Bush Captured by a "Mirror with a Memory"

On Monday, January 12, 2009, George W. Bush gave his last press conference. In his last address to the Washington Press Corps, Bush said: "Through it all, it's been -- I have respected you. Sometimes I didn't like the stories that you wrote or reported on. Sometimes you misunderestimated me. But always the relationship I have felt has been professional. And I appreciate it."

With Bush out of office attempts are being made to shape his legacy. In this spirit, Award-Winning Documentary filmmaker, Errol Morris, turned to three press corps photographers to share the images they felt captured Bush's "character" over the past eight years. Morris does not believe that photographs preserve reality, but in fact "capture our evasions and self-deceptions."

View the photos that Vincent Amalvy (AFP), Santiago Lyon (AP), and Jim Bourg (Reuters) chose at Morris' blog "Zoom" on the New York Times website.

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Its interesting to note how each of these photographers view the access they were given to the president:

Vincent Amalvy (AFP) says in America the press corps is given more access to the President compared to other countries: "It’s a different situation in Europe. In America when you are part of the presidential pool, you move everywhere with the president. It’s not that way in other countries. You don’t have the same quantity of free access to all these attitudes, pictures and opportunities."

Santiago Lyon, takes a different view then Amalvy: "And it is true that the American system, and especially the White House, allows much more access because they’re much more media-savvy. The White House understands the power of the image. And that’s where I sometimes get the feeling that we’re all being manipulated. It is true that we do get access to a much larger extent, than many other world leaders allow it. And that’s something to be thankful for, in the sense that we’re able to witness White House activities. But, at the same time, the thing is so contrived and so controlled that like any consumer of information, it behooves one to look at the source of the information, to look at the circumstances of the information, and to be able to cast a critical eye on it."


Jim Bourg comments on the role of White House Photographers: "That’s the talent of our White House photographers: to be able to work within the constraints that are imposed upon them by the White House staff, but also to fully document what’s going on."

Bourg also makes an interesting point about key Bush photographs: "It’s interesting to see how differently people will interpret the same picture, how a strong supporter of the president will see a picture one way and a critic of the president will see it a different way. There have been some pictures of President George W. Bush where the reactions have actually gone all over the map, where some Bush supporters see interpret the image as taking a cheap shot at him. Other Bush supporters see that same moment as endearing or showing off his character, showing that he’s a regular kind of guy or showing that he’s a common, unpretentious type of person. And then there are pictures where a photo opportunity can totally backfire on the White House. An example of that would certainly be the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the aircraft carrier where that is a very straight photo as you look at it."