“Supporting Hands,” a photograph of President Barack Obama as he won the nomination for the Democratic presidential candidate, by AP photographer Chris Carlson, won Best of Show at the Fotobama exhibit at the Newseum. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
(CNSNews.com) – A new photography exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., chronicles the 2008 presidential campaign and the week leading up to Barack Obama’s inauguration as president.

The exhibit features 100 photographs by both amateurs and professionals selected by five judges from 1,500 submitted in a contest to win a spot in the exhibit.
 
The photographs provide a visual look at Obama’s journey from a community organizer in Chicago to becoming the first black president of the United States, but the exhibit is not without images that reveal the politics that brought him to power.
 
Susan Bennett, vice president of marketing at the Newseum, told CNSNews.com that she doesn’t think of the exhibit as political.
 
“This is not about Barack Obama,” Bennett said of the exhibit, which is entitled “Fotobama” and was done in partnership with FotoWeek DC. “This is about the presidential campaign of 2008.”
 
“You’ll see images of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden and John McCain in here,” Bennett said. “The preponderance of people sent pictures related to Obama because he ultimately won, but we were excited about the enthusiasm and the level of participation that we saw in that campaign.
 
“Not because Obama won it, but because more people paid attention to (the campaign), Bennett said. “Again, this is not about Barack Obama--it’s about photojournalism.”
 
Photos of Obama dominate the exhibit, including the photo chosen Best of Show, taken by Associated Press photographer Chris Carlson called “Supporting Hands.” Carlson, like the other photographers in the show, wrote his own caption:


A Newseum visitor takes in the Fotobama exhibit. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
“In 25 years of shooting news photography, nothing thrilled Chris Carlson like covering the 2008 presidential campaign. The night Barack Obama captured the Democratic nomination, shown here, was particularly special.

“Typically, you’ll see people along the rope line trying to take pictures with their cell phones or trying to get him to sign something,” Carlson said. “This night people just wanted to touch him.”
 
In the campaign and election professional category, two of the 25 photos are of John McCain. The second place winner in the amateur division includes John McCain.
 
The closest Sarah Palin gets to being in the exhibit is a photo of the legs of an impersonator at a McCain rally wearing knee-high boots.
 
Hillary and Bill Clinton are featured in one photo in the amateur election and campaign category as they enter the Scranton, Pennsylvania Riverfront Sports Complex on Oct. 12, 2008, to rally for the first time for Obama.
 
Biden is in several photos, but no images of Palin are in the exhibit.
 
Former President George W. Bush is represented in the professional inaugural week division in a photo that shows the Obamas and Bidens waving as the presidential helicopter takes off at the start of Bush’s trip back to Texas. Another in that category shows him as a cardboard cutout in a photo taken in a store in Crawford, Texas.
 
The third Bush photo in the exhibit shows a protester holding a photo of Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney behind bars.
 
The photograph, entitled “She Has a Dream,” has the following caption by amateur photographer Federica Valabrega.


Former president George W. Bush is referenced in three of the 100 photos in the exhibit, including this one of a protester entitled "She Has a Dream." (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
“A demonstrator at an anti-George W. Bush protest in Washington’s Dupont Circle on Jan. 19, 2009, wishes the president farewell with a message speaking loud and clear.”
 
Bennett, however, said the exhibit is in keeping with the mission of the Newseum, a museum focusing on journalism and the media.
 
“One of the missions of the museum is to celebrate the freedoms we have in this country as guaranteed by the First Amendment and to me this is a pictorial essay on the value of a democracy,” Bennett said. “And I think a lot of people saw the election of Barack Obama as living proof that any person of any color in this country has an opportunity to reach as high as they want.”
 
“It wasn’t that (Obama) was a Democrat, but that he was an historic new president,” Bennett said.
 
The judges for the contest were Vincent Amalvy, photo director for North and South America at Agence France-Presse; Dennis Brack, president of the White House News Photographers Association; Lucian Perkins, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist; Ken Geiger, senior editor for technology at National Geographic magazine; and Karen Wyatt, director of collections and visual resources at the Newseum.
 
Bennett told CNSNews.com that the next photography exhibit will focus on war.
 
“We’re going to follow this exhibit up with one that we did in partnership with the International Red Cross, and it’s about the aftermath of conflicts around the world,” Bennett said. “That’s not a political statement by the Newseum--it's an exhibit on how photojournalists capture the consequences of war.”
 
Another current exhibit also features Obama and his new dog, Bo. The exhibit showcases presidential families and their best friends. Visitors can vote on their favorite top dog by dropping pennies in a tube under the dog’s photo.
 
Nominees in the contest include Bo and the dogs owned by Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Richard M. Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
 
A photograph of George Bush and his Scottish terrier, Barney, are included in the “First Dogs” exhibit.