Presidential Picture Stories: Behind the Cameras at the White House

A book about Photographers and their Stories. Imagine spending the night in the Oval Office on the night that President Nixon announced his resignation. CBS cameraman George Christian did and it was his first day at the White House. Ron Edmonds, an Associated Press photographer, won the Pulitzer Prize for the photos he made on his first day covering the White House. Shelly Fielman’s first day at NBC was November 22nd, 1963. He was handed a tape recorder and $7,000 in cash and told to get on an American Airlines flight to Dallas, Texas. On his third day working for NBC he was watching Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald.

More stories are about photographers’ tricks, triumphs, defeats, and of course, war stories. There are stories about the iconic photographs of our day and how the photographers made them. Coating the wet plates of Mathew Brady, blowing up a brand new hotel with flash powder, using pigeons to carry film: these are a few of many stories about how photographers handled the tools of their day.

PICTURE STORIES is a fast history of the news picture business and a collection of delightful stories about the characters behind the cameras.