Pictures from an Exhibition

The White House has released a Flickr set called the "First 100 Days" that presents a carefully selected digital album of images. Of course, some of them borrow from the visual language of the Kennedy years, but what is also striking about the collection is how many show Obama on the telephone, a traditional landline with a curled cord. Often he looks uncomfortable with the device, as though not accustomed to being tethered in this way. None of the images show the Chief Executive on his Blackberry or interacting with mobile computing, although he does appear to be holding it sealed in its case in one moment of gesticulation. And when computers are shown, the focus is elsewhere, in this case of a game of football in the outside of the Oval Office.

One notable exception to the visual rule about omitting mobile devices is this image, where "Blackberrys, cell phones and communications devices are tagged with post-its during a briefing on Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Cabinet Room 3/26/09."