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http://m.wired.com/rawfile/2012/04/covering-joe-biden-an-interview-with-the-vice-presidential-photographer/

On the Road: No Downtime for Biden’s Official Photog

Instead of the cliché work nightmares of missing deadlines or showing up naked, when Joe Biden’s official photographer David Lienemann wakes up in a cold sweat, he’s dreaming about missing the Vice President’s motorcade.

“[The job] has been really exciting and really terrifying at the same time,” says Lienemann, 28, who for the past three and a half years has been with Biden almost every day while creating the official photographic record of the 47th Vice President.

After visiting 32 countries aboard Air Force 2, including seven trips to Iraq, Lienemann has learned to sleep anytime, anywhere and deal with the inevitable challenges. Like the time he was roughed up by a Japanese State Department official after a miscommunication about what kind of access he’d be allowed on Japanese soil.

He’s also done things many of us never will: fly over Afghanistan in a military helicopter or see the inside of multiple foreign capitals. While it may seem glamorous, his view is severely limited by the job.

“You see some things you would never see as a tourist, but you usually don’t get to play tourist,” he says. So much so that on a recent trip to Mexico City, it was refreshing just to wrap up early and go across the street for some authentic food at a local restaurant. “That was pretty cool,” he says.

Unlike Obama’s official photographer Pete Souza, who has a staff of shooters, Lienemann only gets backing under special circumstances. When the VP greets supporters, meets dignitaries or anything else, it’s just Lienemann in the middle of the action trying to make a picture that counts.


“I used to shoot 30-40 pictures when three or four would have done,” he says. “But now I’m a little calmer and more judicious.”

Also unlike Souza, who covers Obama even when he’s home at the White House, Lienemann is off the clock when Biden goes home at night. Even so, he spends a lot of time at 1600. The first time Lienemann met Obama, the President was walking towards him in a White House hallway. Trying to make himself scarce, Lienemann ducked into a small side kitchen. The President walked by and decided to say hi to the kitchen staff anyway and saw Lienemann standing there. Obama reached out his hand.

Having such a static setting for so many photographs creates a challenge to keep things visually interesting. After years of sitting in the same rooms with many of the same characters, it’s become increasingly difficult to make a photo worth looking at.

“I don’t think meetings are going to be my legacy photographs,” he says.

While the bulk of the pictures might be predictable, many mundane historic White House meeting photos have turned out to be important historic records because of later world events.

During his tenure with the VP, Lienemann says he and Biden have developed a mutual understanding. Biden is friendly, calling Lienemann by his first name and asking about his girlfriend. But most of the time Biden ignores him and carries on with his schedule, which is exactly what Lienemann wants.

“He recognizes what I’m there to do and lets me do my job,” he says.

During the 2007/2008 Democratic primary, Lienemann was covering Biden and just starting to make a name for himself as a freelance photographer. He’d never held a full-time photojournalism job. After Obama named Biden his VP, Lienemann hounded Biden’s communication staff, asking to be the then-nominee’s official photographer. His hard work paid off in March of 2009, when Biden’s first pick didn’t pan out.

In terms of access, the VP is open to having him around, even during some of the more intimate moments. Lienemann’s photos don’t land on the White House Flickr page nearly as often as Souza’s, but he’s made some lasting and powerful frames.

In the coming months as the Presidential campaign ramps up, Lienemann’s schedule is going to get busier. Looking back on his first term, Lienemann says it’s easy to lose sight of where he is and what he’s been doing.

“For all the long days and the hard work, sometimes you stop and remember where you are what you’re doing and you realize that it’s really incredible,” he says.


Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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