Obama photographer Pete Souza finds fame as 'the professional troll of Donald Trump'

For eight years with President Barack Obama, White House photographer Pete Souza was the man snapping pictures to record history.

The famed 2011 photo of Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and others watching SEAL Team Six take down Osama bin Laden?

That was Souza's.

The 2017 photo of Obama bending down to let 5-year-old Jacob Philadelphia touch hair like his own? Again, that was Souza, the man with his lens focused on the most powerful man in the free world.

But as he told The Star in a recent interview, "I'm a private citizen now," so he can let fly with his private thoughts.

Thus unbridled, the 63-year-old — who attended Kansas State University as a graduate student, who honed his craft at newspapers in the state and who, on April 24, will speak at the Lied Center in Lawrence — has found unanticipated fame, along with close to 2 million followers on Instagram, for posting nearly daily photos of the Obama presidency at moments precisely chosen to cast Donald Trump in a negative light.

On "The Daily Show," host Trevor Noah described Souza as "the professional troll of Donald Trump."

"Is this a badge you wear with pride?" Noah asked.

"Oh, yeah, absolutely," Souza replied.

When Trump, soon after moving into the White House, called for a travel ban on a number of Muslim countries, Souza posted a photo of Obama engaging kindly with a young Muslim girl.

As Trump wrangled with criticism about his treatment of women, Souza posted a photo of Obama in conference with women in leadership on his staff, titled simply: "Respect for women, 1."

He threw shade Trump's way last year after Hurricane Harvey swamped Texas and, as Politico reported, the president at first "didn’t meet a single storm victim, see an inch of rain or get near a flooded street." Souza chimed in with a 2012 photo of Obama consoling a victim of Hurricane Sandy.

His posts, which began soon after Trump's inauguration, number in the hundreds and have been unceasing — and, experts say, unprecedented.

Souza concedes that his own political sentiments "lean left," but he is no stranger to Republican politics. In his late 20s, after first working in Kansas at The Hutchinson News and later The Chanute Tribune, Souza was hired as a photographer in the White House then occupied by Ronald Reagan.

"I respected the president as a person," Souza said of Reagan, " the way he conducted himself as president. I wasn't always a fan of his policies, but that doesn't affect how you photograph him for history."

Souza, in interviews, tends to shy away from openly criticizing Trump.

"Rather than explain what I'm doing, I think it's better to let my photos and captions speak for themselves," Souza said.

Recent Instagram posts include Obama sitting with then-FBI director James Comey, whose new book, "A Higher Loyalty," talks of Trump demanding a loyalty pledge.

Souza's caption: "Back when a loyalty pledge was not needed (and certainly not asked for)."

His post showing Obama reading a newspaper instantly drew more than 185,000 "likes." Its caption: "Back when we had a President who read a newspaper and didn’t call it fake news even when he was criticized."

This month, prior to launching a missile attack on Syria's chemical weapons facilities, Trump took to Twitter, responding to the assertion that the Russians would block any missiles fired at Syria.

"Get ready Russia," the president tweeted, "because they will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!'"

Souza immediately followed up on Instagram with a black and white photo of Obama in 2012 waiting for allies to discuss the ongoing Syrian war. "He certainly didn't send out an impulsive Tweet about the serious national security crisis," Souza wrote.

On Friday, the president, in coalition with Britain and France, indeed unleashed a barrage of missiles that destroyed Barzah Research and Development Center outside Damascus. Trump, in a tweet, later declared "Mission Accomplished!"

Souza struck back by reposting his famed shot of Obama and others watching as the mission to kill Osama bin Laden unfolded. His caption: "Back when a mission was accomplished."

In the introduction to his new coffee-table photo book, "Obama, An Intimate Portrait," Souza fully admits to his admiration for Obama. "President Obama and I shared a lot of time in each other's presence. It was 10 to 12 hours a day, five days a week (and sometimes six or seven)," he wrote. "Along the way, I became his friend and he became my friend."

Obama, in fact, wrote the foreword to the book, saying that Souza had become "a confidant, and a brother."

Notwithstanding the investigations into Russian meddling into the U.S. presidential election, Souza does not question Trump's legitimate role. As a private citizen, he said he is merely exercising his rights.

"He is the legitimate president," Souza said. "He got the most electoral votes. There is no question. But I'm a citizen and I'm free, according to the First Amendment, to say what I want. And I choose to say it on Instagram."

Souza's pictorial potshots at Trump make him unique among presidential photographers.

"There is nothing to compare to it," said John Bredar, who wrote the 2010 book "The President's Photographer: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office," for which Souza wrote the foreword two years into Obama's first term.

Like Souza, other White House photographers have published books using public domain photographs stored at presidential libraries, said Bredar, who is vice president of national broadcasting for WGBH in Boston. But Souza is the first to use them for political criticism via social media. Souza in 2009 was the first to distribute official White House photos using Flickr. Instagram only came into being in 2010.

“My own personal view,” Bredar said of Souza’s critical use of Instagram, “is that it is very powerful use of the photographic image. He is leveraging a couple of very, very powerful things. One is he has an amazing eye, and he has an amazing collection of work. . . . He's also leveraging a culture that is hugely driven by photography now. It is kind of like a perfect storm in terms of timing: Great eye, great collection of work, and amazing material to respond to with his images.”

Souza said he’s not sure if or when he’ll stop, but he doesn’t foresee it being any time soon.

"It started accidentally, actually," Souza said. "I never had any grand strategy, or intention. It just kind of started on its own in some ways, and, I thought, 'You know, I'm a priviate citizen now. I thought that posting public domain photos at the right time allows me to fairly respectfully and subtly comment on what's going on.

"Certainly I'm being a lot more respectful than some individuals on Twitter, for example."

Subtle? Perhaps not.

On one point, Souza is clear:

"I would not want to be the White House photographer now," Souza said. "First of all I was worn out after eight years running around every day."

Second?

"I think you have to respect the person that you are photographing."

Tuesday

Photographer Pete Souza will give a free talk at 7 p.m. April 24 at the Lied Center of Kansas, 1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence. The talk will feature photos from his new book "Obama: An Intimate Portrait." Reservations are not required. For more information, visit lied.ku.edu or call 785-864-2787.

This story was originally published April 18, 2018 at 10:47 AM with the headline "Obama photographer Pete Souza finds fame as 'the professional troll of Donald Trump'."