Photo

Hillary Clinton hasn’t always been the most effective campaigner. But her campaign’s use of the candidate’s photographs — especially on Monday night — has been smart and bold.

Minutes before Monday’s debate, Mrs. Clinton tweeted this:

With her dark glasses, her sweater draped over her shoulder and her eyes on the horizon, Mrs. Clinton looks relaxed, happy and confident — exactly as she appeared in her best moments during the debate. Her tweet set the tone for the evening and made a promise about Mrs. Clinton’s performance that she was able to keep, despite Donald Trump’s incoherent hectoring.

The image also recalls the famous 2011 photo of Mrs. Clinton texting on an airplane, wearing sunglasses and a no-nonsense expression. The 2012 memeification of that image, thanks to the Tumblr Texts From Hillary, marked a surge in Mrs. Clinton’s popularity — back then she was traveling the world as secretary of state, rather than applying for a new job. Mrs. Clinton even used the texting image as her Twitter profile picture for a while, before her email controversy made pictures of her looking very proficient with technology seem suspect. Monday night’s image slyly nods at the confidence of that texting photo without the baggage.

Taken in 1999, the image is the latest in a series of vintage Clinton photos the campaign has shared. A trip through Mrs. Clinton’s Instagram reveals this photo from her famous Beijing speech, this one of the Clintons having breakfast in 1979 and this one that looks as if it’s from her husband’s 1992 campaign (the sunglasses seem to be a long-time favorite).

The audience for these photos is Americans who have known Mrs. Clinton for decades, and who still admire her. It’s young people who see something of their mothers or grandmothers — and what those women went through to build careers and lives — in the images. It’s become conventional wisdom that nobody’s excited to vote for Mrs. Clinton, but she has her fans, and the throwback photos are clearly pitched at them.

The images also have a message for Donald Trump and his supporters. Monday’s photo was taken the year after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. Mr. Trump didn’t mention Ms. Lewinsky at the debate (he claimed on Tuesday that he held back for Chelsea’s sake), but over the weekend he was threatening to invite Gennifer Flowers, with whom Bill Clinton had an earlier affair.

Perhaps posting old photos is Mrs. Clinton’s way of saying the past doesn’t scare her, nor does Donald Trump. Her long track record of weathering political storms, she is reminding us, is an asset, not a liability. And anyone who needs proof of her “stamina” can just open her photo album.