At The Situation Room
Presidents on the phone with world leaders and in the Oval Office are photographed by White House photographers. But sometimes their unique access lets them capture watershed moments that become our collective memory. On May 1, 2011, U.S. forces raided Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan compound and killed the terrorist leader. Pete Souza was in the Situation Room. The raid and bin Laden are absent from Souza’s painting. Instead, he recorded the secret operation’s observers. President Barack Obama ordered the attack, but like everyone else in the room, he watches it unfold. Watching the raid on monitors, he frowns. Hillary Clinton waits with her mouth covered.
At The Situation Room
Gorilla
When the body of Senkwekwe, the silverback mountain gorilla, was strapped to a makeshift stretcher, it weighed at least 500 pounds and required the efforts of more than a dozen men to lift. The photograph was taken by Brent Stirton in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park. Half of the world’s critically endangered mountain gorillas call this park home, and unfortunately, violence has broken out, resulting in the deaths of several gorillas, including Senkwekwe.
Gorilla