Arun Chaudhary shoots the West Wing Week footage, which I post here weekly on Fridays:
Many presidents have had official White House photographers, but Arun Chaudhary claims the honor of being the first official White House videographer. He has written a book about his journey from disheveled film professor to his four years in the almost constant company of the president. First Cameraman is an often funny, generally admiring account of the life and times of candidate Barack Obama — and then President Obama — and the sleepless nights and adventure-filled days of the man trying to record it all.
Chaudhary says there's an enormous difference between having a photographer around and having a videographer around. "The addition of audio is such a crucial component," he tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer. "A photograph is a kind of art that we bring so much of ourselves to. Someone looking solemnly out a window can mean all these different things. Once the audio is there, the mystery is gone, so it becomes a much more dangerous proposition to have a videographer around than to have a photographer around, which is generally ennobling."
Listen to the interview at NPR
