A Headshot for a Former President

One of the stock and trade jobs of a photographer is producing professional headshots for people in business and politics, an accurate portrayal of them with good lighting and a pleasing unobtrusive background. I have produced thousands over the 45 years I’ve been a photographer and they have ended up on everything from book covers to facebook profiles.

Occasionally, because of the subject, this simple act, unadorned of much artistic vision on the photographer’s part, becomes something more iconic. A couple of decades ago I set up a studio at the Carter Presidential Center and made headshots of their senior staff, including the most senior of that staff, former President James Earl Carter Jr.

The simplicity of the image leaves it to the subject to imbue the photograph with either grace or ordinariness. Despite his humble Plains, Georgia beginnings, there has never been anything ordinary about Jimmy Carter and to photograph him was more than an act of composition, it was an act of history. His smile belied the gravity of his grace.

Former President Jimmy Carter with Walter Mondale at Emory University, their first meeting after the presidency.

I have had several opportunities since the Carter Center was established to photograph President Carter. I photographed him with his former Vice President, Walter Mondale, in his offices atop the Emory University Library when the Carter Center was just in the planning stages. It was their first meeting since leaving the Presidency. I photographed him with President Ronald Reagan at the inauguration of The Carter Presidential Library. It was the first time the two had met since Carter lost the presidency and his charm, and Reagan’s for that matter, rose to the occasion. After Reagan spoke eloquently of his host, Carter said that he finally understood why he lost the election. Laughter ensued. I photographed him with Shimon Peres in Israel and then with Yasser Arafat in Gaza the night before the first Palestinian elections, and I photographed him on the grounds of Maranantha Baptist Church in Plains after he taught one of his legendary Bible study classes, an image he used on the cover of the paperback version of his book “Talking Peace.”

The Carter’s clapping for Ronald Reagan at the opening of the Carter Presidential Center and Jimmy Carter meeting with Shimon Peres before the first Palestinian elections

Carter and Arafat outside Arafat’s home in Gaza for an impromptu press conference the night before the first Palestinian elections.

I covered meetings and conferences held at the Carter Center over the years and was privy to the conversations of people who have helped shape the world we live in.

Former President Bill Clinton listening intently to former President Jimmy Carter.

I photographed him and his remarkable wife Rosalynn at the Plains Hotel one Christmas. I took my father-in-law along as an “assistant” so he could meet him. As I walked in, Carter greeted me and said seeing me was “just like old times.” I loved him before, but I would have taken a bullet for him when he said that.

Jimmy and Rosalynn graciously posed with my father-in-law Mike Shock at the Plains Hotel.

Of course, had I not also taken my real assistant at the time, I would not be writing this homage now.

An old and faded photo, but nonetheless, my assistant and friend Pam Drake with an iconic couple.

Of all of the photographs I was given the opportunity to take of the former President, it is the simple headshot, a transaction that took five minutes at most, that I feel conveys the essence of the man—decency, devotion, service, and justice, all backed with an abiding faith that taught him above all else, to love.

I can’t remember what I said to the former President to get that smile, it didn’t take much with him, the smile was almost always there, but woe be to the person who thought he was not a serious man.

I received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1991 and used the accompanying monetary award to travel to Ghana and document the Carter Center’s efforts to eradicate guinea worm disease, a scourge almost entirely wiped off the earth thanks in large part to that one man. I received a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship in Mental Health Journalism in 2012 and over the course of that year got to better know the former first lady. She kissed me on the cheek. I love her, too.

After dinner and a movie that Rosallynn Carter hosted with filmmaker Rick Goldsmith and women’s basketball legend Chaminique Holdsclaw, we had an opportunity to speak with Mrs. Carter about her passion for bringing mental health parity in healthcare. Photo credit to the amazing Anne Sterchi, another iconic woman we lost this year.

It is a cliché, but I have never felt more humbled than on November 28, 2023 when I photographed Rosalynn Carter being carried by military escort from the Carter Center, a place where she literally helped make the world better, particularly for those suffering from mental health diagnoses.

In the 35 years I have been photographing the Carters, the combined total of time I have actually been with them hasn’t amounted to much, but in my heart, those brief moments have the weight of eternity.

Jimmy Carter, Maranatha Baptist Church, Plains, GA

God Speed Jimmy Carter, the world won’t likely see anyone like you again. You gave your best and stood as an example of what one person can accomplish when they have a goal to do good. You did good sir.