Magnum Blog / Covering the Presidential Inauguration

Covering the Presidential Inauguration

USA. Washington, D.C. January 20th, 2009. At the Inauguration of Barack Obama. © Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos Pictures from an event like this rarely live up to the moment. I often say that pictures from things like this are usually not good the day of or the day after. They only become good 10 or 20 years from now. Kinda like wine, I guess. But if there is a part of my job description that is actually useful to people, it is the historian part (I'll spare us all another discussion about subjectivity/objectivity). Maybe the pictures will be interesting later... I think they will be for me, at least. For now, the event itself was far more interesting than the pictures. USA. Washington, D.C. January 20th, 2009. At the Inauguration of Barack Obama. © Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos Being in a crowd of 2 million people is a little disconcerting. And I don't like crowds very much. But everyone was very well behaved. My problem was that the Presidential Inauguration Committee issued a worthless credential that kept me and many of my colleagues out of the event for hours. seems the DC police had not been informed about our credential. On assignment for Newsweek I spent 4 hours walking from checkpoint to checkpoint before I finally made it in. Frustrating because I spent most of the event trying to get in rather than working. But I was glad to just be there. I don't want to sound melodramatic, but I have never experienced a sense of unity and equality among a group of people like I did that day. Not saying that it will last more than that day, or that problems of inequality and race ended when Obama was sworn in, but for a couple of hours, it felt like we got a glimpse of what it really could be like. USA. Washington, D.C. January 20th, 2009. At the Inauguration of Barack Obama. © Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos Links » Christopher Anderson's Magnum Portfolio » Christopher Anderson's Magnum In Motion Essay "War in Lebanon" » Christopher Anderson's Magnum In Motion Essay "Silicon Forest" » Christopher Anderson's Magnum In Motion Essay "Bolivian Elections" » Christopher Anderson's Magnum In Motion Essay "Capitolio" » Christopher Anderson's Magnum In Motion Essay "Middle East"

Mikko Takkunen

I was in the crowds as well. Quite an experience!

I wonder where I can see more of your inauguration photos?

Jacek

"working on the dream" - first photo is great!

DAVID P. COLEMAN

I'm a military photographer that covered the event for the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee. (AFIC). We had 27 photographers and videogaphers shooting on "I" day , as we call it, and "WOW" we have great imagery of the military particaping in the event.Google "Armed Forces Inaugural Committee' to see more great imagery. It would be nice to see military inaugural shots on this site too. Go Navy!

david bowen

it looks like it was quite a good party from the point of view of sitting in a pub off soho square in london... there were a few sniggers around the room at some of the rhetoric, and the religious overtone did not convince.... however it could not be lost just how special an event it was for uniting people .. over there and around the world.

i like the point about photos becoming more relevant over time chris, and i agree.. in fact i think any photograph of any event becomes interesting over time.. people being the point of interest.

other work.. landscape.. architecture.. or whatever it may convey just does not seem to hold water over time the same way that photographs of people do.

great opportunity to cover an event you had there and seems that despite the pitiful arrangements you did a good job.

thanks for sharing.
david

Xavier Rey

thanks for sharing !

Sean

Thanks for your blog entry Chris. As both a photojournalist and a personal documentary photographer, I imagine that it must be difficult at times on an assignment like this. Your recent statement (on Photographer profile) about "feeling" resonated quite strongly, and I wonder if you wouldn't mind commenting about the desire to record emotionally versus the need to "look" for photographs that will make Newsweek happy....

I think of your very moving work from Venezuela, the movement, the feeling... and I see Chris Anderson in these images. From the few Inauguration images that are posted here, I fail to see you in the images, but no judgements here mate, as you must have quite a few pics that we readers have not seen yet.

With such a large crowd, and so many other people shooting pictures, it's quite a thing that I still haven't seen many photos that really give me a strong sense of feeling that one would hope for from a moment built up as much as this. Event image overload perhaps? Regardless of the event or subject matter, what must be strong is the photograph itself, not what the photograph is suppose to represent.

I believe that the strength of photography begins and ends with the feeling and the honesty of the photographer.

While I understand the need for Inauguration photos for publication, I am still longing to see the photographs from an author who was there with a camera, who wore his (or her) heart on his sleeve, forgot about the inauguration and simply photographed emotionally.

P.S. Mr Colemann, this site is for the publication of work by Magnum photographers, people who work independently and have a personal approach to the people, things and places they photograph. With all due respect, if people want to see "Navy photos", they should do so elsewhere, not on this site.

Nicole

When was the last time that a president has a 2 million crowd ? ;)

Sean

Chris,

With this direct channel of communication open, permit me to hijack it to pass on my regards for your work on::

Silicon Forest: High Tech Siberia as well as the New Hampshire Primaries.

Great stuff.

Cheers,

Christopher Anderson

Thanks Sean. I appreciate that.

Trish Nicholas

Chris,

Great Inauguration photos! As an African American woman, who was there on the National Mall in the wee hours of the morning, waiting in -17 degree temperatures... I can tell you that all of the photos whether they are yours, Navy/Military, or my own (an Amateur photographer) are VERY meaningful to me today! For me and countless African Americans we do not need to feel the full appreciation of these photos years from now...

Trish

Dietmar

For those interested on more pictures go to www.mustafahabdulaziz.com Wonderfull series in bw.

jiffytrex

Mr. Coleman.

I doubt anyone looking at this website would want to see "Navy" photos. You clearly miss the point.

Sean

Come on everyone,

Please don't confuse these discussion forums with free personal advertising space.

Get involved with the blog entry at hand. Don't sell yourself here.

The viewers of the Magnum website visit because we respect the work and photogs represented by the group. Don't hijack these forums with your own work or blogs.

Fifou

I don't think Cartier Bresson showed his photos that he didn't like. So, I think Mr Anderson if you show them, it is somewhere, you like them.

Don't forget that Mr Anderson, people will judge your talent on your capacity to bring your images not to take the images.

Good luck.

Christopher Anderson

Dear Fifou,
My point was not that I don't like the images, but rather that I don't believe they have the same significance today that they might have some years from now. And that large, orchestrated events like this one often make for pictures that don't seem (to me) to live up to the significance of the event. That significance perhaps comes in time, and they will be more meaningful somewhere down the road than they are right now.

But the point of this blog is not to show off one's "best" pictures, but instead to talk about how and why pictures are made. Sometimes, that conversation is done best by using the pictures that don't make it into a book or gallery wall to illustrate a point.

Fifou

Mr Anderson,
I don't speak english very well so, I don't write it very well too.

I wanted to talk to you that somethings are important if you tell they are important.
You know what the significiance of your images today. Do your best in order that they still will have a significiant in the futur.

People will judge your images how you know to manage them and not how you take them.
Your struggle will never be finished.

Thomas Semesky

An interesting point about not always showing one's "best", "but instead to talk about how and why pictures are made". I've always liked this type of approach, the behind the scenes dialog. Sometimes this can be much more interesting than the photo itself.

David Murphey

Ditto the comments made by Mr. Semesky. The "why" is almost always more interesting at the "what" in photographs. Kind of like the journey being more important than the destination. Great set of photos Chris.