Chuck Kennedy/The White House, via Reuters; Pete Souza/The White House, via Reuters The new official photo portraits of President and Michelle Obama.Four years ago, the buzz was all about the arms when the White House unveiled the official photo portrait of first lady Michelle Obama. Now it is all about the bangs.
For Mrs. Obama’s new portrait for her husband’s second term, which the White House released on Wednesday, the photographer got in closer to the first lady; in the earlier portrait, she is shown standing at more of a distance. The latest pose accentuates the bangs that Mrs. Obama had cut in time for President Obama’s inaugural festivities in January.
The president’s scond-term portrait was unveiled last month, and it also seemed to capture a more casual, confident subject. But in his case, the comparisons focused on the president’s evident increase in gray hairs after four years in office.
Mrs. Obama’s portrait makes for a more casual, if still elegant, look. She is wearing a navy dress with three-quarter-length sleeves, a contrast with her 2009 portrait, for which she wore a sleeveless black dress by Michael Kors that showed off her well-toned arms, signaling what became her signature style.
Joyce N. Boghosian/The White House, via A.P.; Pete Souza/The White House, via Reuters The Obamas’ portraits from 2009.This year’s dress looks to b! e the same one and with the same pearls that she wore recently on the Rachael Ray television show, where the 49-year-old Mrs. Obama said of her new bangs, “This is my midlife crisis, the bangs. I couldn’t get a sports car. They won’t let me bungee jump. So instead I cut my bangs here.â€
In the new photo, by Chuck Kennedy, she is shown from the waist up, leaning against a green patterned chair in the Green Room of the White House. The 2009 photo, taken by Joyce N. Boghosian, has Mrs. Obama standing in the Blue Room.
