RETRO FILES / CLASSIC PHOTOGRAPHS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS OF OUR TIME

MOMENT IN TIME—July 24, 1963 was a bright summer day in the White House Rose Garden when President John F. Kennedy emerged to address a group of youth leaders attenting Boys Nation in Washington DC.    Sixteen year old Bill Clinton was one of the boys who shook hands with the President that day.  President Clinton has pointed to that moment as inspiring him to public service, and the photograph of the handshake between once and future presidents became such an enduring image.

ARNOLD SACHS REMEMBERED—GUEST BLOG by Eric Rosenberg, Hearst Newspapers.

Arnold "Arnie" Sachs will be remembered for his award-winning photos, particularly the one of a young Bill Clinton shaking hands with President John Kennedy in 1963.

Sachs, who died in 2006 at 78, covered 11 presidents during his 56-year career as a photojournalist in Washington, and embraced new photographic technologies and racial integration in the news business.

He was among the first in the business to promote efficiency advances in film - from cumbersome sheet film to small rolls. He also was among the first to use satellites to transmit photographs, to use 35 millimetre cameras for news wire services, and to advocate digital cameras.

In the early 1960s Sachs pushed for racial integration of the White House News Photographers Association. He photographed every presidential swearing-in ceremony from Dwight Eisenhower's first inaugural in 1953 to George Bush's second last year.

"His career was so long that he photographed four generations of the Bush and Kennedy families," said his son Ronald, also a photojournalist.

Arnie Sachs in action

A founding member of the US Senate Press Photographers Gallery and the owner of Consolidated News Photos, Sachs received numerous journalism awards, including a top prize from the White House News Photographers Association, which also bestowed upon him a lifetime achievement award in 2001.

During his career he provided photographs for International News Photos, Agence France-Presse, the Pan Asia Newspaper Alliance and Getty Images, among others.

For all his thousands of pictures, Sachs was proudest of the image he took of the teenage Bill Clinton shaking hands with President Kennedy in the Rose Garden in 1963. Clinton was visiting the White House as a member of the American Legion youth group Boys Nation. 

"President Clinton has said many times that the photo captured the moment when he decided he wanted to be president," son Ronald Sachs said.