| A Candid Early Look at a Future U.S. President |
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Despite her portrait subject’s initial unease, photographer Lisa Jack, a fellow student of Barry’s at Occidental College near Los Angeles, felt herself drawn to this “hot guy,” a tall, handsome biracial student from Hawaii with a modest, fashionable “Afro” hairstyle.
As the session unfolded, ultimately yielding 36 photographs, Barry grew more and more at ease. His personality began to emerge: an intelligent, soulful thinker, evident in his deep, penetrating gaze; a joyful sense of humor, shared through what Jack described as “his awesome grin”; a young man of uncommon poise and self-confidence, visible in the ease with which he held and carried himself.
Lisa Jack could feel there was something special, something promising, about Barry. “There wasn’t a nicer, more sincere guy in college,” she recalls.
Almost three decades later, Barry, now widely known not by that nickname but by his given name, Barack Obama, has more than fulfilled the promise his fellow student foresaw, having been sworn in on January 20 as the 44th President of the United States, and the first African-American to hold that office. Lisa Jack, meanwhile, became a psychologist, and all but forgot about those photos until early 2008, when the growing momentum of Obama’s historic run for the White House led her to dig out the binder in which she’d stored the negatives. The images had their much-belated public debut in the pages of Time Magazine on December 17, 2008 as part of its “Person of the Year” issue devoted to the President-elect.
Now, the photos finally receive their first public gallery showing, at M+B Gallery in West Hollywood, as an exhibition entitled Barack Obama: The Freshman, on view from May 28 through July 18. Seen together as archive-quality black-and-white prints, they provide an impressively intimate experience, as if you, the viewer, had spent that afternoon long ago hanging out in Lisa Jack’s student apartment as Barry Obama posed for and chatted with her. It’s a rare opportunity to witness greatness quite literally in the making.
Barack Obama: The Freshman May 28 through July 18.
M+B Gallery 612 North Almont Drive West Hollywood California 90069
Phone 310-550-0050 www.mbfala.com
Open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm.
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WEST HOLLYWOOD “Barry,” as he called himself back then, showed up for the photo shoot in 1980 seeming a little nervous and self-conscious, armed with a leather jacket, a straw hat, and a pack of cigarettes to help him look confidently at ease.
