How Kamala Harris’ photographer captured her historic vice presidency

Kamala Harris has secured her place in history.

In 2011, Harris—a daughter of immigrants from Oakland, California—became the first black, first female, and first South Asian attorney general of California. She then became the country’s first Indian American senator.

When she was elected vice president — a role she will leave on Jan. 20 — she became the first woman, first black and first Asian American to hold the position.

Only one photographer has captured the intimate moments throughout Harris’ time in the White House.

Lawrence Jacksona veteran news photographer, has covered Harris for nearly five years, first with the Biden-Harris campaign and then as her official White House photographer.

“I feel very fortunate to cover the first female vice president,” Jackson said. “I know there are a lot of photographers out there who would see me on the side of the road and run me over to possibly get a chance to do what I do.”

Adam Schultz, Biden’s chief White House photographer, called Jackson in July 2020 to see if he would be interested in covering Biden’s vice presidential pick, whoever it was.

“They had already said it was going to be a woman,” Jackson said. “So it doesn’t matter to be part of history.”

Ultimately, Biden named Harris as his running mate, making the California senator the first black and South Asian American woman to run on a major political party’s presidential ticket.

Jackson is no stranger to covering the presidential candidates. After eight years as an Associated Press photographer, he was hired as a White House photographer in early 2009, covering the country’s first African-American president, Barack Obama. He was the only black photographer on the White House photo staff.

But his approach to covering the vice president hasn’t changed from covering a news assignment. He always looks for three things when creating a picture: emotion, information and aesthetics.

“I think you’ll find that really good photos have all three of those elements,” Jackson said. “Whether I’m in the White House or a news event or a portrait for a newspaper, I always try to remember those three things.”

In July 2024, after weeks of mounting pressure, the bite ended his re-election bid for the White House and stepped out of the campaign spotlight.

Hours later, Harris entered.

“I am honored to have the president’s endorsement and my intention is to win and win this nomination,” Harris wrote.

There was a lot of emotion in the room at one of Harris’ first events after Biden endorsed her as the Democratic nominee. Jackson said that while his role as Harris’ photographer did not change after the announcement, the energy at Harris’ events had increased. At an event shortly after Harris became the Democratic nominee, Jackson said he was blown away by how the room was buzzing.

“The volume, the intensity, the energy. … Let’s say an event we did the week before was on volume two? It was already on volume 10,” Jackson said. “I looked at some of my colleagues and . .. we all knew that from then on things had changed. It would be completely different.”

Harris eventually lost to Donald Trump after a 100-day sprint to the November election.

“I really hope that my pictures speak for themselves and that they get a sense of who she is, how she interacts with people, how she cares about what she does, how she really understands that she is the first and that she is an example,” Jackson said.

“I try to show pictures of her in isolation, because she is the first, and no matter how much support she gets from staff, family, friends, it’s still just her. It’s all up to her.”

While documenting history in the making, Jackson thinks about history already made. In April, before Harris rose to the top of the Democratic ticket, Jackson photographed Harris walking by a portrait of former Rep. Shirley Chisholm by artist Kadir Nelson at the US Capitol.

Jackson saw the picture before he made it: Harris, the first woman, the first black and the first South Asian American to be elected vice president alongside Chisholm, the first black candidate for a major party nomination for president and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

He walked in front of Harris to line up the picture perfectly. And then, just before Harris crossed, she looked at Jackson.

“Ninety-five percent of the time she ignores me. She doesn’t pay attention to me. Some days we don’t even talk,” Jackson said. “But she saw what I was doing and looked at me and smiled.”

Jackson’s photos are not just part of the historical record; they were used by the White House team to help influence how the world views Harris, which became even more important when she became the Democratic nominee.

“The only pressure I feel is to make sure I get it right, to get those moments as best I can, to tell the story — to tell her story,” Lawrence said.

Not only did Jackson photograph Harris’ legacy as vice president and presidential candidate, he also got to do it from a closer distance than other news photographers have ever been able to.

“I still pinch myself with the access I get because they obviously trust me to take pictures and tell stories,” Jackson said. “It’s just the greatest honor and privilege to photograph … the first female vice president and the role that (she) has played in history.”

CNN’s Chelsea Bailey contributed to this report.