FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 15, 2018
STATEMENT BY THE OFFICE OF GEORGE H. W. BUSH
HOUSTON — Following a recent series of hospitalizations, and after consulting her family and doctors, Mrs. Bush, now age 92, has decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will instead focus on comfort care. It will not surprise those who know her that Barbara Bush has been a rock in the face of her failing health, worrying not for herself — thanks to her abiding faith — but for others. She is surrounded by a family she adores, and appreciates the many kind messages and especially the prayers she is receiving. 
This is one of my archived White House photos I took of Barbara Bush at her home at Walkers Point in Kennebunkport,Maine.

Dale Ross, the mayor of Georgetown, Texas, has become an environmentalists’ hero for deciding in 2015 to acquire all of the city’s electricity from renewable sources. The town gets most of its power from a wind farm in Amarillo, 500 miles away, and this summer will add solar energy from a West Texas farm.  
Parade used one of my photos of Georgetown,Texas Mayor Dale Ross to illustrate this article. Parade has a circulation of 22 million and 50 million readers. I used a Nikon D810 with a Nikon 28-79 mm lens.

Charles Denyer author of Number One Observatory: The Home of the Vice President of the United States invited me to photograph former Vice President of the United States Dan Quayle in Scottsdale,AZ. It was fun to catch up and hear a few of his stories when he was the Vice President. Charles is working on a new book about the modern Vice Presidency. Hope to have an opportunity to photograph a few more of the former Vice Presidents for this new book project.

I have been invited to speak at the Museum of the Big Bend at Sul Ross University in Alpine,Texas. If your in the area please come on by. I will speaking about my time as the Official White House photographer for President George H.W. Bush.  Here is a link to the event: http://www.museumofthebigbend.com/David-Valdez/

If you also follow me on davidvaldezusa my Instagram page, you can see my latest best of photos for 2017. During 2017 I posted 426 photos and received 38,532 likes. Thanks for following me there and here on my website. This coming year should be even better with some exciting new projects starting soon. I also post photos on my Flickr account at davidvaldezusa   Please follow me there to see more photos. Thanks.

December 1983 I was working as the Chief Photographer for Nations Business magazine published by The United States Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C.. At the time Nations Business was the largest selling business magazine in the country. I was on an assignment for Nations Business to photograph the 2nd Lady (the wife of the Vice President) Barbara Bush, who was placing the star on the top of the National Christmas Tree. While we were all waiting for the arrival of Barbara Bush, Scott Applewhite, Associate Press photographer told me that Vice President Bush's photographer was leaving . I thought immediately I would apply for the position. I had no idea how to do that so I did some research and found out that the Vice President photographer reported to the Vice President's Press Secretary. Shirley Green was the Vice President's Press Secretary so I wrote her a letter of introduction. Fortunately for me she was a Texan as am I so I received an invitation to meet with her. I was a cordial meeting, I brought a print portfolio but we mostly talked. After that meeting I was invited back to meet with the Chief of Staff Admiral Dan Murphy,Ret. That interview was very hard. He was pushing my buttons trying to make me upset. Fortunately I grew up as an Air Force brat. My father, Israel Valdez Sr. was a career U.S. Air Force Officer so I knew respect for authority. I had also been a photographer in the U.S.Air Force myself so facing a retired Navy Admiral was not too bad. But honestly when I left the interview with him I thought he hated me and I would never get the job. 
Then I received an invitation to meet with Vice President George Bush. I was excited to be meeting the Vice President but it didn't really hit me till I was walking into his office in the Old Executive Office Building that I would be meeting alone with the Vice President of the United States. He greeted me and was so warm and gracious that he put me at ease. He showed me around his office where he had many photos of his grand children on display. He was telling me I would be with him in public and private and that we needed to have a trust between us. I would be exposed to personal and private situations and classified information. It was important to him that we had a good relationship. As we were having this conversation I realized he thought I had been offered a job and I at that point I realized no one had talked to me about the salary. I boldly asked him if he knew what the salary was. He had no idea but he said let's call Admiral Murphy so he did. Well Admiral Murphy's office was right next door and the walls in the Old Executive Office building are thin. I could hear him yelling, "What! He's asking you about salary?" Well I was hired anyway. 
Life would never be the same after that. The decision Shirley Green made changed my life. Thanks Shirley.
From that day on till January 20,1993 I was running around the world on assignment with George H.W. Bush.
Below are just a few photos from that time. Here is also a link to photos of Vice President Bush at the Bush Presidential Library. One thing that most people don't know is that when I worked for the Vice President I was an employee of the United States Senate because the Vice President is President of the Senate.

First of all I want to thank those who have reached out to me after reading by blog posts. Always fun to hear what people think. I published a book in 1997 called "George Herbert Walker Bush, A Photographic Profile" . That book is a collection of photos of the life of George H.W. Bush with quotes from him and a forward that I wrote. All these years later people are still asking me to write my personal story. What they really want are stories about my time as the President's Photographer. I plan on doing that right here. I will tell stories that I remember as I remember things. I do a fair amount of public speaking and when I do that I show some of my White House photos and tell stories. That seems to always be a big hit so I will do that here in my next posts. Stay tuned. I have some fun stories and will share photos that I took along the way.

I was invited by Kenneth Reihart to speak about my White House Photography of President George H.W. Bush to the Texas A&M Photography Club in College Station,Texas. I usually start my presentation with a video of a Today Show piece about my days at the White House. I then have a slide show of some of my White House photos. It is always fun for me to share my experiences and take questions. 
In the history of the country there have only been 10 Presidential Photographers. I am number 5. Yoichi Okamoto was the first Presidential Photographer for President Johnson. Sheila Craighead is the current Presidential Photographer for President Trump.

They used to say if 60 Minutes knocks on your that is the end of your career. Well I talked to them today about my time being President Bush (41)'s photographer at the White House. The interview went well. I will have to wait to post the link to the story. As I understand it this is a web story and not a TV broadcast piece. There lately seems to be more and more interest in President George H.W.Bush and since I spent so much time with him folks have been knocking on my door for interviews. CBS TV is preparing to do a documentary on the Presidential Photographers. In the history of the country there have been only 10 people to be Presidential Photographers. I'm number 5. Stay tuned for this and several other projects in the works.

Former Vice President of the United States Al Gore was the Key Note speaker at an Energy Summit in beautiful Georgetown,Texas. Georgetown,Texas where I live uses 100% solar and wind energy. Mayor of Georgetown Dale Ross is leading the nation in moving Georgetown in this effort. Mayor Ross introduced Vice President Gore and they both did an interview with Japanese TV. Below are a few photos from this event. I used my Nikon D810 with my Nikon 200-500mm lens for the Al Gore speech and I used my Nikon D750 with my Nikon 28-300mm lens for the close up candids.