The Story Behind My Portrait of Bill Clinton

January 19, 2008 |

Former president Bill Clinton, photographed in Hyde Park, New York. (Photo by Julia Pelish)

For obvious reasons, people often comment about the portrait of Bill Clinton that has been displayed on the home page of my gallery website. Way back in the ’90s when I was just starting out in my career I had the opportunity to photograph the president’s summit meeting with then-Russian leader Boris Yeltsin. I was working for the local paper in Hyde Park, New York, which was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s hometown and the summit took place in one of the several mansions in the Hudson Valley.

To tell you how different those days were, the president actually came up and shook my hand, as well as greeted a group of firefighters who had stopped to watch his appearance. (No, he didn’t try any pick-up lines.) I think someone on his PR staff had pointed out the members of the local press and he made a point of introducing himself. Pretty cool, I thought.

I took the photograph with a 35mm film camera and developed it in my newspaper’s darkroom – another indication of different times. It was a Nikon FM2 with a 28-85mm zoom lens. I think I still have the camera stashed away somewhere, but like most photographers I made the switch earlier this decade to digital for my primary work use. I have a number of other photos from that day, but unfortunately I haven’t had time to put a gallery together. Someday I’ll dig them up. For now, this is the one keeper.