Images of the Year Competition 2008

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Portraiture

By American Photo Staff Posted December 10, 2008

Titled "A Moment to Savor," this scene was captured in June of 2008 by Time photographer Callie Shell as Barack Obama -- with his wife, Michelle, close aides, and advisers -- rode a freight elevator en route to making a victory speech in St. Paul, Minnesota. If everyone looks pleased, it's because Obama had just secured enough delegates for the Democratic nomination for president. Shell had spent nearly two years shadowing Obama on the campaign trail. "He doesn't seem to mind me," she told The Digital Journalist. "If he does, he and his staff have hid it well."

Shell is a veteran of presidential politics, having traveled with the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and later serving as Al Gore's official vice presidential photographer for eight years. She first met Obama in 2004 while she was covering the John Kerry campaign for Time. Shell recalls sending more pictures to her editor of this young Illinois state senator than she did of Kerry, the Democratic nominee. "I just have a feeling about him," she said of Obama at the time. "I think he will be important down the road."

Shell says her years working with Gore "in the bubble" of the White House photographic press corps instilled valuable lessons of patience. "It taught me to stand quietly for hours, to let things evolve, let people forget about you," she says. "The moment will happen. You just have to wait."

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