First Day Of School Show

I’m not in the news or photo business, and I don’t exactly understand the concern about “media control” and cutting the media out. If I’m not mistaken, many previous administrations have used selected photographers for these warm-and-fuzzy family shots precisely because these aren’t news photos and, as family shots, it is expected that the family will have complete control over what it presents. David Kennerly’s photos (Ford) come to mind, as well as all those adorable shots of JFK Jr under his father’s oval office desk.
That said, I’m sure Michelle Obama has tons on her mind and her body language shows that. I could argue that he won and she lost: her home, her privacy, her career, her children’s privacy, her children’s friends (any of you remember middle school??) and the right to raise her daughters in a “normal” environment. Add to that her worries about safety, and her emotional plate is definitely full. However, I’m not sure that photo is a fake of Michelle kissing her daughter goodbye; looks more like a little snuggle to me, given to provide a moment of comfort…perhaps needed for both mother and daughter.

Starting off the new administration with a bang: it’s hard to imagine a “family life” photo more posed than this. It’s almost a waste of time even thinking about it, other than deleting it. Who cares who took it? When in doubt, leave it out.
Also, out of curiosity, why is Mrs. Obama referred to as “Michelle” while Mr. Obama is referred to as “Obama?” Is she an old friend from college or something? It sounds like TIME magazine in the Fifties.

It might be posed, but what I really like about this photo is Malia’s air and expression, which are not posed. Look at that chin tilt! She will be a formidable woman one day.
Even if it is posed, you can’t fake the obvious intimacy and trust among the family members, and this is only one of many, many photos in which it’s evident. More families should interact like this, and I’m glad the Obamas are modeling it for us. And if the photo is posed, so what? They’re the first family. All images of them will be controlled; I’m just glad that this is the way they want to be percieved. It speaks well for our new President.

http://thepage.time.com/photos-sasha-malia-first-day-of-school/
the one that caught my eye was one of sasha peering through the car window.

More on the photos:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98694675

progressive mom is right on the money. the institutional pressures on barack obama’s shoulders are mirrored by the emotional, familial pressures on michelle obama.
jm’s comments are perceptive, too. of course it must be awkward to have official photographers documenting every step of their new life, but this seems to be a remarkable family and, as jm suggested, a model of family intimacy for the country.

The photos look badly underexposed, like pictures I sometimes take of the family. Maybe that is the point. But they look amateurish. At least two stops under. All done by available light. And the faces especially of Michelle and Malia are not readable. They both kind of fade into the draperies. It just bothers me that they are so technically inept.
Those black and white shots that Kennerly took in JFK’s office were good, expertly shot photos.
Not these.

One more thing, that last shot in the doorway is just a disaster. Three stops under

President Elect Obama’s first day of school is Wednesday, January 21st, 2009, and it won’t end until after he is no longer President.
During that time, neither he nor his family will have any semblance of a ‘normal’ life: all public views of them will be arranged and manufactured and manipulated for the good of the country, just as they were for his predecessors.
Adulation is a heavy burden on those who receive it and on those who give it. Be fair to everyone and expect less.

My take on the body language of Michelle and Barack is that school is something the kids are supposed to do. There’s no hugging and kissing, because every school day the kids are expected to get up and get ready for school without too much production about it. That said, I’m sure Sasha and Malia’s parents have spent some time talking about the adjustment with them. That time really is private and the sort of time when photos get in the way. So I don’t read these photos as fake. The message is “suck it up and do your jobs.”

I am not even sure that photo depicts a “kiss goodbye.” As we know, Michelle went with the girls to school that first day, so she obviously wouldn’t have been saying goodbye. It seems more likely to have been a moment of affection about something else. Still, I have no idea what was happening there.
I compare these few and under-exposed images with the absurd cable over-coverage of the girls going off to school and wonder if the family is trying to find some way to satisfy the Media Beast (with a few, reasonable pics that do not require performance), while hoping against hope to maintain some normalcy for the children.
This is a voyage of discovery for them – as when they regretted getting sucked into the entertainment TV interview as a family, and as reflected in Obama’s comment recently that he’s trying to figure out why/how the girls seem so unfazed by everything – describing them as “a lot cooler” about things than their father.