Front Row Seat: Eric Draper on George W. Bush

4 minute read

Official White House photographs are often democratic in two ways. Some pictures take an everyday man and elevate him to the status of Commander-in-Chief, making a mere mortal seem titanic by capturing him in action against the implicitly powerful backdrop of the West Wing or Air Force One. Others bring the titan back down to earth, showing the man behind the podium as a regular guy who likes to play with dogs and goof around.

The photographs taken by President George W. Bush’s official White House photographer, Eric Draper, do both of those things. In Draper’s new book, Front Row Seat, A Photographic Portrait of the Presidency of George W. Bush, published by the University of Texas, Bush is seen standing alone in front of the stately windows of the Blue Room, lost in thought, or emerging from the doors of Marine One. Elsewhere he’s seen playing with his two Scottish terriers, Barney and Miss Beazley, or spattered with mud in work clothes at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Sometimes Bush seems to be in on the enterprise. In formal photos, Bush alternately puts his feet up on the desk or adopts a particularly presidential look. Bush is also aware of his audience when Draper catches his goofy side. Riding a bike through the West Wing or struggling to put on cowboy boots, Bush seems directly addressing the camera and his audience, eager to showcase an inner everyman or make fun of his formal surroundings.

“A lot of those moments he knows I’m there and he trusts my presence,” Draper says, “That’s really him.” Which is the point: whether his subject is self-aware or spontaneous, Draper’s portrait of Bush is authentic. Bush was impatient with pretense and known for letting the air out of moments with a joke. He also loved to “surf” the mood in the room, and was a famously talented retail politician, instinctively aware of who was watching him. Draper saw his role as watching the watcher for the telling moment of presidential connection. “My job was watching who he’s looking at and who he’s connecting with,” Draper says.

Draper’s particular advantage, though, comes with his reportorial pictures. A former Associated Press photographer who covered Bush’s 2000 campaign, Draper has an eye for action. In prayer with Coretta Scott King or reacting to the attack on the World Trade Center, Bush is captured as events unfold around him. Of the moment with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s widow, Draper says, “That picture is one of those powerful moments that are totally unscripted and surprising.”

The reportorial pictures are most evocative in the long section on 9/11, when Draper had exclusive access to the president as events unfolded. Here Bush is no longer a man in the spotlight, aware of his audience. Rather he is focused on preparing his public statement, so much so that he doesn’t even look at the video of the attacks on a TV in the decidedly unpresidential setting of a classroom in Sarasota, Florida. “He never really acknowledged what was happening on TV,” says Draper, “He was so focused on delivering his response.” Draper captures Bush as he first turns and sees the burning towers, a reported moment as democratic as any could be.


Eric Draper‘s book, Front Row Seat: A Photographic Portrait of the Presidency of George W. Bush, is available now.

Massimo Calabresi is a Washington correspondent for TIME.


Jan. 17, 2001. President Elect George W. Bush greets and audience of friends and family in downtown Midland during a send-off rally before leaving for Washington D.C.Eric Draper
Jan. 20, 2001. George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States, sits down at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office for the first time as his proud father, George H. W. Bush, the 41st president, looks on. Eric Draper
Jan. 21, 2001. As President George W. Bush glances over his shoulder, former President George H. W. Bush reads the Sunday Times in the Private Residence of the White House. Eric Draper
Jan. 28, 2001. The president walks with his parents on the South Lawn of the White House. Eric Draper
April 8, 2001. The president smacks a tennis ball towards Barney, his Scottish Terrier, during his first visit to Camp David as president. Eric Draper
April 10, 2001. Barney joins his master on the running track of the South Lawn after a morning jog. Eric Draper
Sept. 11, 2001. From a classroom at Emma Booker Elementary School, President Bush takes notes as he listens to news coverage of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. Eric Draper
Sept. 11, 2001. President Bush and his staff look out the windows at their F-16 excort while en route to Barksdale Air Force Base. Pictured with the president are, from left to right, White House Cheif of Staff Andy Card, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, personal assistant Blake Gottesman, Senior Advisor Karl Rove, Director of White House Situation Room Captain Deborah Loewer, and Deputy Assistant Dan Bartlett. Eric Draper
Sept. 14, 2001. With smoke still billowing from the World Trade Center disaster site, President Bush departs New York City en route to Washington. Eric Draper
Sept. 29, 2001. President Bush meets with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and CIA Director George Tenet at Camp David.Eric Draper
Oct. 7, 2001. From the Treaty Room of the White House, President Bush delivers remarks to the nation regarding U.S. air strikes underway in Afghanistan. Eric Draper
Feb. 15, 2002. President Bush walks across the Colonnade to the Oval Office while taking a break between phone calls to world leaders.“It’s ironic that this photo is on the cover of the book. I didn’t remember shooting it until a year later, when my photo editor Mike Davis brought it to me. I said who took that, it’s pretty good. He said, you did.”Eric Draper
Jan. 30, 2002. President and Mrs. Bush make some last-minute adjustments as they prepare to welcome decorators and donors to the Oval Office.“The President and Mrs. Bush were truly a team and greatly respected each other," Draper says. "They were also playful, teasing each other and making each other laugh.” Eric Draper
Feb. 12, 2002. President Bush shakes hands with nine-year-old Cub Scout Jordon Wade of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as he welcomes him to the Oval Office for the presentation of the Boy Scouts of America report to the Nation. Jordon's mother, Monica Jackson, looks on. “It was a tender, sweet moment. The little boy seemed very respectful of the president, but shy. It was his big moment. The president made him comfortable with a warm, direct look. He had a way of doing that with visitors.”Eric Draper
May 25, 2002. Condoleezza Rice plays the piano as President Bush stands on the staircase during a visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin's dacha. First Lady Laura Bush sits in the background.“It was a special moment—a live concert with Dr. Rice on the piano. Just as I predicted, the beautiful music prompted the president to come downstairs. And I took the shot.”Eric Draper
Dec. 25, 2001. President Bush reacts as he joins family members in a Christmas Day bowling tournament at Camp David. Eric Draper
April, 2002. President Bush is joined by Barney for a little afternoon fishing during a visit to Prairie Chapel Ranch. Eric Draper
Oct. 8, 2002. In a light moment, President Bush, wearing a "George W. Bush" boxing robe, peeks around the Oval Office doorway into the hallway.“President Bush was mostly a serious leader, tackling serious issues. But this sense of humor provided a break for many of us in the White House.”Eric Draper
Feb. 12, 2003. The president watches a Saturday Night Live video on an aide's computer in the Outer Oval Office. Joining him are from left: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, General Richard Myers of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, personal aide Blake Gottesman, Chief of Staff Andy Card and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.“He took the presidency seriously but not himself, and always enjoyed a laugh at his expense.”Eric Draper
May 30, 2003. President Bush rehearses a speech as he works with staff in the conference room of Air Force One en route to Krakow, Poland. Eric Draper
Nov. 20, 2003. President and Mrs. Bush enjoy the moment as they sit on either ends of a couch prior to a social event at Buckingham Palace.“It was fun to be at Buckingham Palace, and not just for me. The President and Mrs. Bush were like kids on this very long couch, playfully looking at one another from each end.”Eric Draper
Dec. 12, 2003. President Bush and his father lunch in the private Oval Office dining room under the portraits of President John Quincy Adams, the only other president who was the son of a former U.S. President.“They had such a normal relationship, much more father and son than two presidents.”Eric Draper
Nov. 3, 2004. Doro Koch leads Marvin Bush, Barbara Bush and Sam LeBlond in a conga line during election night in the Private Residence of the White House. Eric Draper
July 12, 2005. President Bush enjoys a break in his afternoon schedule as he rides a fold-up bike, given by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore.“He unfolded a bike out of a box -- a gift from the Prime Minister of Singapore -- and took it for a spin in the Oval Office and the hallway. It was funny watching a nearby Secret Service Agent try to keep a straight face with the President riding by.”Eric Draper
July 27, 2006. Coretta Scott King, left, holds the plans for the Martin Luther King Memorial in her arms as President Bush joins in prayer with Bernice King and Martin Luther King III during their visit to the Oval Office.“Coretta Scott King asked the president to pray with them and he did. It was touching to see how instantly intimate they were, joining hands to pray. After the meeting, I escorted Coretta Scott King down to the library where her husband’s bust was and she asked me to photograph her. It was such an honor.”Eric Draper
October 20, 2006. Between meetings, President Bush is joined on the Oval Office couch by Miss Beazley.“It was a joy to photograph him with his dogs. He showed the same love and joy with his companions that every person understands.”Eric Draper
Jan. 9, 2007. President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert compare heights prior to dinner at the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem. Eric Draper
Nov. 2, 2007. President Bush greets Marine Corps Lieutenant Andrew Kinard, a twenty-four-year-old from Spartanburg, South Carolina, after arriving at Columbia Metropolitan Airport. Lieutenant Kinard was wounded in 2006 while serving in Iraq.Eric Draper
August 11, 2006. The president is silhouetted by the afternoon sky as he builds bike trails on the ranch in Crawford, Texas. Eric Draper
Jan. 7, 2009. President Bush leads a photo opportunity with former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and President-Elect Barack Obama in the Oval Office. The five presidents sat down together for lunch following the meeting. Eric Draper

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