NEW ORLEANS -- From moments of national triumph to intimate moments in the halls of the White House to moments of national tragedy, Paul Morse has seen it all through the viewfinder of his camera.
A former staff photographer for the Los Angeles times, Morse calls New Orleans home these days. But first he traded in the West Coast for the West Wing as one of President George W. Bush’s personal photographers from 2001 to 2007.
It was the relationship he built with the 43rd president that led the now-freelance photographer to snap a simple photo at Barbara Bush’s funeral that has gone viral.
The image shows President George H.W. Bush surrounded by his son and daughter-in-law, Laura Bush; Bill and Hillary Clinton; Barack and Michelle Obama; and current First Lady Melania Trump.
He said he has no idea how many people have viewed the photo of the beaming first families since he took it.
“I’d probably say in the millions,” but I can’t go and count them all he told WWL-TV during an interview he conducted from Sardinia, Italy, where he was on assignment. “I’m really, really kind of blown away and really kind of flattered that it really took off like that.”
He said an aide to the elder President Bush helped to quickly arrange the photo as other guests of honor filed into Houston’s St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, leaving the members of the exclusive club on their own for a moment.
At a time when there seems to be more political divisiveness than ever, the image of Republicans and Democrats coming together is likely what drew so much interest, Morse believes.
“That is the underlying thing people saw,” he said. “They’re human. They’re husbands and wives. They have grandkids and children. And they all saw that, rather than putting a political slant on who they are or what their party represents.
“I think people responded to them getting along and just being there in that moment of need for President 41,” the younger President Bush’s nickname for his father.
During his time at the White House, Morse was with Bush during some of the darkest days in the country and New Orleans.
He was the photographer who snapped the image of George W. Bush as he peered out a window of Air Force Once during a flyover of the city in the days after Hurricane Katrina.
Morse said he knows the government’s delayed response angered many in the city, but he said the disaster did emotionally affect the president.
“It moved him dramatically,” Morse said. “Politically, I know he got a lot of heat for doing that (flyover) at the time, and I can understand that now being a New Orleanian.”
The Seattle native said it was his travels to the city with Bush during and after Katrina that led him to move here in 2010. He left in 2013 but returned a year-and-a-half ago to make his home where once again, this time in Uptown.
“I saw the spirit of New Orleans during the recovery, and I knew that was a place I wanted to live,” Morse said.