Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs

I bought this book for my mother for Christmas. We both love it. The pictures are beautiful. Nice cover. It's a little piece of history. Well worth the money.

Anyone looking for pics chronicling the Obama team during the primary season will enjoy this book. It is not the go to book for pics during the general election. It is a great book though, and any fan of Obama will enjoy it.

This moving photo journey across the country with Barack Obama in his quest to become president is well worth the money. The photography is excellent and makes you feel as if you are there. Everyone who has seen my copy has wanted one and I have ordered numerous books for gifts because it is the kind of historical record that will be timeless. It gives me the satisfaction of knowing that I am not only personally loving thumbing through the pages over and over, but that I am gifting friends and family with something of unique value and significance.

This beautifully produced photo book chronicles Barack Obama's presidential campaign. There are no official "posed" photographs. They all appear to be candids, all 150 of them. Dozens of photographers contributed, including the famed Annie Leibovitz. Her relaxed portrait of Obama is in the introduction to the book. Topics range from the obviously historic to the small and intimate. Huge rallies are juxtaposed with a close-up of Obama's wrist wearing a bracelet of a soldier killed in Iraq. Here he is on a cell phone, on a Blackberry, with Bill Clinton, playing basketball. In a deep conversation with Hillary on a campaign plane. Delivering pizza to his staff and volunteers. One spread is nothing but magazines with the candidate's face on the cover. The Obama family is well represented. The famous fist-bump with wife Michelle is shown over five frames. The future first lady glows in photos showing off her sense of style. Several shots feature the young Obama daughters, appearing at ease and relaxed. This is a worthy keepsake of an unprecedented campaign.

Obama: The Historic Campaign in Photographs is a wonderful photographic tribute to, and reflection on, the compelling, multi-faceted and spirited movement that elected Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. The 150 color photographs inspiringly selected by Deborah Willis, with smart textual narration by Kevin Merida, provide not just a glimpse of the president-elect and his political campaign but through the visual images, a studied insight into the phenomena that produced possibly the most transformative moment in American life on November 4, 2008. The photographs were taken by professionals as well as amateur photographers, on expensive cameras as well as cellphones, and of huge crowds as well as of the candidates and supporters in those rare quiet moments. The wonderful array selected by Willis, a MacArthur "genius" and the "dean" of American cultural photography, reflects her unique eye for capturing not only beauty but the depth of spirit that only photographs, unlike other media, can capture. This book captures that spirit not only of our president-elect but of the entire campaign.