Keeping Up with History

Some of the most powerful members of Obama’s new team, meanwhile, remain blank faces. Honoring their promises of transparency from day one, they graciously allowed Leibovitz to capture them at work for the portfolio, “Enter Obama,” becoming the third successive administration to be immortalized by the photographer in Vanity Fair. With invaluable help from Washington-based V.F. contributors Maureen Orth (who wrote the accompanying text) and Dee Dee Myers, Leibovitz and her nimble crew wound through Obama’s transition office at an extraordinary pace. History, she has found, waits for no man, let alone for a photographer. “We had the economic team”—including Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Peter Orszag, and Christina Romer—“for only a couple of minutes before they were off to the next meeting,” says portfolio co-producer Kathryn MacLeod. “It was an incredible challenge. People, you could tell, had their mind on the huge task that lay before them.” In the end, Leibovitz photographed more than 50 subjects in just over a week. “Everyone was enthusiastic and inspiring,” says co-producer Ron Beinner.

Barack Obama Vanityfair.com.