Hillary Clinton has lived most of her life in the public eye — and in front of cameras. Staff photographers for The New York Times have documented her career since her husband, then the governor of Arkansas, ran for president in 1992. They covered her during her sometimes turbulent tenure as first lady and over the course of her own political career. Four of those photographers reflect on their experience covering Mrs. Clinton and their impressions of the 2016 presidential election.

Todd Heisler

Covering a campaign is like taking a photograph through a window. The challenge is to see beyond the reflected image — what the campaign is trying to project — and to capture what is really there.

I was with Mrs. Clinton on and off during the 2016 campaign and her first presidential run. Her image has always been carefully managed, and our access to behind-the-scenes activity is rare, making it a challenge to capture the candidate in more unguarded moments. I see no point in showing what anyone can see from the audience or on television. For me, a successful campaign photo allows you to step back and give a fuller sense of the scene.

Doug Mills

I have taken tens of thousands of pictures of Mrs. Clinton and covered her first presidential run. This campaign feels very different from the 2008 race, and I have wanted to make sure our images reflect that.

This time around, Mrs. Clinton has shown more confidence as a candidate and seems more energized on the trail. The crowds at her events are far more diverse and much younger than those during her last run — they look a lot like the ones Barack Obama had in November 2008. Many of the best photos I take of Mrs. Clinton are at the moment she arrives onstage or when she is on the rope line talking to voters. Mrs. Clinton was the front-runner in this race, just as she was in the 2008 campaign. But she seems to have enjoyed this one more.

Stephen Crowley

There are a couple of moments that have stuck with me as I covered Mrs. Clinton over the course of her political career. At the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion during the 1992 transition, Mrs. Clinton appeared at a news conference with a group of her husband’s senior advisers. It was a quiet signal that she would wield significant power in his administration, and a hint of her political ambitions.

In October 2015, I was at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, an annual Democratic fund-raiser in Des Moines, where I watched as Mrs. Clinton’s primary opponents took sharp jabs at her for her policy positions and her ties to big banks. But as Mrs. Clinton entered the room, the mood turned from political gathering to rock concert as ecstatic supporters reached across bicycle gates, trying to touch her. Mrs. Clinton was a superstar who was expected to cruise to the nomination and enjoy clear advantages in the general election. But very few people — possibly including Mrs. Clinton herself — had an inkling that she was about to take part in the most searing presidential campaign in modern history.

Ruth Fremson

I have been photographing Mrs. Clinton since the 1992 presidential campaign, and have spent so much time watching her that I can sometimes predict her gestures and actions at campaign events.

While Mrs. Clinton is often described as guarded and hyperaware of how she is perceived, she has frequently projected a sense of ease with who she is during this campaign. She refers to her age unapologetically, often talking about being a grandmother, and seems more comfortable interacting with voters on the trail, at times appearing to take genuine delight in it. Though she rarely deviates from her script, I am always looking for those real and telling moments that show her as a private person rather than just a public figure — though in Mrs. Clinton’s case, those two roles are deeply intertwined.