Friends of the LBJ Library | Sep, 14 2022 10:30AM - 11:30AM
Members are invited to join us for a gallery talk and refreshments on Wednesday, September 14, at 10:30 a.m. Skip Okamoto, son of President Johnson’s White House photographer, Yoichi Okamoto, will speak to members about his father’s legacy.
The exhibition Yoichi Okamoto is currently on display in the Great Hall of the Library. The temporary exhibition, on display through October 23, features reproductions of photographs, archival correspondence, and artifacts from the life and career of Yoichi Okamoto.
Before serving as the President’s chief White House photographer, Okamoto served in the US Information Service (USIS) in Vienna, Austria, to document the rebuilding of Vienna and the city’s cultural life after World War II. In a 1961 trip to Berlin, Edward R. Murrow assigned Okamoto to take photos of then-Vice President Johnson. Johnson liked his photos so much that he arranged for Okamoto to be his official photographer on other trips during his vice-presidential years. After he became President in 1963, Johnson asked Okamoto to serve as his photographer and gave him unprecedented access. Okamoto spent up to 16 hours per day at the White House and managed to capture the highlights of history in the making: meetings with civil rights leaders, conferences on Vietnam, speeches, and so forth. In the end, he took an estimated 675,000 photos.
Join us for this special members-only opportunity to hear from Skip Okamoto and tour the Yoichi Okamoto exhibition before it closes.
Space is limited. Please register below.
If you would like to be added to a waitlist for this event, please email friends@lbjfoundation.org.
