Inside Obama's White House album: Photographer Pete Souza - who has taken two million intimate images of the President - reveals his favorite FIFTY-FIVE shots

  • The photographs, the majority of which were taken by Chief Official White House photographer Pete Souza, show the president in lighthearted as well as serious moments
  • Obama can be seen having fun with children, meeting with former US presidents and even sitting in the situation room, waiting to hear the outcome of the May 2011 mission to kill Osama Bin Laden
  • Souza's 'Year in Photos' albums covering Obama in the White House go back to 2009, and it's believed he has snapped approximately two million photographs of the president
  • The photographer has said: 'There's a certain daily grind to my job, but I'd say, once, twice, three, four, ten times a week, you realize that you are an eyewitness to history'

Pete Souza, the Chief Official White House photographer, has taken approximately two million pictures of President Barack Obama.

He has captured the Commander-in-Chief in all situations - whether it is relaxing with his family or sitting in the situation room, waiting to hear the outcome of the May 2011 mission to kill Osama Bin Laden.

As Obama nears the end of his time in the White House, take a look at 55  shots of the president. 

The photos show the Leader of the Free World longingly gazing into the mirror before his second inauguration, walking across a bridge in Selma with the first family, and joking with Bill Clinton and George Bush.

Other images show him taking a splash in Hawaii and making a funny face with gymnast McKayla Maroney.

Many of the snaps include him interacting with children, or in romantic situations with his wife Michelle.

Souza's 'Year in Photos' albums on the White House Flickr account show his favorites and go back to 2009. Fifty-five images of the president, seen here, were compiled by Twisted Sifter. 

Souza told NPR in an interview: 'There's a certain daily grind to my job, but I'd say, once, twice, three, four, ten times a week, you realize that you are an eyewitness to history. And I always try to keep that forefront in my mind.'

He said: 'I think this administration will go down in history — he'll go down in history as a great president. And just to have been there, to watch this from up close with a camera, has just been a remarkable opportunity.'


Bristol, Virginia - July 29, 2009. President Barack Obama eats a nectarine following a town hall meeting at Kroger's Supermarket

May 8, 2009. Obama bends over so the son of a White House staff member can pat his head during a visit to the Oval Office

April 13, 2009.Obama runs down a corridor with the family's new dog, Bo, a six-month old portuguese water dog, in the White House in Washington, DC. Bo is a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy and his wife Victoria to the President's daughters, Sasha and Malia

January 20, 2009. 'We were on a freight elevator headed to one of the Inaugural Balls. It was quite chilly, so the President removed his tuxedo jacket and put it over the shoulders of his wife. Then they had a semi-private moment as staff member and Secret Service agents tried not to look'

August 9, 2010. Obama puts his toe on the scale as Trip Director Marvin Nicholson tries to weigh himself during a hold in the volleyball locker room at the University of Texas in Austin

July 14, 2012. 'The President delivers remarks in the pouring rain at a campaign event in Glen Allen, Va. He was supposed to do a series of press interviews inside before his speech, but since people had been waiting for hours in the rain he did his remarks as soon as he arrived at the site so people could go home to dry off'

September 28, 2012. 'A candid portrait of the President during a meeting, juxtaposed with the paintings of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, busts of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Abraham Lincoln, and the Emancipation Proclamation. It's a difficult angle to get because I had to sit in front of the closed Oval Office door and hope that no one would open the door and knock me over'

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011

January 16, 2010. 'President Obama had called on the two former Presidents to help. During their public remarks in the Rose Garden, President Clinton had said about President Bush, "I've already figured out how I can get him to do some things that he didn't sign on for." Later, back in the Oval, President Bush is jokingly asking President Clinton what were those things he had in mind'

June 9, 2011. Bethesda, MarylandObama greets children at a day care facility adjacent to his daughter Sasha's school. Obama was attending following Sasha's fourth grade closing ceremony

President Barack Obama shares his strawberry pie with a boy during a lunch stop at Kozy Corners restaurant in Oak Harbor, Ohio, July 5, 2012

October 26, 2012. Obama pretends to be caught in Spider-Man's web as he greets Nicholas Tamarin, 3, just outside the Oval Office. Spider-Man had been trick-or-treating for an early Halloween with his father, White House aide Nate Tamarin

May 25, 2012. 'The President was welcoming service members and their families to a screening of Men in Black 3 in the White House Family Theater. The movie was being presented in 3D, so the President jokingly asked them to try on their 3D glasses while he was speaking to them'

U.S. President Barack Obama joins B.B. King singing Sweet Home Chicago during the 'In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues' concert in the East Room on February 21, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Participants include, from left: Troy 'Trombone Shorty' Andrews, Jeff Beck, Derek Trucks, B.B. King, and Gary Clark, Jr.

February 2009. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama dance while the band Earth, Wind and Fire performs at the Governors' Ball

President Barack Obama shares a pizza dinner with individuals who wrote letters to him, at the Wazee Supper Club in Denver, Coloorado, July 8, 2014

President Barack Obama plays with a football in the Oval Office on August 23, 2009 

January 20, 2009. 'President-elect Barack Obama was about to walk out to take the oath of office. Backstage at the U.S. Capitol, he took one last look at his appearance in the mirror'

U.S. President Barack Obama (center) meets in the Situation Room with his national security advisors to discuss strategy in Syria of the White House August 31, 2013 in Washington, DC

President Barack Obama, Eric Holder and US officers attends a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, October 29, 2009, for the dignified transfer of 18 U.S. personnel who died in Afghanistan

Visiting the Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 20, 2011 

May 31, 2010. 'The skies opened up on Memorial Day outside of Chicago. When the lightning began, the Secret Service told the President that it was too dangerous to proceed. He took the stage by himself and informed the audience that his speech was canceled and that for everyone's safety, they should return to their busses. Later, he boarded a few of the busses to thank them for attending and apologized for not being able to speak'

June 4, 2015. 'At the President's insistence, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes brought his daughter Ella by for a visit. As she was crawling around the Oval Office, the President got down on his hands and knees to look her in the eye'

December 4, 2015. 'The President acquiesced to a selfie with 11-year-old Jacob Haynes and four-year-old James Haynes after taking a family photograph with departing White House staffer Heather Foster'

President Barack Obama has lunch with Rebekah Erler at Matt's Bar in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 26, 2014. Erler, then a 36-year-old working wife and mother of two pre-school aged boys, had written the President a letter about economic difficulties

President Obama rides to the family quarters at the end of Inauguration Day 2009 in this photograph

November 15, 2012. 'The President had just met with the U.S. Olympics gymnastics team, who because of a previous commitment had missed the ceremony earlier in the year with the entire U.S. Olympic team. The President suggested to McKayla Maroney that they recreate her "not impressed" photograph before they departed'

April 24, 2012. Obama and Jimmy Fallon are briefed on the Slow Jam the News segment backstage before taping at the University of North Carolina Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill, North Carolina 

January 1, 2012. 'A nice way to celebrate the New Year for the President was to jump in the ocean in his native state of Hawaii. He was on his annual Christmas vacation with family and friends, and went swimming at Pyramid Rock Beach in Kaneohe Bay'

February 14, 2013. 'The President genuinely enjoys being with kids. Here, he played a magnifying glass game with children during a visit to a pre-kindergarten classroom at the College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center in Decatur, Georgia'

President Barack Obama, joined by Chief of Staff Denis McDonough's daughter, carries a birthday cake to surprise McDonough in his West Wing office, on December 2, 2013

United States President Barack and Michelle Obama board Air Force One in moonlight at the end of their visit to Germany on 19 June 2013

May 26, 2013. The President and members of the White House staff look out the window of Air Force One to view tornado damage over Moore, Oklahoma. After landing at Tinker Air Base, the President did a walking tour of the damage and met with those affected'

US President Barack Obama and Chief of Staff Denis McDonough walk as they hold their daily end-of-the-day meeting on the South Lawn of the White House on June 3, 2013

August 28, 2013. 'Chuck Kennedy worked with the National Park Service to be able to photograph from this angle at the Lincoln Memorial as the President, First Lady, and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter walked to the stage during the ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom'

President Barack Obama reads briefing material before the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office, August 29, 2014

March 7, 2015. 'iI was moving around trying to capture different scenes away from the stage during the event to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches. When I glanced back towards the stage, I noticed the President and First Lady holding hands as they listened to the remarks of Rep. John Lewis. I managed to squeeze off a couple of frames before they began to applaud, and the moment was gone'

March 7, 2015. 'For Presidential trips, I usually have another White House photographer accompany me so he or she can preset with the press and obtain angles that I can't, as I usually stay close to the President. Lawrence Jackson made this iconic image from the camera truck as the First Family joined others in beginning the walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge'

April 16, 2015. 'The President was about to sign H.R. 2 Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 in the Rose Garden of the White House so we had Lawrence Jackson pre-position on the roof of the Colonnade and he captured this picturesque scene of the President walking to the signing table'

March 4, 2014. 'The President was visiting a classroom at Powell Elementary School in Washington, D.C. A young boy was using a stethoscope during the class, and as the President was about to leave the room, the President asked him to check his heartbeat'

June 14, 2013. Obama with a young boy who had fallen asleep during the Father's Day ice cream social in the State Dining Room of the White House

President Barack Obama visits with a departing United States Secret Service agent and his wife as their son dives into a couch in the Oval Office, June 23, 2014

President Obama appears in deep thought as he and senior adviser David Axelrod listen during a climate change meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. A moment later, he was 'laughing at a humorous exchange'.

U.S. President Barack Obama works on his Newtown speech at The Music Center at Strathmore auditorium on December 16, 2012 in Bethesda, Maryland. Obama later visited Newtown, Connecticut to speak at an interfaith vigil for the shooting victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School

August 15, 2012. 'The President hugs the First Lady after she had introduced him at a campaign event in Davenport, Iowa. The campaign tweeted a similar photo from the campaign photographer on election night and a lot of people thought it was taken on election day'

December 7, 2015. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld knocks on the Oval Office window to begin a segment for his series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

November 24, 2015. 'With the U.S. Marine Band playing the score from the movie, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the President feigns riding a bicycle in the sky as happened in the 1982 movie directed by Steven Spielberg, who had just been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom'

June 17, 2015. The President carries the twin boys of Katie Beirne Fallon, Director of Legislative Affairs, into the Oval Office just a few months after they were born

October 1, 2015. 'I focused on the detail of the Resolute Desk as the president was talking with two aides in the Oval Office'

Oct. 30, 2015. 'This is the first time the same child has made two appearances in the Year in Photos. But it was difficult to not again include Ella Rhodes, daughter of Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, after the President lifted her in her elephant costume that she was wearing for a Halloween event at the White House'

February 11, 2014. 'Ever the gentleman, the President helps the First Lady off the stage after she thanked the White House chefs during the State Dinner for President François Hollande of France on the South Lawn of the White House'

December 3, 2009. Obama fist-bumps custodian Lawrence Lipscomb in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building following the opening session of the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth

March 30, 2012. 'We had just arrived aboard the Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn and the President was walking into the White House. I had seen this scene several times but had never been able to quite capture it the way I wanted. Here, finally, arriving at night, I was able to frame him walking into the light of the Diplomatic Reception Room, with the added bonus of his shadow being cast from the television lights off to the left'

April 9, 2015. The President's wave aligns with a rainbow as he boards Air Force One at Norman Manley International Airport prior to departure from Kingston, Jamaica

June 9, 2014. 'The President sits for a 3D portrait being produced by the Smithsonian Institution. There were so many cameras and strobe lights flashing but the end result was kind of cool'

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