‘There are images no leader ever wants to be seen’: 33 pivotal US presidential moments captured on camera

From the intimate to the infamous, these pictures of US commanders-in-chief (and a few also-rans) capture moments of tragedy and hope at the heart of the White House

Is it any surprise that “photo op” is a phrase imported into British English from the United States? Of course it came from there, the land where the visual image sits right at the centre of the culture, with politics no exception. It was the Nixon White House that came up with it, specifically a press aide by the name of Bruce Whelihan. According to Washington legend, whenever the president was meeting a visiting dignitary, Richard Nixon’s hardball press secretary, Ron Ziegler, would turn to his underling with an order to summon the snappers. “Get ’em in for a picture,” Ziegler would say. Too polite to put it that way himself, Whelihan would clear his throat and announce to the ladies and gentlemen of the Washington press corps: “There will be a photo opportunity in the Oval Office.” The photo op was born.

But if the term was new, the thing itself had been a part of US politics almost from the start. Just as Roman emperors sought to cast themselves in stone and Tudor kings commissioned the finest artists to capture their likeness, so American presidents moved fast to harness the new technology of the age, in order that the nation might see the men who governed them. The selection of photographs assembled here is made up of a series of striking images, but a couple are extraordinary less for what they show than for the fact that they exist at all.

Topics

AP PHOTOS: Images capture the exact moments an Israeli bomb strikes a building in Beirut
World - ABC News - October 23
Dust tornado and lightning captured on camera in UAE
Top stories - BBC News - October 24
Tom Homan: Trump’s new ‘border czar’ who vowed to ‘run the biggest deportation’ the US has ever seen
World - The Guardian - November 12
Trump denies ever saying he wanted generals like Hitler's or that the Nazi leader 'did some good things'
Politics - NBC News - October 25
AP PHOTOS: 1,000 days of war in Ukraine captured in images
World - Yahoo News - 5 days ago
AP PHOTOS: 1,000 days of war in Ukraine captured in images
World - ABC News - 5 days ago
Canada's provincial leaders want a free trade deal with the US that excludes Mexico
World - ABC News - 16 hours ago
Never-Before-Seen Photos Capture Dwindling Remnants of Soviet Modernism
World - Yahoo News - November 7

‘There are images no leader ever wants to be seen’: 33 pivotal US presidential moments captured on camera

Topics

Related

AP PHOTOS: Images capture the exact moments an Israeli bomb strikes a building in Beirut

Dust tornado and lightning captured on camera in UAE

Tom Homan: Trump’s new ‘border czar’ who vowed to ‘run the biggest deportation’ the US has ever seen

Trump denies ever saying he wanted generals like Hitler's or that the Nazi leader 'did some good things'

AP PHOTOS: 1,000 days of war in Ukraine captured in images

AP PHOTOS: 1,000 days of war in Ukraine captured in images

Canada's provincial leaders want a free trade deal with the US that excludes Mexico

Never-Before-Seen Photos Capture Dwindling Remnants of Soviet Modernism

More from The Guardian

Putin says Russia fired experimental ballistic missile into Ukraine

House committee reportedly told of second sexual encounter between Matt Gaetz and 17-year-old – live

ICC issues arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged Gaza war crimes

Merkel: I mistook Trump for ‘someone completely normal’

British lawyer is fifth person to die in suspected methanol poisoning in Laos