Photographer Lisa Jack poses with her photos of 'Barack Obama The Freshman' at the M + F Fine Arts gallery in West Hollywood, Calif. on Wednesday, May 27, 2009. Jack photographed her fellow student Obama for her Occidental College photo class nearly 30 years ago and they are now finally on display.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
The story behind the 'Barack Obama: The Freshman' photo exhibition
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/05/obama-photos.htmlFor the record, Lisa Jack says that as she spent an hour or so photographing Barack Obama 29 years ago when they were both students at L.A.'s Occidental College, she wasn't thinking of anything except getting her black-and-white images to come out well.
The pictures she shot that day for a photography course were good enough for a selection to finally see the light of day last December in Time magazine's "Person of the Year" spread on Obama, and now 21 pictures from her 36-shot roll are hanging at M+B Gallery in West Hollywood, where Jack is making a belated photographic debut Thursday with the opening of her exhibition "Barack Obama: The Freshman."
"The truth is that Paris Match interviewed me and kept looking for some kind of romance. I said, 'Maybe it would have been nice to go eat with him.' When the gallery translated that from French, it turned into 'I wanted him to ask me out.' It's pretty funny. I called up Shannon Richardson
and said, 'I did not have a crush on him. What am I going to tell my mother and everybody?' But I said, 'Turn it into whatever you want. Everyone has a crush on him.' I have more of a crush on him now than I did then, but I would never, ever touch Michelle's man. I know better. I'm only 5-foot-2."
"She did everything right on those photos. The expressions are lively and human, decent composition, no major flaws. They're attractive. I'm sure I would still give that person a very high grade. In a small way, I feel like I've participated in something historical."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-et-obama-photos27-2009may27,0,5574190.story