Scene on the Road

November 23, 2008: Route 70, Cherry Hill, NJ

Looking back over the past week for my Monday Scene Through the Lens column, I came across two items to update:
I mentioned presidential photographer Pete Souza last week. He was the Official White House Photographer for President Reagan during his second term, and the national photographer for the Chicago Tribune based in their Washington bureau. That’s where he began extensively documenting the junior senator from Illinois, and this past summer, his book "The Rise of Barack Obama," was published. This weekend I noticed it’s on the New York Times best seller list at No. 16 in hardcover non-fiction, joining Obama’s own “Audacity of Hope” (No. 11). It's unusual for photo books to hit the top twenty and there are a bunch of the quickie compilation picture paperbacks out there already, so I'll assume Pete's own rise is because readers appreciate solid photojournalism.

And the president-elect is posting more-behind-the-scenes photos on the web. His blog at the official change.gov site has links to a Obama-Biden Transition Project on Flickr. This week they had eighteen photos of a visit to Manny's Cafeteria and Deli in Chicago.

Click on this link to see what the wire service photographers in front of him shot.

November 24, 2008: Broadway & Federal, Camden.

November 25, 2008: Thanksgiving Dinner Giveaway

November 26, 2008: BG Automotive Group Electric Car Prototype

November 27, 2008: Thanksgiving Day Parade

November 28, 2008: 5 a.m. Black Friday

November 29, 2008: Unpacking