Booth Western Art Museum presents intimate view of presidency

Exhibit special events: Lectures and book signings by chief White House photographers David Valdez (George H.W. Bush) at 2 p.m. March 21; Bob McNeely (Bill Clinton), 2 p.m. April 4; and Eric Draper (George W. Bush), 2 p.m. April 12. Official exhibit opening reception, featuring talk by Michael Evans' family, 5-8 p.m. April 16.

12th Annual Southeastern Cowboy Gathering: Thursday through Saturday. Saturday's highlights include: Chuck Wagon Cook-off starting at 8 a.m., capped by the meal ($15) at noon; children's activities from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and a 7 p.m. western singer-songwriter showcase at the Grand Theatre ($25).

Every day is something akin to Presidents Day at the Booth Western Art Museum, but even more so with the recent opening of the exhibition “The President’s Photographer: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office.”

The 51-print National Geographic exhibit gives a rare glimpse into the world of the chief White House photographer, surveying the work of the 11 who have served in the image-shaping role since 1961.

And the Cartersville museum has complemented the touring show by curating its own 36-image exhibit of the late Michael Evans, photography chief during President Ronald Reagan’s first term and an Atlantan for two years before his 2005 death.

But hold on there, Partner, how is it that presidents play such a sizable role at a museum that is mainly a shrine to cowboy culture?

That’s because the Booth was founded in 2003 with, in addition to its dominant Western art collection, two smaller ones, Civil War art and presidential materials. For that reason, the museum’s advertising slogan is “See America’s Story.”

As far as Booth officials know, its Carolyn & James Millar Presidential Gallery is the only display anywhere showcasing signed letters by every president along with portrait photographs of each. It’s the museum’s most popular gallery, routinely causing guests in what had been organized tour groups to straggle.

Given that, Booth executive director Seth Hopkins said the decision to lasso “The President’s Photographer” was an easy one.

The show was organized in conjunction with a PBS special and a companion National Geographic coffee-table book. While all three document the presidents from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama, they all feature a heavy representation of Pete Souza, the current chief White House photographer and director of the White House Photo Office.

To balance the ticket, so to speak, the Booth added the second exhibit of pictures by Reagan photographer Evans, who is only represented by a single image in the National Geographic show. It also helped give the show a local connection: Evans moved to Atlanta in 2003 to become the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s photo editor.

The Booth — which concludes one of its biggest annual events Saturday, the 12th Annual Southeastern Cowboy Gathering — is presenting a strong slate of related program during “The President’s Photographer’s” run through June 7. Included will be a trio of lectures and book signings by photographers for Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, as well as a belated opening reception on April 16 featuring a talk by Evans’ wife and daughters.

In a social media-wired world where the famous keep few secrets, Hopkins believes there’s still a mystique about the presidency.

“It’s just a fascination with, this is the most powerful person in the world,” the Booth executive director said. “Regardless of whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, you want to know more about them.”

The complementary photography exhibits provide plenty to feed that fascination.

There are numerous images that are important documents of American history, including Cecil Stoughton’s solemn image of Lyndon Baines Johnson being sworn in on Air Force One; and Eric Draper’s 9/11 shot of George W. Bush scribbling notes on a legal pad in midstride in a Florida classroom as sickening smoke spews from the Twin Towers on a TV screen behind him.

But there are also powerful, intimate moments that only a photographer with high-level access could capture: Stoughton’s tender composition of Kennedy with his right arm protectively wrapped around daughter Caroline, her head snuggled into his shoulder, during a boat ride not long before his 1963 assassination; Ollie Atkins’ pensive Nixon family portrait on the day he resigned in 1974; David Valdez’s humorous shot of pajamas-clad George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara still in bed right after their Maine bedroom was invaded by gamboling grandchildren.

The Evans mini exhibit includes several famous images of Reagan, most notably the iconic 1975 cowboy-hatted portrait captured on his California ranch that appeared on the covers of both Time and Newsweek after the president died in 2004.

But Hopkins also chose a range of pictures that give a revealing backstage glimpse of the White House’s workings. A compelling juxtaposition is a polished official photo of Reagan’s new first Cabinet, taken in the Oval Office in 1981, and, beside it, a test picture, probably taken the day before, with nonplussed White House rank and file posing similarly so that Evans could work out positioning and set lighting.

Perhaps Evans’ most potent shot, in an odd way, is one of a huge rainbow arching over the White House. The photographer captured it, the wall text reveals, after returning to the White House from the hospital on the day of Reagan’s attempted assassination in 1981.

Evans took it as a sign that the president would survive.