Blog About Photography

Cour­tesy of the White House via Getty Images

So this has been my new rit­ual since Barack got sworn in as pres­i­dent: When I sit down at the com­puter to check my nightly vitals, I spend at least five or six min­utes scour­ing the inter­net of new pic­tures of the commander-​​in-​​chief of my heart sit­ting in the Oval Office. I have an Oval Office fetish, actu­ally. I know all kinds of trivia about it, the tra­di­tions that sur­round it’s re-​​decoration, who had what color car­pet (Clin­ton: blue, Bush: yel­low) and so on. My fas­ci­na­tion with the most exclu­sive room in the world though is very sep­a­rate from my feel­ings for what­ever shit sack occu­pies it – until now.

Pres­i­dent Obama has had a pretty busy first week and he hasn’t got­ten around to redec­o­rat­ing yet. He’s taken down most of Bush’s art, most replac­ing, if I’m not mis­taken, a por­trait of Teddy Roo­sevelt with one of Abra­ham Lin­coln. (Wash­ing­ton still graces the man­tle.) Bush’s yel­low rug, couches and drapes are all still present. And the lap­top Obama promised to place on the FDR desk still has yet to materialize.

This is all based on the cou­ple of pic­tures that exist of Obama’s oval office. There are, in fact, only a hand­ful of them. By the end of an admin­is­tra­tion, offi­cial White House pho­tos of the pres­i­dent and his guests in the Office abound. But a week in, there are three offi­cial ones includ­ing the one up top and a hand­ful of wire images from when Obama signed the order to close Guan­tanamo Bay.

One thing that I just started think­ing about while writ­ing this is why all the art in the Oval Office has to be America-​​themed. Like, if they filled the walls with Pol­locks and Van Goghs and Kneels, would any­one meet­ing with the pres­i­dent for­get that they were in the office of a head of state? I don’t think so. Why limit your­self to the same hand­ful 19^th cen­tury oils? 

Any­way, the thing I’m really try­ing to share with you is that it’s amaz­ing to see this guy sit­ting at the desk in there. That’s really my point. 
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UPDATE: Fixed the link. Sorry for being an idiot.

This is a story from the New York Times today that’s worth tak­ing a look at. It’s writ­ten by an Iraqi sculp­tor and, not sur­pris­ingly, pro­vides a new view of how ter­ri­fy­ingly dark and impos­si­bly fucked up it is there.

So every time I pick up my pen and try to sketch, I find myself draw­ing scenes of death, and when I try to think of it as a way to let off steam a lit­tle, I start to feel pity for the per­son who is going to see it.

See?

Gothamist pub­lisher Jake Dobkin totally nailed it in a Tweet he sent out just a moment ago.

Park Slope as metaphor for Amer­ica: a bank on every cor­ner and nowhere to buy bread
1 minute ago from txt

I think that’s pretty much sums it up.

© Greg Wasserstrom

Eliot Spitzer is no longer New York’s gov­er­nor come next work­ing week. Takers?

© Greg Wasserstrom

Merry Christ­mas, every­body. I hope you’re enjoy­ing qual­ity time with your fam­ily, think­ing about the birth of Christ, etc. And if you don’t cel­e­brate Christ­mas, you know, like me, then I hope you enjoy the day, few days, off from work or school or what­ever it is that occu­pies your time. Here’s what’s been occu­py­ing mine:

• Last week, after about 9 months of “intern­ing,” I began work as a con­tribut­ing edi­tor over at Won­kette, Gawker’s polit­i­cal site. I finally have a reg­u­lar gig that also hap­pens to be sort of a dream job! So, you know, go and check out my hand­i­work and stuff, even if you hate pol­i­tics! So we do! Mine are the posts that say “Greg Wasser­strom” next to them and for the moment, I write 5 per day. To cel­e­brate, I’m writ­ing this entry in the style of one of my ubiq­ui­tous head­line roundups. [Won­kette]
• Tiny Vices included me in a recent update, took me like more than a month to find out about it. Also, I friended Tim Bar­ber on Face­book and OMG we’re totes friends now. [Tiny Vices]
• Finally stopped hold­ing up the entire Fjord project. Opps! Sorry guys! [Fjord]
• Web­site tweak and a cou­ple of new pho­tographs. [Home]

I think that’s every­thing. So, Happy Hol­i­days, Happy New Year,