Pete Souza has what you might call a dream job. As Chief Official White House photographer, he travels the world with the President of the United States, photographing every slow morning at Camp David, every scenic view from Air Force One, every historic meeting between heads of state.
Souza is also probably the most famous White House photographer in history, and he owes that fact, in large part, to Instagram, where he has amassed 273,000 followers who dote on his shots of Bo and Sunny, the First Dogs, and Obama off-duty.
But, as with all things in politics, Souza’s ever-present presence in the White House hasn’t been without controversy. Members of the media have complained that the Obama administration limits access to the president, only to release Souza’s photos afterward—photos that the administration knows many news organizations like the Associated Press won’t print.
"The official photographs the White House hands out are but visual news releases. Taken by government employees (mostly former photojournalists), they are well composed, compelling and even intimate glimpses of presidential life," the AP's director of photography Santiago Lyon wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times back in 2013. "They also show the president in the best possible light, as you’d expect from an administration highly conscious of the power of the image at a time of instant sharing of photos and videos."
Since then, that culture of instant sharing has only become more pervasive. And, as a result, being the only eyewitness to some of the world's most important closed door meetings has made Souza an Instagram celebrity in his own right.
Which is why, to mark its fifth anniversary, Instagram asked Souza to share his favorite Instagram accounts. Click through the gallery for his picks.
