Barack Obama 2007-2008 (Catching You Up: 9 of 11)

I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard Barack Obama speak at the DNC convention in 2004. I remember what I ate for dinner that night... I even remember what shirt I was wearing. After his address, I was on the phone with my dad asking if he had watched, and telling him that this guy needed to be our next president.

The four years that followed that speech to the night that the Obamas took the stage in Grant Park in Chicago, I've been a bit obsessed... maybe too obsessed depending on who you ask. Obama's articulations of the issues facing our country were exactly how I had formulated them in my mind on countless nights as I fell asleep. To me, his campaign ran on the platform of common sense... middle class tax cuts; talking to your enemies; personal responsibility and accountability; equitable access to education; actionable environmental safeguards. When he became our 44th President, I was once again proud to be in a country of hope and progress.

The first time I heard Barack Obama in person was in the fall of 2007 in the Boston Common. Earlier that day, I actually called the campaign and a few newspapers in Boston in a futile attempt to get a press pass to be in the unobstructed press box to snap some photos. I of course was denied. Looking back, I'm glad I had the view that appears in the above photo. To me, the photo has a 1960s political aesthetic. Obama had embodied the urgency of Martin Luther King and the solidarity of Bobby Kennedy, and rebranded and repackaged it into a new voice and message. He was operating on all cylinders that night and he left the crowd electrified.

I don't know if I can take credit for the above photo. It's possible that my friend Andrew Martin took this shot. We were standing next to each other that night sharing one camera. I saw Barack Obama speak for the 2nd time on the evening that Ted and Caroline Kennedy endorsed Obama. Unlike the speech in the Boston Common in 2007 where I waited in line for about 30 minutes to get into the event, this night included a four and a half hour wait. Obama had gained some serious momentum having won a slew of states on Super Tuesday, February 5th. Though his speech had me once again transfixed, this time it was the crowd that reinforced my belief that this man needed to be our 44th. I knew it when I saw teenagers hanging on every word about getting a break from college costs only if they serve their communities. I knew it when I looked back at the crowd and saw a perfectly diverse sample of our Union. I knew it when I saw tears stream down the faces of elderly black men and women who knew that waiting in line for four hours in the cold was nothing compared to their lifelong wait.