Photojournalist Bowe captures ‘history in the making’

Christy Bowe, an award-winning photo journalist, has been on the official Washington beat -- from the White House to Capitol Hill to the Supreme Court -- for top news outlets for more than 30 years. She is one of the few women photographers to have covered five consecutive U.S. presidents, eight presidential inaugurations, confirmation hearings of eight U.S. Supreme Court justices and two U.S. presidential impeachment hearings.

“[News] is history in the making; we learn from history,” Bowe said at a Nov. 8 National Press Club discussion of her new book, “History in the Making: A Focus on Five U.S. Presidents.”

Her eyewitness stories of chief executives from Bill Clinton through Joe Biden highlighted their human side and their strong connection to each other and with their families.

Bowe recalled Obama weeping during an East Room event on gun control attended by families of children who were killed in the Sandy Hook shootings. Following 9/11, Bowe captured President George W. Bush wearing a cowboy hat on the White House lawn as the Olympic torch was carried from the Pentagon to the White House. The torch runner had a family member killed at Pentagon.

In recounting her coverage of the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, spoke about the peril that surrounded her, the fervor of thousands of protesters and Proud Boys who were connected by cell phone speakers as they attacked.

Political leaders hid under their seats cowering and later told the media, “It was no big deal,” Bowe said. Asked about being fearful as people were thrown, hit and injured, Bowe recalled the dedicated journalists who carefully chronicled history.

A Club member since the early 1990s, Bowe’s photos are displayed throughout the Club. Bowe’s success as a news photographer may not be surprising for a woman who reportedly jumped from an airplane at 15,000 feet, earned her 1st-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and was kicked out of Catholic school in the ninth grade for nonconformity.

As a new generation of women enters journalism in an era the 24-hour “opinion news” cycle in which different news outlets target particular audiences, Bowe’s work and experience provide a role model.

The White House relationship with the press is different since the pandemic, Bowe said. Interactions between White House officials and the press have diminished, and young reporters think that being with the press secretary is a press conference.

Bowe called for increased trust between journalists and government officials.

“Let us do our job,” Bowe said. “We must respect what each other does.”

Bowe said she looks forward to regularly scheduled press conferences with ground rules to improve the communications flow.

Former Rep. Constance (Connie) Morella, R-Md., was a commentator at the event. Morella, who  served in the largely Democratic 8th District in Montgomery County from 1987 to 2003, praised Bowe as a “renaissance woman and a trailblazer in a man’s world of professional historic photography.”

Club Photography Team chair Alan Kotok introduced Bowe as a witness to history with compelling photographic evidence.