Obama's People

Young fresh and alive is the lasting impression I got from the portraits of the transitional Barack Obama team at the exhibition 'Obama's People' at the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery.   The portraits were taken for a special edition of the New York Times  by London based photographer Nadav Kandar.

The exhibition is in one room.  The walls are painted white and there is a good deal of natural light which enhances the feeling of fresh and new.   Most of the portraits at hung on the four walls of the room.   Towards the rear of the room there is a tunnel construction that is painted black and very dimly lit - but more of this in a moment.

Now for any one who is a West Wing fan there is a wonderful game to play as you examine the photographs - which one is Josh, which one is Tobby, Leo etc?   This is not as silly as it sounds as the producers of the West Wing are claiming that the character of Matt Santos is loosely inspired by the Obama and there are some other neat fits - Rahm Emanual is also very similar to Josh, who was also Santos' chief of staff.   I could go on but I won't.

As you enter the gallery there is one portrait that catches your eye straight away - Hillary Clinton.   She is undoubtedly the second most famous person in the room, although whether she is the second most powerful is another matter.   You eyes are drawn immediately to her and you can tell that she has done this sort of thing before.   She looks relax and yet formal - well aware of the power of her image.  Compare this to the portrait of Reggie Love, Obama's body man (next to Clinton in the collection above).  Here we have a young man who is full of the life that Obama has brought to the Presidency,   he has none of the years of Washington in fighting that has clearly formed and bruised Hillary Clinton

As you walk around the gallery you quickly realise that someone is missing.    Where is Banquo?  This is a feast in his honour and yet he is nowhere to be seen.   This being said his personality can be felt throughout the room - yet where is Obama?   To find Obama you have to enter the tunnel structure towards the rear of the room.   Here, opposite some very ordinary night shots of Washington DC land marks is a very small portrait of Obama.   It is a black and white photograph, see above, and illuminated by a small spot in the ceiling of the structure.   This might be the smallest photograph in the exhibition yet it still holds your attention.

The inner circle of George Bush's first administration

Annie Leibovitz ~ Nov 2001

As I walked around the gallery I kept thinking back to the Leibovitz portrait of the Bush inner circle from his first administration.   This is a rather formal affair of very serious looking people.   It has a sinister feel to it.  Now it is too easy to draw any conclusions from this comparison but it was something I kept coming back to again and again.   The Obama people really do represent the audacity of hope compared to the tired, discredited people they replaced.