Pete Souza

Pete Souza and His Claim to Fame 

         

President Reagan working in Oval Office on Oct. 26th, 1988 (Pete Souza)

        Peter Joseph Souza was born December 31st 1954 and he grew up in Dartmouth Massachusetts. His mother was a nurse and his father was a boat mechanic. Later on in life he graduated from Boston University with a Bachelors in public communications. He then got his Masters in journalism and mass communication from Kansas State University. (Souza). Pete first started his career by working for two small newspaper stations in Kansas. They were the Hutchinson News and the Chanute Tribune. "Not a lot of news goes on'' - Pete Souza (Arnold). While working for the Hutchinson News, Pete has stated that he has learned two lessons; one being that when you are documenting a story, you also have to take in account what its news value is. Second being sometimes you have to step back to tell the full story with visuals. (Arnold).  At the Chanute Tribune, Pete was sent out to photograph a building on fire, however once the owner outside of the building saw him taking photos, the owner decided to punch Pete in the face. Pete later learned that the owner had set fire to the building himself for insurance money. Pete says " Not everybody likes having their picture taken." (Arnold).He then went to work for the Chicago Sun-Times. While working there, he had photographed the homeless, which resulted in a reunited father and son. After working for several newspapers he was offered to apply to be the official photographer for the white house during the Reagan presidency.

        As Pete became the official photographer for the Reagan presidency, he had taken many photos that represented what happened in that presidency. He had taken a photo of president Reagan who was visiting his wife in the hospital after she went under for breast cancer surgery. The photo was of Reagan giving his wife a kiss. Pete states that this was a pretty intimate moment, and how this photo shows what personal access sometimes afforded to a White House photographer. He also says that being able to capture the moment and also being intuitive and aware of letting the couple have privacy is a valuable lesson to know. (Arnold). After the Reagan presidency, Pete went along being a freelance photographer. He worked for the National Geographic and had documented Afghanistan after the September 11th terrorist attacks. While working on some projects for the National Geographic, Pete says that it challenged him because they didn't want cropped photos because back in the day, you worked on slide film and transparency film. After some time being just  a freelancer, Pete went back to the White House again to be the Chief White House photographer for Barack Obama for eight years, and after that he is still taking pictures and being a photographer journalist.(Arnold). 

        From doing this project I have learned a lot about Pete Souza. What makes a photo a Pete Souza's photo, is how in the moment the photo looks. His photographs are not posed and are a sense of what is happening in real time. Most of his photos during the presidencies are in moment, emotion striking, and are lined up in a way you would think the image is cropped.

Bibliography

Arnold, Amanda. “Composed of Nows.” Professional Photographers of America, 2021, https://www.ppa.com/ppmag/articles/composed-of-nows. 

Souza, Pete. “A PHOTOJOURNALIST ON ASSIGNMENT.” B.S., Boston University, 1976, KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas, 2006. 

Souza, Pete. “Photo Galleries.” Pete Souza Photography, 2018, https://www.petesouza.com/portfolio.html?folio=Image+Galleries.