Photographing History with Pete Souza
The Chase Jarvis LIVE Show
Chase Jarvis
4.8 • 641 Ratings
🗓️ 26 August 2020
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of the things I love about photography is it's a universal language. You can look at an image intuitively feel the power and the emotion, regardless of age, race, gender, social/economic status, geography, even time.
Pete Souza is such a critical creator in not just the arc of the United States of America and world politics, but as a guy out there doing what he loves, chasing his passion and hoping to tell a story and represent history in a powerful and profound way.
He's done cover stories for Nat Geo, LIFE magazine, Fortune, Newsweek, and was one of the Chicago Tribune staff back in 2001. Most notably he was the official photographer of President Ronald Reagan, and then the Chief Official White House Photographer for President Barack Obama, where he made some of the most iconic pictures in the last 20 years.
His book, "Obama: An Intimate Portrait," was published by Little, Brown & Company in 2017, and debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. It is one of the best-selling photography books of all time. His latest book, "Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents," also debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in October 2018.
This conversation has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with storytelling, pursuing dreams, and the road to get there, whatever your dreams might be.
Enjoy!
Today's episode is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world's largest hub for online creative education in photo/video, art/design, music/audio, craft/maker and the ability to make a living in any of those disciplines. They are high quality, highly curated classes taught by the world’s top experts -- Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy Award winners, New York Times best selling authors and the best entrepreneurs of our times.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One of my favorite things about photography is that it's so easy to engage with it, not just as a viewer, but as a creator. |
| 0:15.0 | All you have to do is press a button. |
| 0:17.0 | And of course, it's the pressing that button over and over where you develop the skill. |
| 0:29.1 | But I love the accessibility of it. It's a universal language. And it's something that, you know, |
| 0:34.2 | you can look at an image and know immediately, intuitively as a human, you can feel the power and the emotion, regardless of age, race, gender, social economics, |
| 0:39.2 | status, geography, anything, even time. |
| 0:41.8 | And that is part of what makes my next guest on the show here, Pete Sousa, such a critical |
| 0:49.5 | creator in the, not just the arc of the United States of American world politics, but as a guy |
| 1:02.2 | out there doing what he loves, chasing his passion and hoping to tell a story and represent |
| 1:08.3 | history in a very, very powerful and profound way. If you're not familiar |
| 1:12.6 | with Pete Sousa, he's the number one New York Times bestselling author. He's a speaker and |
| 1:17.0 | obviously a photographer. He's done cover stories for Nat Geo for Life magazine Fortune Newsweek |
| 1:22.9 | and was one of the Chicago Tribune staff that won the Pulitzer back in 2001. |
| 1:27.8 | So to say he's an accomplished photographer is a massive understatement. |
| 1:32.8 | He's part of the Professor Emeritus of the Visual Communications at Ohio University. |
| 1:38.4 | And of course, most notably, if you know Pete's work, |
| 1:41.5 | he was the official photographer for President Ronald Reagan |
| 1:43.6 | and then the |
| 1:44.7 | chief official White House photographer and the director of the White House photo office for President |
| 1:49.7 | Barack Obama, where he made some of the most iconic pictures in the last 20 years. |
| 1:56.8 | This conversation has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with storytelling, |
| 2:03.4 | with pursuing dreams, |
... |
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