In 2004, David Katz worked alongside then Senate-hopeful Barack Obama as a photographer and personal aide. He spent approximately six days a week alongside the future president, and the two developed a close, professional, and personal relationship. What began as a long-shot Senate run culminated with the election of America’s first African American president in 2008, which Katz also photographed.
During this time, Katz was never without his camera, capturing scenes from the life of a man who would soon become known the world over: a dad playing with his small daughters; a young unknown politician walking the streets of New York alone; a devoted husband lovingly making faces at his wife in an elevator.
Now, fifteen years later, Barack Before Obama is the treasury of these photographs. Pulled from an archive of more than ninety thousand images, every photograph in this volume is like nothing that has been seen before. Warm, engaging captions tell the stories behind the photos—the surprise meeting with Nelson Mandela, the back room conversation before the rally, the emotion after sending one of the Obamas’ daughters off to school—bringing readers closer than ever to the spirit and motivation behind the extraordinary man who became our forty-fourth president.
Katz will be in conversation with Valerie Jarrett, the longest serving Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. She is currently a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, and a senior advisor to the Obama Foundation and Attn. She also serves as Board Chair of When We All Vote and Co-Chair of The United State of Women. Her memoir, Finding My Voice, was published in 2019.
*Special signed copies of Barack Before Obama are limited to the first 100 buyers, however, a signed bookplate will accompany any unsigned book.*
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