Beschreibung:

Pt Johnson, bureau ovale, 1964 Laboratoire dans la Maison blanche Épreuve argentique d'époque, 280x354 mm, tampon «White House», IPS no. 22, 10 février 1964 Le Président reçoit le Premier ministre du Canada, Lester Pearson. President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Oval Office, 1964 Printed in the White House lab the same week Vintage gelatin silver print, 280x354 mm, White House wetstamp verso, IPS Contact Sheet no. 22, 10 February 1964 The President is receiving the Canadian Prime Minister, Lester Pearson. Soon after Lyndon Johnson became President following Kennedy's 1963 assassination, he brought a talented photographer named Yoichi Okamoto into the White House, giving him free rein to photograph almost anywhere. "Okie" was a friend of mine and, recognizing the historical importance of his work, I published a story in my IPS Contact Sheet on 10 February 1964, only a few days before Johnson temporarily suspended Okamoto following a critical story in Newsweek. In gratitude, Okamoto later gave me a set of prints made in the White House. THE WHITE HOUSE I boast that I have lived under seventeen American presidents. I was born in the second term of Woodrow Wilson. Barack Obama will probably be my last. I have also known most of the presidential photographers of the last half of the 20th century. The most remarkable of them was Yoichi Okamoto, to whom Lyndon Johnson gave incredible access - on condition that he keep his mouth shut. I published Okamoto's White House pictures in IPS Contact Sheet, and in both the Washington Post and The New York Times. "Okie's" photos were beautifully printed in the White House lab. They were released slowly, with very little in the way of captions, although they were systematically dated. They did not, for example, reveal what was being said about the war in Vietnam, the war that went so badly that Johnson did not seek re-election in 1968. Richard Nixon, who followed Johnson, was uncomfortable with press photography. He gave his White House photographer Ollie Atkins no access until the last year. Nixon was followed into the White House by Gerald Ford, whose photographer David Kennerly not only got full access but was able to hire professional picture editor Sandra Eisert, to release his photos to the press. Jimmy Carter, the president who followed Ford, was also uncomfortable with press photography. I applied for the job of White House picture editor, and was turned down. Then came Ronald Reagan, to me one of the most over-rated presidents in modern history. He hired photographer Michael Evans, who had worked for me at the Times.