Insights From an Award-Winning Presidential Photographer

Photography Tips

You may have heard of photographer Wally McNamee for his role as a presidential photographer during the John F. Kennedy era. McNamee earned his reputation as an outstanding photographer for his work covering the president’s term. His work earned him four White House Photographer of the Year awards and afforded him countless opportunities to photograph some of the United States’ most historical happenings. In the video clip below, McNamee speaks about his time photographing JFK:

As McNamee tells in the clip, JFK was an extremely photogenic person and was very generous when it came to letting photographers document him—even in candid family moments. In the image below, the president is working at his desk in the Oval Office as a young John Kennedy, Jr. crawls through a trapdoor in front of the desk:

JFK and his son

McNamee, on having his own photograph taken with President Kennedy while accepting an award for White House photographers, said,

“This is eyeball to eyeball with the President. I can just remember feeling very proud and also very nervous.”