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Photographer restores and colorizes vintage photos of 26 US presidents

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James Berridge of JBColourisation has already demonstrated his impressive restoration and colorization skills. In his recent project, he embarked on a demanding task to make a large chunk of US history more relatable to the 21st-century folks. He restored and colorized 26 presidential portraits. All of those photos that were photographed in black & white now have their restored, colored version.

After he finished the process, James shared a video that, for the first time, shows all US presidents in color. And in another video, he spoke more about his process, the challenges he faced, and why he decided to start this project in the first place.

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Photographer captures Trump’s cue card reminding him to be sympathetic to shooting survivors

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It’s nothing new that politicians use notes and cue cards when giving speeches. But a recent AP photo shows that Donald Trump uses notes that remind him to be sympathetic. AP photographer Carolyn Kaster managed to capture the notes president Trump used when meeting people impacted by the mass school shootings across the US. The photo made the public worried and caused a lot of reaction.

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President Trump’s new official portrait lacks pro lighting and definition

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The White House have released new official portraits for both President Trump and Vice President Pence. Pence’s actually looks pretty good, but Trump’s? Not so much. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it just looks like a smartphone grab shot with ambient room light.

The portraits were shot by two different photographers. Shealah Craighead and D. Myles Cullen photographed Trump and Pence, respectively. The newly released Trump portrait does offer a more friendly pose and expression than the last one, but the bad lighting and messy background really lets it down.

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This is the oldest known portrait of a U.S. President

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There’s an interesting story about the oldest presidential portrait known so far. The sixth U.S. president John Quincy Adams sat for a photographer in August 1843, and the daguerreotype emerged in an antique shop in 1970, priced at 50 cents. Today it sits in the National Portrait Gallery as the oldest survived photo of an American president. However, today, almost 50 years later, another daguerreotype has appeared. It’s older, and it also seems to have an interesting story.

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Official White House photographer for Donald Trump announced: Shealah Craighead

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After some rumours and speculations, the new Presidential photographer has finally been announced. Obama’s photographer Pete Souza left the White House, and the one to replace him and work with Donald Trump is Shealah Craighead. She is a photojournalist who already has the history of photographing politicians, and even working in the White House for George W. Bush.

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Photographing the President: an overview and interesting facts about all presidential photographers

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The importance of presidential photography cannot be understated in today’s visual world. Although the bulk of photography since the inception of regular presidential photography in the 1950s still consists of “grip and grin” photo ops, White House photographers have sought to capture a more intimate look at the leader of the free world. Press access to the President varies by administration (a criticism that dogged the Obama administration), but White House photographers have access to private or top secret moments that are a vital part of the historical record – from 9/11 to the assassination of Osama bin Laden.

“I’m going to document every meeting that you have. It’s for history,” said Pete Souza, Chief White House Photographer under President Barack Obama, in an interview with National Geographic. “This job is about access and trust, and if you have both of those, hopefully you’re going to make interesting and historic pictures.”

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Do you have what it takes to become the official White House photographer?

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The concept of official White House photographer was established in the 1960s and started with John. F. Kennedy. Since then, every president of the US, except Jimmy Carter, has had his official photographer.

The latest video by DigitalRev shows a brief history of presidents and their official photographers. We’ve been surrounded lately by the news about the elections and inauguration of the new US president. But this video focuses on what we’re all interested in here: photography. It also refers to some features the White House photographer needs to have, which is particularly interesting. So, how is the official presidential photographer chosen?

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This is the oldest known photograph of a Presidential inauguration

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On March 4th, 1857, while the Capitol building was still under construction, James Buchanan was sworn in as the 15th President of the United States of America. The 1850s were a significant period in photography. The wet collodion process was invented in 1851. It gave photographers the ability to make direct contact prints from glass negatives.

You needed to take a whole darkroom around with you to do it, though. Long exposures were still often necessary, as one would typically work with ISO rating of 6 or less. But it finally allowed photographers to document many things for the first time. Including the presidential inauguration of James Buchanan. Created by John Wood, working for the Montgomery C. Meigs at the Architect of the Capitol.

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Photographing the President; A look inside Pete Souza’s camera bag

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While many will be preparing their own camera bags right now and getting ready to record the evening’s festivities and celebrate American history, one photographer captures American history-in-the-making on an almost daily basis.

That photographer is Pete Souza, who has followed President Obama with his cameras since 2005. By the end of Obama’s tenure, Souza believes he will have created over two million photographs of the President.

That’s a heavy workload. So, what does Pete rely on to get the job done?

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Photographing Obama, insights from White House photographer Pete Souza

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Having first photographed President Obama in 2005, White House photographer Pete Souza estimates that by the time Obama’s second term is up, he will have made over two million photographs of the President.

It’s difficult to imagine following and photographing the same person for eleven years.  In this video, from BBC’s Newsnight, Souza talks about covering every aspect of the President’s public and private life.

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