exhibition coordinator Hava Gurevich, an Ann Arbor artist.

 

Some of the photographs on display in Obama: An Intimate Portrait will be in history books. When the Supreme Court declared bans against same-sex marriage unconstitutional in 2015, Obama infuriated social conservatives that evening when he ordered the White House floodlights to be swapped out for colored ones. Souza captured the iconic front portico with the colors of the Rainbow Flag. 

 

White House lit up with the colors of the rainbow. Photo by Pete Souza.

The White House lit up in rainbow colors to celebrate the Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage. Photo by Pete Souza.

Another memorable photo is of the situation room where Obama and his staff watched the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Obama is in total command in that image, stoically leading the team that included the now-incumbent President Biden when he was VP; the then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; then-CIA director John Brennan; and current Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

 

But there's also the personal side to Obama: An Intimate Portrait, which captures the president in everyday moments.

 

“To do an exhibit like this, the main thing at the back of my head was: I wanted to show the humanity of this man during his presidency,” Souza told Pulp. “It’s not necessarily all the big, historic moments of his presidency, but in many ways, they’re little moments, not necessarily historic events, but to give a sense of who he is as a person, as well as a president.” 

 

Souza was in Ann Arbor on September 29 for a meet and greet at A2AC,  and he spoke about the access Obama allowed.

 

“An interesting thing that Pete brought up when he was visiting was that what he was allowed to see is really at the president’s discretion," said Jenn Queen, the executive director of the A2AC, while showing Pulp around the gallery. "And Obama gave him access to the family quarters, to the Situation Room; he flew with him, he traveled with him, and it’s truly one of the most in-depth collections of portraits from a presidency that exists."

 

President Obama reacts to a kid dressed as Spider-Man. Photo by Pete Souza.

President Obama reacts to a three-year-old Spider-Man shooting webs his way. Photo by Pete Souza.

Obama is memorably a cerebral and measured man by disposition, but his fatherly goofy side is on display as well. He is all smiles in one photo while making snow angels with his daughters on the South Lawn of the White House during his first term. Another photo from 2012 shows him obliging a three-year-old trick-or-treating in a Spiderman costume by pretending to be ensnared in webs. And on yet another Halloween, Obama lay with his back on the floor of the Oval Office, holding up Ella, the daughter of his deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes, while she was wearing an elephant costume. 

 

Presidents are often consolers-in-chief because leadership sometimes demands them to provide a shoulder to cry on for the survivors or relatives of tragedies. Souza captured one of Obama’s most memorable consoler-in-chief moments when he let himself be hugged by the crying mother of Ben Wheeler, one of the children murdered at Sandy Hook eight years ago.

 

Jacob Philadelphia touching President Obama's hair. Photo by Pete Souza.

Jacob Philadelphia touching President Obama's hair. Photo by Pete Souza.

Another much-praised photo is Obama obliging a Black child, Jacob Philadelphia, who was visiting the White House. The child asked Obama, "Is your hair like mine?” and the president said, "Go ahead, touch it" and bent over so the boy could feel it. That sort of representation might not seem important if you come from a privileged socioeconomic or racial background, but it is highly meaningful if you do not. 

 

This installation is sponsored by the Sugiyama family of Ann Arbor. Megan Sugiyama told Pulp that she got the idea to hold Obama: An Intimate Portrait in Treetown in July 2024, but it took a while to find the right gallery. Then one day she was leaving dinner at Pacific Rim and remembered the A2AC across the street, where she had previously taken classes, and she realized it was perfect. Sugiyama emailed Queen the next day and the show opened on September 14—warp speed for an art gallery. 

 

A2AC's gallery hosting the Obama photo exhibit. Photo by Drew Saunders.

A2AC's gallery hosting the Obama photo exhibit. Photo by Drew Saunders.

“I personally felt a little downtrodden that Biden was going to run again, and we saw what happened in the debate," Sugiyama said, "so it was very much not necessarily for the nostalgia, but to remember that even when things don’t seem to be great, no matter your political affiliation, things change. We have had very high heights in our history—I think that having an African-American president was one of them—and I just wanted to remind people that voting matters. It wasn’t about political affiliation. I didn’t want it hosted by the Democrats or anything, because it’s really about voting.” 

 

Ann Arbor is a famously progressive college town. In 2020, 72 percent voted for Biden and Harris according to the Washtenaw County Clerk. But what about the 25.93 percent of Ann Arborites who voted for Trump; or other conservative-leaning people who might not naturally come to a liberal town to see a show about this century's most popular liberal figure? 

 

When asked whether a Trump supporter or lifelong Republican should still come to this show, Sugiyama said:

 

“I think so, because … when you step back, any presidential exhibit should be pretty amazing. You see through these pictures a reminder of what happened in our history, during that time period. The financial crisis, the car companies, the oil spill, Sandy Hook, gay marriage—all of these things remind you that someone was at the helm and guided our country. They happened to be Obama for this, so I think that it is good for anyone interested in presidential history, and families of all races, and immigration opinions.”

 


Drew Saunders grew up in Whitmore Lake, and fell in love with A2 when he started going for karate lessons downtown at Keith Haffner’s. Studying journalism at Eastern Michigan University, he began freelancing in 2013 with the Ann Arbor Observer, and then so many other publications. He obtained a Master of Science degree in the field from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2019. In addition to writing for Pulp, Saunders specializes in business and environmental journalism.


Pete Souza's Obama: An Intimate Portrait is on display at the Ann Arbor Art Center, 117 West Liberty Road, through November 1. The exhibition is free. For more information, visit annarborartcenter.org.