Journalists on the presidency and the press. It is hosted by the Marlon Fitzwater center for communications at Franklin Pierce university in new hampshire. It is about 50 minutes. Were going to look at the presidency through the lens of david valdez, who is one of only nine president ial photographers in u. S. History. When he was not much older than you, the draft sidelined his plans for college. While in the air force, he trained as a photographer, and he found himself taking photos of fourstar generals by the age of 19. After his honorable discharge, he took those skills to the university of maryland at college park, where he completed his degree in journalism while also working at the u. S. Departments of agriculture and housing and human development. He later left and worked at the u. S. Chamber of commerce. In 1983, Vice President george h. W. Bush tapped him as his personal photographer, and later appointed him director of the White House Photo offices and personal photographer to the president. In his decade at the white house, he shot 65,000 rolls of film in 75 countries and in all 50 states. After president bush left the white house, valdez joined walt disney attractions, but returned in 2001 to Government Service in the u. S. Department of housing and urban development. You have seen his photos. They are iconic and can be found in the worlds top magazines and newspapers life, newsweek, time, u. S. News and world report. He was a featured artist representing the United States at the World Leaders g8 summit in georgia. We are very proud that he serves not only as an Advisory Board member of the Marlon Fitzwater center for communication, but he is a member of the board for the Bristol Center of American History at the university of texas in austin. Please join me in welcoming david valdez to the marlin Fitzwater Center for communication at Franklin Pierce university. [applause] david valdez good morning everyone. It was a lot of fun yesterday. I dont know if you saw the photos i took, but it was a lot of fun. I was using my nikon and transferring them over to my iphone, and posting on to facebook and instagram. If you are on instagram, it is davidvaldezusa. Let me take you back in time. I will show you some of the photos i took while i was at the white house. We can talk about them. Feel free to ask me questions. What im going to show you are photos that i took of George Herbert walker bush when he was president and Vice President. We will see a couple of photos after he left the white house. I also worked for his grandson, george p. Bush, who ran for the texas land commissioner job in texas. That campaign was completely different than all the other campaigns i worked on, because george p. Bushs campaign was all about social media. Here we are, Vice President bush in houston, texas, the night he was elected president. Actually, george p. Bush is the small boy to his left. It was kind of fun for me working with george p. , photographing him campaigning, because i would have deja vu and say oh, i took that exact same photo of his grandfather 20 years ago. Vice president bush came after ronald reagan, so this is president bush and barbara bush, who were just down the road saying goodbye to former president reagan and nancy reagan. This is on the front steps of the capitol building. When the president is sworn in on one side of the capitol, the former president leaves out on the other side. This is their inaugural parade. It was kind of fun for me years and years later, someone found a photo of me on the internet actually taking this photo. You never know where all these photos are going to wind up. It is fun for me after all these years to still see them pop up in history books and on some pbs shows. It is a real honor. The first day that george bush was president , he went into the oval office, and they had to adjust the chair. He was a lot taller than president reagan, so his aide was there adjusting the chair. It is just one of those movein and lets start a new administration. There has been a tradition where former president s leave a note for the new president. This is literally the first moments, the first time that president bush sat down at the desk in the oval office, opened up the drawer, and there was a note left by former president ronald reagan. And, of course, when george bush left, he did the same thing for president clinton. A little sidebar to all of that is, across the street in the Old Executive Office building in the Vice President s ceremonial office, there is a desk where former Vice President s all signed the inside of the desk. It was always kind of interesting to see all the names of the former Vice President s. While i worked at the white house, i worked really closely with marlin fitzwater. We would release photos to the media. In those days, i was shooting film. If we were going to give an image to the media, we would have to make a print. I would go to marlin with a badge of grants. Prints. Marlin would approve which went out. I wound up getting stuff published in life and time and all over the world. This was one of the photos. The Young Children there are barbara and jenna bush, who are the daughters of george w. And laura bush, who a few years later became president and they were the first daughters. Here they are the first granddaughters. Now the bushes are right now on vacation in kennebunkport, maine. Here is one of the photos. Every year when i was working there, i did a family photo for their christmas card. This was one of the photos. You can kind of see on the left side of the image is his son neil and his wife, and then next to him in a blue jacket is george w. Bush and laura bush, and then behind is his other son marvin and his wife. And then to the president s left is his daughter doro and her husband and one of their kids. On the far left is jeb bush and his wife. You all know that jeb ran for president this go around, so its kind of interesting to see all of that, be a part of that. This is Vice President bush at the Vice President s house with a couple of his grandkids. My job was to document everything the president did in public and in private. We would do all these official events and travel around the world, but i was also with the family and did a lot of personal family things. That was fun, especially this moment here. Vice president bush was on vacation in kennebunkport, maine, and life magazine wanted to send a photographer up to photograph candidate Vice President bush, who was going to be running for president. He said, no, im on vacation. There was some backandforth, and finally it was decided that i would take the photos for life magazine, so i shot this photo. The photo editor loved the photo. She wound up running it two full pages in life magazine. Over the years, this has been in the best of life, classic life. Life magazine wanted to send a photographer up to photograph candidate Vice President bush, who was going to be running for president. He said, no, im on vacation. There was some backandforth, and finally it was decided that i would take the photos for life magazine, so i shot this photo. The photo editor loved the photo. She wound up running it two full pages in life magazine. Over the years, this has been in the best of life, classic life. Recently, it was in the best of life of the past 75 years. This is kind of the photo that kind of identifies me. An interesting thing is i had to talk to barbara bush about this, and what do i do. She invited me. She says, come on over in the morning and just watch what happens. About 6 30 the morning, i walk up to the house and peek in the door. They call me in, and i go in and sit down on the edge of the bed, and all of a sudden, the kids start coming in, and i just stood up and took a couple of snaps. There is actually one photo that is probably more historic now. I shot from the left side, back this way. In the background is george w. Bush. Little did i know back then that george w. Would also become president. The president close loves his boat. That is jeb and his daughter in the background. They used to go boating all the time. We have a lot of fun. Whats interesting now is that exact boat is on display at the president ial library in college station, texas at texas a m university. It is a great place to go and visit. Actually, all the president ial libraries are great places to go. There is one just down the road, president kennedys down in boston. If you get a chance, you should go visit the president ial libraries. Funny story, we were out one time boating, and the Prime Minister of canada was coming over to visit, and they had a helicopter landing zone. We were waiting for the Prime Minister, and we were out on the boat. Just as we got the call that the Prime Minister was getting ready to land, i caught a fish. So i am out there reeling in a fish with the president saying that we have to go. I was like, ive got to get the fish in, ive got to get the fish in. We finally catch the fish and take off, and we had to run over to meet the helicopter. As we get there, the Prime Minister is already off the helicopter, so the president turns around and he says its valdezs fault, and there is a great photo of me holding up my hands like this, explaining to the Prime Minister that i had just caught this big fish. As we traveled around the world, we had a couple of planes. This is the older air force one that we used, but you can see some of the grandchildren and his dog would come with us sometimes. This is at their house in kennebunkport. The guy on the left, that is george w. Bush, who later became president. The guy in the red pants is george p. Bush, who is his grandson, and now the texas land commissioner. Just the classic wave photos. Here is in the peoples republic of china. That was an interesting trip to go on. If you know the bio of George Herbert walker bush, one time he was the liaison to the peoples republic of china, and lived there. When he went back as president , some of the Embassy Staff were still there, and he had a little private dinner with the staff. So it was kind of fun to see that. We literally traveled around the world. One of the things that we did was travel to communist poland. Vice president bush met with Shipyard Worker lech walesa, who was the head of the Solidarity Movement to shut down communism. There was a lot of behind the scenes maneuvering to get to the point where we could actually go out and show solidarity with lech walesa and the Solidarity Movement. There was a lot of behind the scenes maneuvering to get to the point where we could get out and show solidarity with the movement. Someday, you, george bush, will be president and poland will be free. Well, communism fell, poland was george bush was elected president. This is president gorbachev pointing his finger, mixing making a point at camp david. Two guys in like colored shirts are there interpreters. Whats interesting is a year or two ago, i photographed the former president gorbachev at the lbj president ial library, and the guy on the left was his interpreter when he was president and to this day, still the same interpreter. It was kind of fun to see them and catch up. We also met with president a russian ship off ,he coast of malta at one time and we were staying on a u. S. Avy battleship the plan was to go back and forth and have some meetings on the russian ship and some meetings on our ship. There was a big storm and gorbachev did not want to come. We all had to get on this little boat and go over to the russian ship. The good thing about it is we brought some lobster from maine to have dinner with president gorbachev, and he didnt come over. Who got toever guess have the lobster dinner that night. If you go to the white house and you tour, you walk through these the rednd this is in room i mean the blue room, looking across into the red room. That is president bush and president gorbachev. Then, president bush love to play horseshoes. Here he is playing horseshoes on the south lawn of the white house with the Prime Minister of. Apan Queen Elizabeth showed up and she brought her sterling silver horseshoes, and i dont think she ever actually threw one. Probably right now on display at the george bush president ial. Ibrary that was a lot of fun, we used to do that at different places. One time we were meeting with president gorbachev at camp david, and they went for a walk and i followed them around and they get to a horseshoe pit, and they were kind of discussing what is this. I showed president gorbachev how to throw a horseshoe. Shoot, got afirst ringer, and decided to keep the horseshoe as a souvenir. That thee president commie guy had just stolen his horseshoe. It turned out that evening, the president had gotten one of the horseshoes mounted on the plaque and presented it to president gorbachev. President bush always talked on the phone, always was making phone calls. That was none of the ways he interacted with a lot of people, if you recall. He was our ambassador to the congressman,s, a oilman, working in china. He knew a lot of people, and here he is on the phone. Hes in his home in table import and after that conversation, a short while later, reflective with thebia and meet cane. We also traveled to the vatican, and this was kind of interesting. The first time we go to the vatican, everywhere the president went, i would go. Vatican and i go running in the door and he grabs me and says, you cant go there. Shes holding me by the arm saying, you have to go this way. Its really hard when you are in nun. Atican to argue with a i went with her and she took me back to all these hallways and she gets me to a place and says, you stay right here. 30, 40 minutes later goes by and she comes back and says, are you ready . I said, ive been ready. She opens the door and heres what i see. This guy on the left, i was trying to get a picture, and Marlon Fitzwater kept edging in an edging in, and got in the photo. I think it is one of more wins favorite photos. This is in the White House Press briefing room. Sitting down you see listed leslie stahl, cps, the woman sitting in the chair in the front is one of the white house stenographers who recorded everything that the president said in public, and its kind of interesting that the Government Printing office publishes these massive volumes of books that is printed, everything the president is saying. If you are ever doing a study bookspresident s, those are valuable resource because literally everything they say is recorded and printed. Then of course you can see some of the cutaway tv cameras. Also, this is upstairs in the private residence of the white house. A lot of people dont get to go up there. The senior staff goes. I got to go. This photo is colin powell, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, briefing the president and senior staff. Theyre talking about the gulf war. Invadedecall, iraq kuwait. President bush pulled together a World Coalition to remove iraq from kuwait. This is camp david. It wasnt named after me. I do have a cap that says cap david and im always telling people, my name is david and this is my camp. But this is colin powell, jim baker in the redshirt, dick cheney, who was secretary of defense in the blue there in the centers, Vice President quayle. On the right is the white house. Hief of staff and then hours before the gulf , president bush went out on the south lawn of the white house and walked around. It was tough for him because he had been a pilot in world war ii, had been shot down, lost to hisers of his crew, and now commanderinchief, he was sending men and women into combat in a troubled him that he knew some people may be lost, and that weighed heavily on him. This is in the back study just off the oval office. You can see on the little tv theres cnn thats on, i believe, and the map of iraq. And looking at his watch its just a few minutes before the war starts. Happens, theat worldent starts calling leaders and congressional leaders, informing them that the war has started. A little sidebar, you can see he still had a typewriter at that point. Andas wrote many notes, i think probably some of these guys here perceived i have a host act of them that i received over the years. The president was a man of faith. He went to a Church Service that day, he went to pray. He was with his wife George Barbara bush and dan quayle. To the left is his daughter. They just want to have a service. Long for theke World Coalition to get iraq out of kuwait, and these are some of the final moments of that, and colin powell is on the phone with norman schwarzkopf, the general. Welcoming some of the troops home a little while later. I was fortunate enough as a photographer to get some of my photos published. This photo made the cover of Newsweek Magazine in asia and the United States. The funny thing was that newsweek had this horrible headline up there that no one liked, im sure. Caption has something to do with fighting the wimp factor. I was able to get the asian version and i show that. Heroicer like men man in that language. This is president bush at his house in kennebunkport, maine. Its the cover of my book, George Herbert walker bush, a photographic profile. Makes a Great Holiday present. Then, after the war, there is the reelection, went into the campaign, and here we are. Massive crowds, everybody was getting interviewed. Larry king of cnn interviewing the dog. Thats ranger. I used to decorate the white house with photos like these large ones here. I enlarged one of those and one day it was gone and it turned out that mary king had the photo. The president supported the troops. We visited them in somalia afterwards and visited with some of the children. Day he wase last president , i was waiting for him to come to the oval office. I did not know what was going to happen that day. I went up to his bedroom and baded in and he was in reading, a little funny story. That brown box and for the telephone in front of the telephone is a call button. The next morning when he woke up, he was in houston, texas and he woke up and he reached over and he was looking for the box and there was no box. Said, george, you have to make the coffee from now on. That was the last time we saw that. President elect clinton showed up. His background was Vice President elect al gore, and this is a few hours before the andident is sworn in, traditionally the president elect comes over to the white house and they have coffee and then they get in a and they and go up, have a swearing in. This is bill clinton being sworn in as president. And then this is president clinton congratulating former president bush. At that point i was unemployed. We got on a helicopter and flew back to Andrews Air Force base and went home to. Ouston, texas we got on a then his new life began and he so thisskydiving, and is one of the trips. We are in college station. He went skydiving, and people always ask, did i jump with him . No, i was on the ground and i was just lucky that he came down right in front of me and so i was able to get this. A few years later, son george w. Bacmecame president. Heres george w. , his first inaugural with laura bush. Theres a picture of the president ial cufflinks. George w. Out on one of his many trips. In the rose in the roosevelt was always fun for me having known george w. Before the days he was even governor. We would go out to his house. Ive known him for many years, and when we would do an event like this at the white house he would always kind of look at me, i would be in the crowd and he would give me a little wink and that was fun. This is george p. Bush. George Herbert Walker bushs grandson. This all evolved from film out to digital. Oilecame the cover of magazine in texas. We were all about social midair. When we would walk into an event, i was using my iphone is my primary camera. We would take photos for instagram, twitter, facebook, and post them live well he was speaking. The guy in the back is his press secretary, jr hernandez. Just one of the shots of a tv camera. That is the night that he was elected. Here he has with his father, jeb bush. That is jeb sitting down and george p. On the back. We drove 15,000 miles in the state of texas. Here they are on the bus during their social media stop. They are tweeting out information, sending out some of my photos. We have wifi on the bus. It was a great system. The day he won, and his father congratulating him, and being sworn in as texas land commissioner in the State Capitol building in austin, texas. His parents in the background. That is his wife in the green. Recently, i have been doing some iphone photography classes. People asked me about tips and how do you do it, and we need more information. In the last week or so, i set up this website, davidvaldezphotography. Com. I have been starting to blog about this. You can see some of my portfolio here. I am also on instagram and twitter. I know i tweeted yesterday about this. A couple of you retweeting my tweet. That is a lot of fun. The one thing i can tell you about social media, especially to young folks is do not ever post anything of parties, drinking, carrying on, being silly, because social media will live with you through your career. You need to be aware of that. And, maybe cute, but just dont do it. I also post photos on flickr. I have sold stuff to National Geographic travel magazine, the united nations. I am all about the social media these days. Even though i have 65,000 rolls of film in the bush president ial library, i am now with my iphone all about social media stuff. So, if anyone has questions, now is the time. We have one coming up right here. How do you think the role of president ial photographers changed since digital photography . David dramatically. I was literally the first White House Photographer to scan film and transmit it electronically. Today, president obamas photographer, pete souza, i believe, is 100 digital. The white house post a lot of photos on the white house flickr page. I think people in the media dont necessarily like it, but a lot of the users out there love it because you get to see a lot behindthescenes. They are putting out thousands more images. Maybe once or twice a week is what we would do. Now, with the digital, it is a daily occurrence. Some of the press photographers are using the iphones as the primary camera on some of the campaign trips because it is smaller and easier to move around, but they can also post it instantly. It is a dramatic change. When i worked on george p bushs campaign, it was dramatically different. I would shoot film and it would be 3, 4, 5 days before i saw anything. Now, it is instantaneous. I actually like it now better. My question is, when you were traveling with the bushes, were you shooting every single second of the day or how did you choose what to shoot and what not to shoot . David there were three schedules. A monthly schedule, a weekly schedule, and a daily schedule. The block schedule would be, next week will be a two day trip. The weekly scheduled out a little tighter and the daily schedule was minute by minute. For me, every line that was on there, i would go photograph. Every line was a roll of film. I would shoot that roll of film, put it in a bag, write a caption on it. It would go to the White House Communications and they would process the film and give me back the contact sheet. Our Photo Library and would put that into a filing system. That same system, 27 years later, would still be used at the library. Something unofficial, i would still go with him. I would take a photo of him at the restaurant or on the golf course, but most of the time you would give them space. You are there so much. Give them a chance to get a breather. Sometimes it felt like you were always there. You would go to camp david and do everything. Kennedy center or whatever. Just document it. You said do you think with the convenience of digital, do you think anybody really have any reason to shoot film anymore . Do you know of any press photographers or anyone still willing to shoot film . David there are a couple of guys who i know. David burnett does some fillmore. Film work. He is a news guy. His stuff is just phenomenal. It is rare anymore. You see is more of a our side than on the news side. When we were listening yesterday to the editor of boston newspaper, he was talking about how social media is taking over and leading the way. You have to be out there so quickly that it is dramatically changing. I do it to stay relevant. I am an old guy. I still try to keep up with it. Considering you are the only latin american to ever be a president ial photographer, do you think there any effects that had for your time in the white house . David i never really gave it much thought. It never occurred to me that i was hispanic until i was in the military. I was laying in my bunk one saturday morning and we used to have to have this cleanup detail. You are always assigned. A sergeant comes by and is looking for airman lopez. I said, i am airman valdez. He said, close enough. Once in a while they would talk about illegal immigration and i would think, my grandparents were actually in this country 50 years before they became citizens and it was actually my father was career military and he was getting a topsecret clearance, and as they were doing his background check, they discover that his father wasnt a citizen. His father got a citizenship. I never really gave it much thought. With the bushes i have lived in texas and kind of grown up in a texas environment. We all loved our mexican food and we were at the house one time with george w. And jeb, and one of the women who worked for the bushes was hispanic, and she had made this big pot of tamales. It was george w. , jeb, and i. We started taking the tamales out of this big pot and eating them over the stove. Barbara bush comes in and says, stop, i dont feed animals in my house. I thought, i had better get out of here. It was never really a thing for me. I was wondering if you could speak more about your travels and if there was a favorite place you ever traveled to. David we went all over the place. I remember the first time going to russia, i was nervous. I was not quite sure and actually, the very first time we went was for a funeral. We go in to meet the new russian president and we were to go in protocol order. The United States, u, is kind of at the bottom of the protocol list. It was 10 00 or 11 00 when it was our turn. We go in, we get to the office, i get it and i take the photos, and they escort me out the other door. I go out, i am sitting there and i am like, ok, it is late at night, i have all my cameras, i am in the kremlin, and i saw the Vice President way down the hallway. I went running and i caught up with him. The very next year, we go back to another funeral. Im thinking, there is no way im going to go out that door. We go in, it was a secret service agent, a doctor, a military aid, and myself. This time, i am thinking, there is no way will go out that door, so i go back out when i am done and keep my body language going this way. There was a new staff and they had escorted the guys who went in all the way to the other side, so i walk out that door, there is nobody there. I go back to the limo. Im walking out and i got lost. I am in the kremlin at night with my cameras and i am lost. I finally find my way out and i get to the door and there are some kgb agents. They are shocked to see me and im concerned to see them. I open the door and go out. I get in the car, close the door, now i am back in the United States and i am safe. An hour or so goes by, the secret service come over and say, the kgb is looking for you. I say, i am on my way to siberia. I go back in and of the top of the stairway is the doctor and the military aide and a secret service agent. At the time the stairway is a painting of lenin. They had talked to the guys into letting me take a picture of them in front of this painting. I said, are you kidding me . I just had a heart attack. We would travel around and people would say, what is your favorite country, i would always say the usa. Hello there. Earlier, it was said that you got your start photography when you got drafted. I was wondering if you use that as a way to distract yourself from what was going on around you at that time. David it was kind of a shock to the system. I was like your guys age and i got this draft notice. This was in the 60s. There was a draft in the United States. I got called in. I graduated high school in june. I went down and i didnt want to go in the army so i joined the air force. The air force said, youre going to be a photographer. I turned to the guy next to me and said, what is that . I took to it and many years later, i am the president s photographer and we are in san antonio, and my parents invited the white house staff over to the house for a barbecue. We get there in my mom says, i have to show you something david did as a little boy. I am this hotshot guy. It was a photo album i had done and i had written on the cover, pictures taken by David Valadez in crayon. I guess somewhere in here, that photography gene was there and it worked well for me. I cant add 2 and 2, but i seem to be able to take a decent picture. We have time for one more question. That you have a particular moment when you realized you wanted to be a photojournalist . David my father used to always say, when the you going to get a real job . He never thought that being a photographer was a real job. He thought it was a hobby. Until i went to work at the white house. I went to the university of maryland and got a degree in journalism. I actually started down that road because i had been in the military, i was 21 when i got out. I know that i need to go finish my college and get a degree in something i can get a job at. I looked around, i cant add 2 and 2, but i figure i can be a criminologist, maybe be an fbi or secret service agent. One day, i am on campus in these two guys say, i just got my degree in criminology and i got a job. He was going to be a guard at the federal penitentiary. I said, that is not for me. I said, i have had six or seven years of photography experience at that time. I looked at that curriculum and i thought i could switch over to journalism, so i did that. I kind of chasing the dog of being a photojournalist. One year, i was with nations business magazine. Another time, i was a government photographer. I applied all over the country trying to get a job at a newspaper and that never happened, but what is kind of i applied all over the country fun now is that i travel around doing a lot of public speaking. Editors will come in and i will say, i remember when i was a lot younger, i applied to you for a job and you wouldnt hire me. Now you are doing a story on me. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. [applause] david, it is always a pleasure to have you here and this is a wonderful view of the presidency through your lens. [applause] now we have a short break and we will set up for the next segment of the morning. We do have refreshments, but you have to move quickly in the foyer. Thank you. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] youre watching American History v American History tv, all weekend, every weekend on cspan3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook at cspan history. What makes movies or stories about people, and in crisis or in a crisis, and the crisis either changes them or changes everybody else, and if you dont show conflict and if you dont show flaws, and if you dont