Here’s What Happened When the White House Let Me Loose With my Camera
The White House is a fortress. Despite a few unfortunate incidents, you don’t get to just pop by for pie and ice cream with VP Biden. Sadly. There is heavy security and for the last 40 years photography on tours has not allowed (except on the Christmas tours).
That made it even more special that Instagram photographers were allowed into the White House for a very special, all access, tour that let us take photos of whatever we want. And yes, yours truly was allowed to tag along.
I’m going to reveal something super that’s a wee bit nerdy about myself. I’m not that starstruck by politicians anymore. Once you’ve done a state-wide office holder’s laundry and folded her underpants, heard a Congresswoman belch louder than your teenage step-brother, or had a U.S. Senator look at your chest instead of your eyes — the thrill is gone.
What continues to inspire me are the artists that work among the political elite in the Beltway. I’m talking about the amazing photographers and photojournalists you see wearing cameras on shoulders, carrying backpacks despite being over 40, and crouching or climbing to capture the perfect shot. These people are putting their own artistic touch on one brief moment in time as it is wiping it’s feet on the welcome mat of history.
White House photographer Pete Souza and his team all do a job that captures something truly remarkable and I am in constant admiration. Truly, embarrassing awe that finds a way to eclipse my old DC cynicism.
By far my favorite was the painting of First Lady Jacquelyn Kennedy with the pink orchids on the table.
It was truly an honor to get to wonder around the White House with Pete Souza:
Here are a few more shots from the adventure:
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- Kennedy Rose Garden
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- The Wilson China
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- The Lincoln painting in the State Dining Room
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- Pete Souza pointing out old photos he took during Reagan’s administration
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- On one wall is a portrait of Benjamin Franklin. and opposite him is a painting of Philadelphia’s Constitution Hall. Since Ben is on the front of the $100 and Constitution Hall is on the back, they told us we were standing inside a $100 bill while we stood under that chandelier.
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- The Lincoln painting in the State Dining Room
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- Details on the mental in the red room
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- Looking out at the north portico
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- The White House prayer inscribed on the mantle below Lincoln’s painting
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- The cobblestone outside the east wing
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- Hillary Clinton’s First Lady portrait hanging outside the First Lady’s room. She was the first First Lady to be painted in a pantsuit. Go get em Hillary!
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- The north portico crawling with beautiful wisteria
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- Amazing molding detail in the State Dining Room
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- The stairway up to the private residence
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- Looking at the east wing from outside
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- Looking out of the North Portico
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- The library
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- The north portico
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- The state dining room
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- Clock over the fireplace in the red room
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- It’s hard to capture the sparkle of the chandeliers – but I tried to show you here exactly what I was seeing when I looked up. This is in the Green Room on the second floor.
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- The beautiful flowers in the state dining room
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- President Clinton looking out over the entrance hall
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- The north portico
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- Me at the door of the entrance hall
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- Looking out on the Kennedy Rose Garden
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- The view of the monuments from the window in the blue room
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- On the bottom floor of the mansion is a room of First Ladies. A lovely light pastel of a room with orchids sitting on a middle table. On one wall hangs Jacquelyn Kennedy – opposite her is Elenore Roosevelt. Standing between them I felt a little charge of women’s
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- The Red Room
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- The beautiful old piano in the entrance hall. Anyone who has seen White House Down will remember this
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- The east colonnade
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- The red room
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- Surprise!! In the White House library there’s a Bible on the shelf. Not that it’ll stop Fox News… but just so you know, here it is:
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- The beautiful old piano in the entrance hall. Anyone who has seen White House Down will remember this
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- As President Shepard would call it: The Dish Room
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- The entrance hall with President Jimmy Carter watching over.
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- Plaque in the floor of the Entrance Hall commemorating the 1792 building, 1817 rebuilding, 1902 renovation, and 1952 reconstruction.
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- The Blue Room
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- The green room
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- Each of these chandeliers weigh something like two President Tafts and take an army of oompa loompas to clean… something like that, I don’t remember exactly what she told us, but I’m sure that’s close.
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- Looking up at the north portico
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- The overly excited fountain
