Photographer Brooks Kraft’s first shoot of Barack Obama was in 2007, when he had five minutes for a cover portrait session for the New Republic. Kraft recalls that Obama was friendly and businesslike, using only the natural light streaming through a large window on the winter day. It was the beginning of a long professional relationship: Brooks Kraft covered both Obama campaigns and continued to cover him as a Time White House photographer through 2013. "The challenge with Obama was sometimes that he was so measured and in control in public," Brooks says, reflecting on his years spent covering him, "that there was rarely an impromptu moment." On the day of Obama's Farewell Address, Kraft curated 32 of his favorite shots of the 44th president, who went from young and energetic on the campaign trail to gray and war-weary in the years he spent covering him.



Above, Obama speaks in the rain during a campaign rally in Glen Allen, Virginia, on July 14, 2012.

Brooks Kraft for Politico Magazine