Welcome to the Atlantic interview. I'm Jeffrey Goldberg the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic

and this week I spoke with Pete Susa. There's a chance you may not recognize his name, but you'd certainly recognize his photographs.

Pete was the official White House photographer for Barack Obama, and he documented the president throughout his eight years in office. Recently Pete came out with

a book of photographs from that time entitled Obama an intimate portrait. When I spend time

interviewing President Obama or traveling with the president, Pete was always right there in the background,

shooting away. He was everywhere and yet also, as we discuss, kind of nowhere.

He managed to make himself invisible even while documenting the presidency in all of its manifestations.

So it was really a fun thing to sit down with Pete and hear what it was like to be an intimate

observer of an entire presidency.

Pete Susa, welcome to the Atlantic interview.

Thanks for having me on.

I don't know, it's great. I haven't seen you since

President Obama was president. Remember that period in American history when

President Obama was president? It was not that long ago? You know it really? Are you sure

about that? Sometimes it feels like it was a decade ago.

I'm not sure about that.

I don't really recall it anymore.

I've been eager to have you on this show for a number of reasons.

In part to just sort of talk about what it's like to have the ultimate bird's eye view,

in part because I'm one of the people who's been lucky enough to be photographed by you with the president.

And actually it's my first question. This is going to seem extraordinarily specific.

But here's one of the mysteries of your career or your job in the White House.

...