Tuesday, October 18, 2022

White House, Washington D.C.

Library of Congress

Today was a big day.

We traveled to the White House, Capitol and the Library of Congress. I would have never thought I’d get the opportunity to travel back ever since

my first trip with my eighth grade class. The only things I remember from my eighth grade trip was visiting the Whitehouse to see the outside of it, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to see the original United States flag, and the Washington zoo.

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There are so many amazing expensive clothing stores and museums to explore in Washington that I made a long list of places I plan on coming back to visit because there is just so much to do on this trip there is not enough time to do it all. Plus some of the museums come to find out it takes forever to get into. For instance, the space and air museum that just recently opened back up since renovations.

To begin the day, Julia, Monique, Avery and I took the subway to the White House. When we finally arrived at the front of the White House we were watched by heavy security and sniffed by dogs. It looked the same as it did when I went on my eighth grade trip…although when walking to the side of the building to be greeted by even more security and a checkpoint to get in was a large architectural building that was unfamiliar to me. It was breathtaking. After getting through security we made it onto the White House grounds. I could not believe the access we had. I actually was walking into the White House on top of being able to take a picture with my class where it is typically prohibited. Then before I knew it I was sitting in the same room the Vice President sat in just a week prior. My class was greeted with Hershey kisses sealed from President Biden on the tables. We were first greeted by photography interns then introduced to Yash Mori and Jeremy Davis who photograph for the White House. After we were shown a presentation from Polly Irungu(first offical photo editor of the Vice President in the Biden-Harris Administration/ self taught multimedia journalist/ founder of Black Woman Photographers). After the meeting we got to meet President Joe Biden's photographer, Cameron Smith. It was incredible and still hard to believe I was standing feet away from this man. Being the Presidents photographer let alone a White House photographer is amazing. Although, all the photographs you take you no longer have a right to(becomes public domain). I do not see myself being the right person to photograph politics every day let alone get my copyrights of my images taken away to be made public domain.

After the White House we made our way to the Capitol. We were welcomed by an individual who gave us a short tour of the Capitol. The engravings and painted walls were just extraordinary. During the beginning of the tour we were taken to a presentation room where we were greeted by Louis Palu, Win McNamee, Drew Angerer and Amanda Rhoads. All the freelancers that meet with us shared their work and the photographs they were able to capture on the day of the Capitol being rioted on January 6, 2021. It was insightful to hear how each one of them got in the position they did, how they navigated their options, decisions they made and how they reflected on them. In my opinion it was very helpful to hear how to handle a possible dangerous situation that is very important to document and how you decide to make the choice to go or stay. After the presentation we were taken to the Senate Chamber which was like a dream to actually see. It was exactly how it has looked on tv. Although, to look down from the top of the seating area it was amazing to see how high up it actually was. When I was observing the inside I was just reimagining when the rioters came into the Capitol and the one man who had jumped from the top to open the doors to the lower floor and how bizarre that situation was. After we walked through the hallways where all these people rioted and some of the areas still haven't even been repaired. There was even statues still wrapped up. As we we were walking out we were walking down a hallway of monuments. It was interesting to hear about the floor I was walking on had so many heavy monuments that they had to spread them out more so the floor wouldn't warp.

Across the street we walked from the capitol building to the Library of Congress to be greeted by Tom Rieger, partaken in thirty years of digitization and has even owned his own digitization company and Matt Breitbart.

We first got a tour throughout the place as well as their underground tunnel system which led us to where we got a nice presentation presented from Tom Rieger. Ironically, while touring the building a couple were taking their wedding pictures which goes to show how beautiful and sentimental this building is to people. The architecture and paintings were mind blowing. Furthermore, the presentation I thought was perfectly laid out to show the duties of what digitization pertains too. It was incredible hearing the changes throughout the years because of the advanced technology. Technology has made it so much easier and saves so much time during the digitization process instead of for example taking the time to physically turn pages of historical literature.

I really see myself working at the Library of Congress for a while. As I love to discover and learn new things. Each day would be a different kind of learning experience going through historic literature. I also enjoy archival work because it is important and incredible to see the comparisons of things from what they once were to where they are now. As it is also important to document history and keep a record of the things that occur. It would be an incredible opportunity and honor to be able to be a part of restoring and digitizing histories literature.