Behind the lens: Photographing the president at a federal prison by Pete souza, chife official white House photographer
A few months ago, I accompanied President Obama as he became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison in El Reno, Oklahoma.
It was not my first time to visit a federal prison. Nor was it the President’s first visit to a prison.
When I was a graduate student at Kansas State University (a long time ago!), I visited a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. The college newspaper was doing a story on the criminal justice system, and I was given access to photograph at the prison for a day.
It was an amazing experience.
As a law student at Harvard University, the President visited a state prison in Walpole, Massachusetts to play basketball with the Black Law Students’ Association team against the inmate’s team.
This time, the circumstances were much different.
Security was extremely tight. In addition to touring the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution, the President sat down and spoke with six inmates about the criminal justice system. That conversation was filmed as part of a VICE documentary called “Fixing the System.
