Existing comment:
2009 Feature:
Historic Campaign:
After nearly two years of campaigning, the candidate who would become the first black U.S. president was making his final push for votes. Damon Winter of The New York Times had been photographing Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on and off for months, taking tens of thousands of pictures. Winter had been on the campaign trail so often that he could recite Obama's stump speech himself. So he knew something special was happening when the candidate showed up an hour early to a cold, rain-soaked rally at Widener University in Chester, Pa., and began to give a rousing address.
"I was excited. I just shot frame after frame after frame. I just knew there was going to be a really good image that came out of that," Winter said. "He looked very strong, and kind of defiant. ... He sort of embraced the moment, reveled in toughing out the nasty weather."
One week later, Obama was elected president. |