Spectrum

For 25 years, Stephen Crowley was one of two “New York Times” (NYT) photographers stationed in Washington to cover the White House, the President, and Congress. Being a politically-minded guy since childhood, Crowley says that covering politics was never boring and in fact, it often was exciting. He says that covering politics is a lot like shooting athletic events…there are always surprises, successes and failures. There are stars and also-rans. Each personality is different and it reflects in the pictures of them, he notes. For example, he says Obama often attempted to appear thoughtful and Lincoln-like when cameras were around while photographing President Donald Trump is like capturing a television variety show host. He also notes that Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer can hear a camera go off from 20 yards away and quickly makes his reading glasses disappear before the second frame is shot. He says that part of his job as a photographer is to be able to “quickly organize chaos” into some type of coher