Beauty

These two boys waited as a long line of adults greeted Senator Obama before a rally on Martin Luther King Day in Columbia, S.C. They never took their eyes off of him. Their grandmother told me, "Our young men have waited a long time to have someone to look up to, to make them believe Dr. King's words can be true for them." Jan. 21, 2008.



Asleep somewhere between Derry and Salem, N.H., 1/6/2008. With three rallies down and two more to go, Obama catches a quick nap on his campaign bus as it headed for Salem. I once asked him when we were traveling through Illinois and he was about to fall asleep, if he cared if I took a picture. He said I was fine photographing him until his jaw dropped. This night his jaw dropped after I took three frames.

Image Source: Callie Shell/Aurora for Time

Here's a blurb about Callie by Dirck Halstead.

Four years ago Time photographer Callie Shell met Barack Obama backstage when she was covering presidential candidate John Kerry. She sent her editor more photographs of Obama than Kerry. When asked why, she said, "I do not know. I just have a feeling about him. I think he will be important down the road." Her first photo essay on Obama was two and half years ago. She has stuck with him ever since.