Pete Souza - Career

Career

Souza started his career in the 1970s in Kansas at the Chanute Tribune and the Hutchinson News. In early 80s, he was a photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times. He served as an official White House photographer for President Ronald Reagan during his second term, from June 1983 until 1989. He was also the official photographer for the funeral services of Ronald Reagan.

Thereafter, he continued to be based in Washington D.C., and worked for ten years as a photographer for the Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau (1998–2007). It was during this period that in 2004, Jeff Zeleny, now a political writer for the New York Times, asked Souza to take photographs for a project documenting Barack Obama's first year as U.S. senator.

Souza covered Obama’s arrival to the Senate in 2005 and met him for the first time on Obama's first day in the Senate. He documented Obama's time in the Senate, following him in many foreign trips including Kenya, South Africa, and Russia. In the process he not only became close to Senator Obama, he ended up following his rise to Presidency. In July 2008, Souza published a bestseller photo-book The Rise of Barack Obama, in which photographs between 2005 and 2008 were compiled.

In May 2009 Souza began using Flickr as an official conduit for releasing White House photos. The photos were initially posted with a Creative Commons Attribution license which required that the original photographers be credited. Flickr later created a new license which identified them as "United States Government Work" which does not carry any copyright restrictions. The photos however are posted with the following disclaimer, "This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House."

Souza has also worked as a freelancer for National Geographic and Life magazines. After 9/11, he was among the first journalists to cover the war in Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul.

He was an assistant professor of photojournalism at Ohio University's School of Visual Communication and later he was asked to become the official White House photographer for his second time for the new President-elect Obama. On January 14, 2009, the new presidential portrait was released; it is the first time that an official presidential portrait was taken with a digital camera. A week later he was present at the inauguration and following day he was the only photographer present for Obama's second swearing-in on Obama's first workday in the Oval Office.

In 2010, National Geographic produced a program about Souza titled The President's Photographer which featured Souza as the main subject while also covering the previous White House photographers.

Souza's 2011 photograph of Obama in the Situation Room during the raid on Osama bin Laden has become one of the most viewed images on Flickr. As White House photographer, Souza travels with the President to document each meeting, trip and encounter for historical record. Along with his staff, Souza produces up to 20,000 pictures a week.

In November 2011, Souza was included on The New Republic's list of Washington's most-powerful, least-famous people.