It was April 2004, and photographer Callie Shell had just covered a campaign rally for presidential candidate John Kerry.
But it was a different politician that left an impression that day in Chicago: a young state senator named Barack Obama.
“When he walked out to introduce Kerry, the excitement for him was much higher,” Shell remembers. “People were really excited to see him.”
Shell was intrigued by the buzz behind this relative unknown who was running for the US Senate but hadn’t made an impact yet nationally. She was also impressed by the way he could work a room, crack jokes and make everyone feel comfortable, whether it was the Secret Service, the janitors or the union workers in attendance, CNN reports.
Obama speaks at a town-hall meeting in Davenport, Iowa, in January 2008. His staff found a wooden crate and turned it into a stage, photographer Callie Shell said.
Shell’s editor at Time magazine joked about how many photos she had taken that day of Obama. But Shell knew he was destined for more.
She told her editor the same thing she told her husband: This guy is going to run for president someday.
For the next 15 years, Shell would go on to take thousands of photos of Obama and his family, chronicling their stratospheric rise to the White House.
And she was given access that very few photographers had.
Obama washes dishes after he and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, had breakfast together at their home in Chicago in October 2006. “My favorite thing when I go home is breakfast with the kids and taking them to school,” he told Shell back then.
Shell spent time with the family at their home in Chicago. She was with them on the campaign bus. She was there backstage at Obama’s inauguration. And she continued photographing them at the White House.
Her most intimate photos are compiled in a new book, “Hope, Never Fear: A Personal Portrait of the Obamas.” It includes more than 100 images of Barack and Michelle Obama, many of which were taken behind the scenes and have never been published before.
“I think it’s really important for people to see the journey it took for them to get to the White House — what they were like before they were rock stars, when they were sleeping on buses and there weren’t hundreds of staff people around and Secret Service,” Shell said.
Obama does pullups backstage before delivering a speech on the campaign trail.
Missoula, MontanaApril 5, 2008“In between rallies when we were waiting to be introduced or waiting to go on, (Obama) always had this excess energy,” Shell said.
Two staff members had just taken a stab at pullups. One of them did a single pullup. The next did two.
Obama did three with ease, Shell said, before dropping down and walking out to make his speech.
“When I’m out and I’m covering these things, I’m constantly beating up on advance staff and press secretaries and going, ‘I’ve got to be back there,’ ” she said. “And they’re like, ‘He’s not doing anything.’ I love it when he’s not doing anything. Because (those pullups) were not planned. He just went by and did it. And I want people to see all that stuff, everything that goes on you don’t see at the podium.”
Tre and Caleb Jackson keep their eyes on Obama as the candidate mingles with people while campaigning on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Columbia, South CarolinaJanuary 21, 2008“All these adults wanted to greet him, and these two young men were so gracious and polite,” Shell remembers. “At one point (Obama) just turned around and he said, ‘You guys have been the most patient two gentlemen I’ve ever known.’ ”
The boys were there with their grandmother.
“She said, ‘Oh my God, you have no idea what this means to these boys, to see another black man running for president and to be possible that he could win,’ ” Shell recalled.
Obama, while running for president, stops to talk to a woman at a gas station. He had just bought a paper-bag lunch across the street.
Albia, IowaNovember 8, 2007Shell was struck by how sincere Obama was with voters, especially in the early days of his campaign when he was still making a name for himself.
“He always said, ‘So what have you heard about me?’ ” Shell said.
“I think he really got it. He knew that he had to say hello to every single person. … I’m not saying you have to promise the world, but they want to know that you can relate to their needs. And he was great at that. He gripped every hand and he listened.”
Obama takes a brief nap on the campaign bus between late-night rallies.
New HampshireFebruary 6, 2008“This is what a campaign’s like: You sleep on a bus. You’re away from your kids. You’re sleeping in your clothes,” said Shell, who has covered several presidential campaigns.
Obama was fine with being photographed while sleeping. They just had one rule, Shell said.
“When we were riding in the van once and he was about to fall asleep, I asked for permission. He told me, ‘Just as long as my mouth doesn’t fall open.’
Obama sits with Daniel Van Dusky while eating breakfast at a diner on the morning before the Pennsylvania primary.
Scranton, PennsylvaniaApril 21, 2008Seeing children on the campaign trail was special for both Obama and Shell, who often bonded over their kids and talked about how much they missed them. Shell’s son, Hunter, is about the same age as Sasha.
“I could sympathize with how depressing it was to leave your kids,” Shell said. “I got kind of really bad because we would see kids and I’m just bursting out in tears.”
When Obama won the election, Shell was offered the chance to be the official White House photographer. But she turned it down.
“I had been a White House photographer for eight years, so I knew I would never see my son,” said Shell, who was Al Gore’s official photographer during his vice presidency.
Still, they worked out an agreement where she would be allowed to pop into the White House and take photos from time to time.
