Scout Tufankjian’s book signing: YES WE CAN: Obama’s History-Making Campaign
Originally posted 3/16/2009
Well, I’m not usually an easy mark, but a PBS interview inspired me to run out and buy a book.
Just after inauguration in January, Charlie Rose interviewed photographer Scout Tufankjian. She recounted how, in December 2006, her agent asked her to cover an event in New Hampshire. She had been looking forward to a date that night and didn’t want to drive five hours to cover a book signing for some junior senator from Illinois. She did go. It was life changing.
That night Scout saw people’s reaction to Obama. He hadn’t yet declared his candidacy, but Tufankjian saw what was possible and made the decision to follow Obama through his campaign. The result was the book YES WE CAN: Barack Obama’s History-Making Presidential Campaign.
Yesterday Scout had a book signing for YES WE CAN at Book Passage in Corte Madera. She and her book did not disappoint. Scout’s images of the Obama campaign cover a span from intimate to grand. She is a Yale political science graduate, bright, articulate. Her text sets the stage at the beginning of each of ten sections in the book. Her photos add a unique view of Obama campaigning, and what you haven’t seen so much in the press, she shows the emotions of the people who came to watch Obama.
Scout Tufankjian visits with Marin photographer, Carol Santos and then goes on to sign a pile of her books for Book Passage in Corte Madera.
Scout Tufankjian’s image of Barack Obama signing a copy of The Audacity of Hope in December 2006 and my image of Scout signing Yes We Can at Book Passage in March 2009.
Ann Brooks Photography 
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