PRESIDENTIAL FOCUS : White House News Photographers Exhibit Also Looks Beyond the Beltway

There’s President Clinton strolling happily with Vice President Al Gore. Over there the President is looking stately in front of a group of soldiers. And isn’t that him giving a speech while Pope John Paul II listens in?

You’d expect such shots from White House photographers. It’s their job to chronicle the small and the huge in the Clinton Administration, from a walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to a policy statement with reverberations around the world.

But there’s more than Clinton-mania in the White House News Photographers Assn.’s traveling show sponsored by the Library of Congress and now at the Fullerton Museum Center through June 25.

The exhibit, featuring the best work of the mostly Washington-based photographers from 1994, documents daily life beyond the Potomac. More than 72 black-and-white and color stills that were honored at the association’s annual awards ceremony are included.

“This isn’t just what you’d think. Meaning that [the pictures] aren’t only of [Capitol] officials . . . the scope reaches far beyond the White House,” said Lynn Labate, the museum center’s exhibition administrator. “I was also impressed with the range of emotion evoked by the photographs.”

Of course, the major players in Washington are often spotlighted. In the “presidential” category, the first-place award went to J. David Ake, who works for the Agence France-Presse news service, for his print titled “Moral Support.” The candid shot shows Clinton walking with former Defense Secretary Les Aspin, the President’s arm draped over Aspin’s shoulder. In a statement accompanying the photo, Ake says he captured it by being prepared for the unexpected:

“I have learned with the Clinton Administration to carry every piece of equipment I own. President Clinton can and will do just about anything, at any time.”

Another personal take on Clinton comes from Washington Post photographer Frank Johnson, who caught the President’s reflection in the Vietnam War Memorial as he prayed in front of it on Memorial Day.

Franklin Mears, a longtime Republican from Tustin who scanned the presidential photos during a recent visit to the center, said it was interesting to see Clinton cast in a natural way.

“I’m not a fan of his politics, but this gives me an idea of who he is and what he’s been doing” while in office, Mears said. “He seems more human. . . . I would like to see more photos of conservatives, though--like [House Speaker Newt] Gingrich, maybe.”

Another visitor, Jackie Green from Fullerton, said she most admired the prints of ordinary people. An especially poignant collection, Green noted, was taken by Kenneth Lambert of the Washington Times. His series documents a group of young burn victims on a wilderness trip. Green’s favorite showed two of them frolicking in a mountain pond.

“Their injuries are so severe that [the photo] is almost hard to look at,” she said, “but you feel good because they seem to be having such fun, just behaving like any kids would.”

Another emotional shot was taken by Washington Post photographer Carol Guzy of an elderly woman clutching an American flag and gazing blissfully skyward. The photo, which won in the “personalities” category, was just one of eight awards for Guzy, who says, “Through pictures we may educate, inform, inspire, spur a government into action, be a voice for the powerless and sometimes touch a heart.”

Guzy, named the photographer of the year by the association, impressed Jennifer Hallicki of Orange for her ability to move the viewer. Hallicki said Guzy’s print of a young Appalachian boy holding a rifle in front of a shack home made her both sad and grateful.

“You look at this boy, who can’t be more than 12 or 13, with that gun and a cigarette in his mouth and you have to wonder what his life is like,” she said. “You can see the poverty clearly.”

Like Mears, Hallicki said the exhibit may be most valuable for the insight it gives into Clinton’s character.

“I’m not sure if we’re always getting the truth [because] you wonder if he was aware of the photographers,” she observed. “But he always seems in charge and compassionate, which I think he probably is.”

* What: White House News Photographers Assn. exhibit.

* When: Through June 25. Hours: Noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays.

* Where: Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave., Fullerton.

* Whereabouts: Take the Riverside (91) Freeway to Harbor Boulevard and head north to Chapman Avenue. Go east to Pomona Avenue, then head south.

* Wherewithal: $2.50 general admission, $2 for seniors, $1.50 for students and free to children under 12. Also free for everybody on Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m.

* Where to call: (714) 738-6545.

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