WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — He was tall and stunningly good-looking, a guy who could appear pensive and serious one moment and then, with smoke from an unfiltered cigarette swirling around his face, morph into the hippest-looking dude this side of James Dean.
Which is why budding photographer Lisa Jack knew the moment she saw Barack Obama walk into the campus snack shop at Los Angeles’ Occidental College in 1980 that she had to get the freshman in front of a camera.
“I was doing portraits of fellow students, the cool people on campus,” Jack, 49, recalled this week in a West Hollywood photo gallery surrounded by framed black-and-white photos of the president as a young man. “A friend of a friend said, ‘There’s this really cool guy, real ly good-looking. You have to get his picture.’ And as he said it, he walked in. He said, ‘Hey, Barry, come here.’ ”
Soon after, they had made arrangements for a photo shoot at Jack’s small off-campus apartment. To Jack’s surprise, Obama arrived with his own props, including a leather bomber jacket, a Panama hat and a package of cigarettes.
“He had so much charisma, even back then, it was amazing,” Jack said.
She shot just one 36-exposure roll of film, going on to earn an A in her photo class.
As Obama’s political star rose, Jack realized her photos had historical value. After the election, she contacted Time magazine, which used some of them with its story on Obama’s selection as Person of the Year.
The M+B gallery contacted her and quickly arranged the exhibit that opened Thursday and runs until July 18. Copies of prints also are available for sale, starting at $1,000.
