I Now Have Two More Reason to Vote for Obama

Senator Obama was doing press interviews by telephone in a holding room between events. Sometime later as he was getting ready to begin his event, he asked me if I was photographing his shoes. When I said yes, he told me that he had already had them resoled once since he entered the race a year earlier. Providence, R.I., 3/1/2008.

Travels With Barack

Four years ago Time photographer Callie Shell met Barack Obama backstage when she was covering presidential candidate John Kerry. She sent her editor more photographs of Obama than Kerry. When asked why, she said, “I do not know. I just have a feeling about him. I think he will be important down the road.” Her first photo essay on Obama was two and half years ago. She has stuck with him ever since.

This a wonderful—poignant and sentimental at times, hopeful and toothachingly sweet at others (the family shots are almost too much). These photos capture all the the emotions behind the public actions on display in a political campaign and they do it without losing sight of the very special people at the center of it all.

My very favorite shot, though, is not of Senator Obama. It's a reaction to him.


Shell says, “These two boys waited as a long line of adults greeted Senator Obama before a rally on Martin Luther King Day in Columbia, S.C. They never took their eyes off of him. Their grandmother told me, ‘Our young men have waited a long time to have someone to look up to, to make them believe Dr. King's words can be true for them.’ Jan. 21, 2008.” You can see that in the picture. You can see they are admiring a hero, and you can tell they believe in everything he represents. If they believe they are inferior, if they believe that their futures will be determined by anything other than hard work and excellence, they don't show it, not in their eyes, not in their dress, not in their bearing. They are hope personified, which is why that picture is my favorite: I remember what it is like to be one of those kids.

And I respect what their parents (grandparents?) have done to keep them that way, because I now understand and respect what my parents had to do to keep me hopeful and believing in the dream after Martin Luther King was assassinated.

But I digress.

It's a great essay. If you get a few moments, check it out. I'd love to hear which photos are your favorites.