BCC to launch Wolfson Speaker Series with former Chief White House Photographer Pete Souza

FALL RIVER – Former White House photographer and New Bedford native Pete Souza remembers becoming transfixed with a still photo when he was eight years old.

Little did he know the impact that photo of former Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in as president aboard a plane shortly after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination - with Jacqueline Kennedy by his side – would have on his future career.

“Even though I didn’t actually pick up a camera until I was in college, still photographs meant something to me,” Souza told O Jornal in a virtual interview from Wisconsin. “I just didn’t understand it fully at the time.”

Souza, who served as Chief Official White House Photographer for President Barack Obama for all eight years and an Official White House Photographer for President Ronald Reagan, will be coming to Bristol Community College on April 18 to talk about his life and experience as a photographer and best-selling author.

He will be the first featured presenter of BCC’s new Wolfson Speaker Series, an annual event that will host prominent speakers from across the globe to engage the local community around relevant issues.

“It will be a visual presentation; I’ll be projecting images on a large screen,” explained Souza. “I’ll probably start out showing some pictures from early in my career. It’s not like I suddenly became President Obama’s photographer. Having that prior experience was invaluable for me to be able to do the job as White House photographer in a very effective way.”

Souza grew up in South Dartmouth. After graduating from Dartmouth High School, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Public Communication from Boston University and a master’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Kansas State University.

His career as a photojournalist spanned 40 years, both as a freelancer for publications such as National Geographic and LIFE and a staff member at several newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune.

He covered stories around the world. After 9/11, he was one of the first journalists to cover the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan, after crossing the Hindu Kush mountains on a horse in deep snow.

His work has been shown nationally and internationally.

At BCC, he will offer a glimpse into how some of his most iconic photos came to fruition.

“In some instances, I will go into detail about a particular photograph,” said Souza, who is also Professor Emeritus of Visual Communication at Ohio University. “I try to shy away from too much technical detail because most people are more interested in the narrative of what I was experiencing and what was taking place.”

Souza estimates he snapped about two million photos just during the Obama years, capturing not only serious moments but also many lighter and intimate ones.

“For me, it was always about creating the best set of pictures - the best body of work,” he said. “So, I don’t really have a favorite.”

However, he noted the photos that people are arguably more familiar with are the ones of President Obama bending over to let a little boy pat his head or watching attentively in the Situation Room as the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound was taking place.

“In terms of my presentation, those are two [photos] that I’ll stop on and talk about for a couple of minutes just because people are interested in the back story of those pictures,” he said.

Another iconic photo Souza recently revisited is the one that shows a three-year-old boy dressed as Spiderman zapping President Obama with his imaginary web.

“That kid is now 14 and a freshman in high school. I just talked to him last night,” revealed Souza. “He doesn’t remember that much about it, and he wanted to meet me. I just talked with him on Zoom.”

Souza’s photos have earned him numerous awards, including several times in the prestigious Pictures of the Year annual competition, the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism, and the White House News Photographers Association’s yearly contest.

His book, “Obama: An Intimate Portrait,” published in 2017, debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. He is also the author of “Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents” (2018) and “The West Wing and Beyond: What I Saw Inside the Presidency” (2022).

Based on his best-selling books, he was the subject of the 2020 documentary film “The Way I See It,” directed by Dawn Porter.

In 2021, Souza was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame. A year later, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Professional Photographers of America.

Last year, BCC awarded Souza an Honorary Degree of Associate in Humane Letters.

How does Pete Souza keep busy these days?

Now semi-retired, Souza mostly photographs two very deer subjects.

“I probably take photos every day, but mostly of my two granddaughters,” he said smiling. “I probably will photograph the solar eclipse in a couple of weeks. But I have a couple of assignments coming up. I don’t do that many assignments, but I do some now and then.”

One of those assignments will be for Netflix.

“I am not allowed to discuss it, but it’s for a new show that’s in the works,” he said. “They’ve hired me to be on the set and photograph behind the scenes, and just what’s happening in making this show.”

Recently, he also photographed retiring Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick for a special report titled “The Story of Howard University’s 17th Presidential Administration.”

But these days one of his main goals is to organize his photo archive.

“I don’t even know how many photos I have,” he admitted. “Some are black and white negatives – that’s how I started my career. Then I have tens of thousands of color slides. And I have no idea how many digital files I have. I started shooting digitally in 2000, so there’s basically a 10-year period before I started working for the White House… I’m not sure but I’ve got hundreds of thousands, maybe more than that.”

Souza would like to publish a retrospective book covering his whole career in the next five years.

“It’s kind of tedious at times trying to figure out how to do this, but that’s my main focus,” he said.

In recent years, he also found time to reconnect with his Portuguese roots and has visited both the Azores and mainland Portugal. Both sets of Souza’s grandparents came from the Azores in the early 1900s.

“I would sure like to do photo workshops, specifically in the Azores,” said Souza, who traces his roots to Ribeira Grande, S?o Miguel. “Maybe next year.”

Does Pete Souza plan to voice his opinion again about Trump?

A few years ago, Souza found his political voice on Instagram, subtly posting photos of the Obama era as a way of commenting on President Donald Trump and showing frustration with his administration.

Does he plan to do the same this year as the presidential election approaches and Trump gains more endorsements?

“Oh, yeah, I will definitely be speaking out in some way,” said Souza laughing. “But I don’t know in what form. I don’t know how effective it would be on Instagram. A lot has changed with social media in the last four years. I find that it’s gotten very hateful. There are times now when I have to shut off comments on my Instagram feed. So, I’ve got to be careful about how I respond or how I speak out because, you know, my intention is not to draw hateful comments. The point is to just be able to express your opinion without it becoming hateful.”

How to register for Pete Souza’s talk at BCC?

The inaugural event of the Wolfson Speaker Series will start at 6 p.m. in the Margaret L. Jackson Arts Center (H building) on BCC’s Fall River Campus, located at 777 Elsbree St. It will be followed by a book signing.

Souza’s bestselling book ‘Obama: An Intimate Portrait’ will be available to purchase or guests may provide their own copy of Souza’s titles for signing.

The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. To register, please visit www.bristolcc.edu/wolfsonspeakerseries.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Former White House photographer Pete Souza coming to BCC April 18