Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoFor the last 8 years, Pete Souza has been the Official White House Photographer.
Since 2009, Souza has captured the president in nearly 2 million photographs. And thanks to the rise of social media networks since Obama became president, people around the world have been privy to some of the best and most intimate moments of his time in the White House.
From capturing the world’s most wanted man to passing his signature healthcare and rebuilding relations with Cuba, America’s effortlessly cool president has done it all.
Here are some of the best, more candid moments can be found on the White House’s official Flickr account:
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoJuly 14, 2012: ‘The President delivers remarks in the pouring rain at a campaign event in Glen Allen, Va. He was supposed to do a series of press interviews inside before his speech, but since people had been waiting for hours in the rain he did his remarks as soon as he arrived at the site so people could go home to dry off’
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoMay 1, 2011: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House.
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoOctober 26, 2012: Obama meets with trick-or-treater Nicholas Tamarin, the three-year-old son of White House aide Nate Tamarin, just outside the Oval Office.
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoDecember 3, 2009: Obama fist-bumps custodian Lawrence Lipscomb in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoFebruary 2009: Obama and Michelle dance while Earth, Wind and Fire performs at the Governors’ Ball.
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoOctober 29, 2009: President Obama, Eric Holder and US officers attend a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware for the dignified transfer of 18 U.S. personnel who died in Afghanistan.
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoJune 4, 2015: ‘At the President’s insistence, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes brought his daughter Ella by for a visit. As she was crawling around the Oval Office, the President got down on his hands and knees to look her in the eye’
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoJune 26, 2014: Obama has lunch with Rebekah Erler at Matt’s Bar in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Erler, a then-36-year-old working wife and mother of two, had written the President a letter about economic difficulties
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoApril 24, 2012: Obama and Jimmy Fallon are briefed on the Slow Jam the News segment backstage before taping at the University of North Carolina Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoJanuary 1, 2012: Probably everyone’s favourite photo of the American president. Souza described the photo as: ‘A nice way to celebrate the New Year for the President was to jump in the ocean in his native state of Hawaii. He was on his annual Christmas vacation with family and friends, and went swimming at Pyramid Rock Beach in Kaneohe Bay’
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoMay 26, 2013: The President and members of the White House staff look out the window of Air Force One to view tornado damage over Moore, Oklahoma.
Pete Souza/Official White House PhotoMarch 7, 2015: ‘I was moving around trying to capture different scenes away from the stage during the event to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches. When I glanced back towards the stage, I noticed the President and First Lady holding hands as they listened to the remarks of Rep. John Lewis. I managed to squeeze off a couple of frames before they began to applaud, and the moment was gone.’
