It’s easy to imagine, though, that Rowe, who suffered a more mild disability from polio, would be sympathetic to the president’s desire to emphasize his strength rather than focus on his weaknesses. At the time, the White House press corps, was strongly, sometimes forcibly discouraged from taking photos of the president in his wheelchair or getting in and out of cars, and Rowe’s official photos followed suit. At first, his assignment had him covering President Roosevelt’s most official public work-ceremonies, major announcements, visits from foreign ambassadors and leaders. Polk.īut Rowe was the first photographer to regularly document a president’s activities. The oldest surviving photograph of a sitting president, taken in 1849, is of James K. The first president ever to be photographed was John Quincy Adams, who sat for a daguerreotype in his 70s.The first president to sit for a photograph during his presidency was William Henry Harrison, who was photographed at his inauguration in 1841. Go looking for the first “official” White House photographer, and you’ll find more than one.Ībbie Rowe was still working for the White House when JFK took office. Photographs like these can have a huge impact on the American public’s relationship with our president: the photographs can “affect the image and memory of their term and how the public perceives the president,” says Michael Martinez, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, who’s studying presidential photography.īut the tradition of hiring an official photographer, with virtually unlimited access to the President and his family, snuck into the White House. There are pictures of the president making silly faces at so many babies, and a picture of the president and his staff watching, live, the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Since 2009, we’ve seen President Obama at work and play, and the Obama kids goof around and grow up. Today, it’s almost a given that the public will be given a glimpse inside the President’s world. So many babies to make faces at, so little time. His job would be to photograph the president.
Soon, Rowe was working as photographer for the National Park Service, and in 1941, he was given a new assignment.
Either way, when Rowe saw the First Lady, he took her picture, and she was charmed enough that they began a relationship.
#WHITE HOUSE PHOTOS DAYLIFE MANUAL#
According to some he was doing manual labor, a tough job for anyone, but particularly for Rowe, whose legs had been damaged by polio other versions hold that he was already at work as a photographer, documenting the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps. It might be said that official White House photography began with a very unofficial photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt.Īs the story goes, Roosevelt was out riding her horse when she was spotted by Abbie Rowe, who was then working for the public roads bureau. President Johnson meets with candidate Nixon.
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