On May 26, 1996 photographer Mariana Cook photographed Barack and Michelle Obama when they were less than 4 years into their marriage for a project she was doing on couples in America. This was well before they were the President-elect and future First Lady. This was before they were U.S. Senator and Senator’s Wife/hospital executive. This was even before they were Illinois State Representative and Wife/non-profit organization attorney. This was before the world was watching.
Barack on Michelle in ‘96:
What sustains our relationship is I’m extremely happy with her, and part of it has to do with the fact that she is at once completely familiar to me, so that I can be myself and she knows me very well and I trust her completely, but at the same time she is also a complete mystery to me in some ways. And there are times when we are lying in bed and I look over and sort of have a start. Because I realize here is this other person who is separate and different and has different memories and backgrounds and thoughts and feelings. It’s that tension between familiarity and mystery that makes for something strong, because, even as you build a life of trust and comfort and mutual support, you retain some sense of surprise or wonder about the other person.
Michelle on Barack in ‘96:
There is a strong possibility that Barack will pursue a political career, although it’s unclear. There is a little tension with that. I’m very wary of politics. I think he’s too much of a good guy for the kind of brutality, the skepticism…Barack has helped me loosen up and feel comfortable with taking risks, not doing things the traditional way and sort of testing it out, because that is how he grew up. I’m more traditional; he’s the one in the couple that, I think, is the less traditional individual.
Mariana Cook on Barack:
He really had a vision of what this country needed…there’s a depth to him, you can see it in his eyes.
The photos along with the rest of Cook’s interview with the Obamas will run in next week’s issue of The New Yorker.
–TJ
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