The Fine Art of Family Magazine

Barack Obama recalls meeting his namesake only once, when he was 10 years old. Using photos and stories from his mother and grandparents, he pieced together what he could about his absent father, who grew up in Kenya (pictured below with his mother), excelled at school, and left home at age 23 to study at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. There, he met and married Ann Dunham, a Caucasian classmate from Kansas.

After Ann gave birth to Obama Jr., the couple separated, and he decamped for Boston to earn a master’s from Harvard University before returning to Africa. Little did he (or anyone) know, he would see his first born just one more time before dying in a car crash in 1982.

That one visit, along with a slew of recycled photos and stories, was just enough for the young Obama to grow up feeling his distant father’s presence. He created a vision of this dignified scholar who, having gone abroad and returned to his native land, commanded the respect of his countrymen. The kind of father who would make a son proud.

In his 1995 best-selling memoir, Dreams from My Father, our 44th president remembers sifting through his mother’s old black-and-white studio prints that he discovered while hunting for Christmas gifts as a kid: “… I would stare at my father’s likeness–the dark laughing face, the prominent forehead, and thick glasses that made him appear older than his years.”

Today, just as photographs of his old man once inspired him, symbolizing wisdom and authority, President Obama stands as a role model to many, embodying such concepts as “change” and “hope.”  So many compelling images have been captured of this black man sitting behind a desk in the Oval Office or standing in front of an American flag or posing with his beautiful wife and kids smiling a self-assured smile.  These pictures are silent and idealized. The kind of photos that would make a father proud.

[Photography courtesy of Flickr (top) and Random House (bottom)]

Published on January 19, 2010

Tags: Celebrating, Family, Photography