© Damon Winter. Above: March 6. Charlotte, NC. Joe Biden speaks to the crowd on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center/Time Warner Cable Arena.

The exhibit “Politics in Play” presents three very distinct styles of campaign photography by Damon Winter, Lauren Fleishman, & Ricardo Cases. Looked at side by side, their three approaches can serve as vibrant shorthand for some of the messages, stances, and moods of this election. With his dramatic capturing of shadows and light, Damon conveys the staged aspects of the process. At the other end of the spectrum, Ricardo’s pictures, strobed and super-bright, play on an idealized—even neutralized—vision of America, replete with blue skies, perfect white teeth, and success within reach. And Lauren’s photos, shot in black and white, lend a classic, timeless feel to their unscripted moments. Expectations are in check for November 6th; perhaps, latent in this rich imagery, are portents for that day’s results. – courtesy Anna Van Lenten

Damon Winteris a staff photographer for The New York Times. Lauren Fleishman is a freelance photographer. She followed the 2012 Romney campaign for Time magazine. Ricardo Cases is a freelance photographer who covered the Republican primary in Florida for Time.

“Politics in Play” will be on view at The Half King in New York City. Join the opening night discussion with Paul Moakley (deputy photo editor at Time) & Cornelius Schmid (picture editor at The New York Times) on  Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 7:30pm.

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On March 30, 2012, President Obama enters the South Portico of the White House after arriving on Marine One. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.

In January 2009, photojournalist Pete Souza became the chief official White House photographer for President Barack Obama as well as the director of the White House photography office. Souza, who was also the official White House photographer for President Reagan, began photographing Obama during his first year as a senator and in 2008 published The Rise of Barack Obama. He considers it his primary duty as the official White House photographer to “visually document” Obama’s presidency for the historical record. To that end, he photographs the president in a variety of situations including at meetings, on Air Force One, interacting with his staff and spending time with his family. Tonight the Leica Gallery in New York City will host “The Obama White House,” an exhibition featuring select images of President Obama by Souza. More behind-the-scenes photos from the White House can be seen at www.flickr.com/whitehouse.

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All Photos © Patrick Witty.

Patrick Witty, international picture editor at Time Magazine, first conceived his presidents project in 2007, just after Barack Obama announced his candidacy. At the time, Witty was working as a photo editor at The New York Times. He was also naming his son which led him to think about the importance of names.

Witty says, “This was the first conceptual portrait series I had undertaken and struggled to come up with a thread that would link the pictures. Ultimately I decided that the thread would be history—each photograph would make reference to a historic image of the president. Most of the references are made through body language or composition. Some are geographical or purely historical. I scoured the Internet researching photographs of presidents. For example, since George Washington was the first president, and the first in my series, I wanted to reference the very first portrait made of him, a painting from 1772 by Charles Willson Peale. The hand over the heart added another dimension to the picture, especially when considering where it was taken. Another Example is Calvin Coolidge, since he raised alpacas, I searched for a photograph of President Coolidge with animals. With baby Barack, it was easy, since there are very few pictures of President Obama as a child.”  Witty shot the project using a Crown Graphic 4×5 camera from the 1950’s that he said helped him gain the sympathy of his subjects, because the equipment seemed so cumbersome to set up. With each subject he recorded an interview that became part of the short multimedia pieces that were featured on the Times’ Lens blog.

Above:George Washington is in prison, serving three years on a weapons conviction. His pose mirrors the earliest known image of Washington, painted by Charles Willson Peale in 1772.

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