My Photo Op With George H. W. Bush

Vice President George H. W. Bush

I only had one opportunity to photograph President Bush — actually when he was Vice President. Was on assignment for People magazine covering Fred Grandy as he campaigned for U.S. Congress in Iowa. The Vice President and his wife Barbara were in Des Moines and this meeting was scheduled between them. Believe it was on a Sunday morning, 1986, in a hotel suite.

I’ve photographed many politicians, several in one-to-one situations (campaigning, day-in-the-life stories, but I was more often part of a larger “photo pool” as they interacted with larger public crowds).

This encounter was sure an exciting moment as there were only 5 people inside the suite. Vice President Bush, his wife Barbara, Fred Grandy, the VP’s photographer, and myself. I’d been cleared by the Secret Service, of course, when I arrived at the hotel and the agents remained outside of the suite during this meeting.

I don’t remember if it was a “genuine” meeting or simply a staged photo-op for People magazine (these types of photo-ops do occur). Would like to believe the VP was talking to Grandy about his campaign.

Who is Fred Grandy you ask? In addition to being a U.S. Congressman, he was perhaps better known to most as purser Gopher on the TV sitcom “The Love Boat”.

The last tidbit of info for you. Barbara Bush is seated at the far left side of this photograph, mostly out of the frame. As a true photojournalist I captured the moment “as is”, no retouching, no asking people to be re-arranged in the seating configuration. These meetings don’t last long, space in the room was small, even sharing it with only one other photographer, so no chance to move from my photo position to re-frame the photograph.

This is an original silver halide double-weight Black & White print produced in the Time-Life Photo Lab, NYC.

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