In Denver, all eyes are on Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joseph Biden. Like much of the campaign process, the DNC is a well-scripted show - every line, thought, press release and appearance is vetted, edited and polished.
But what we see on TV isn't what the candidates are necessarily experiencing, according to Alexandra Kerry. The daughter of Senator John Kerry captured some 300 hours of footage from her father's failed 2004 presidential campaign. The resulting photo memoir (which uses stills of Kerry's as well as those of other professional photographers), "Notes from the Trail: Presidential Politics from the Inside Out," provides a provocative look at life inside the political bubble.
What was it like for you covering the campaign trail?
I like public speaking and being engaged with people, but I had a harder time doing the Christmas card picture thing that politics asks you to portray. You're always striving for some version of perfection in all public or private moments. It's an interesting semiotic discussion in terms of, say, watching someone walk out to pick up the paper in front of their house. If they're a candidate and they bend over and hesitate, there's something wrong with their back. If they're getting up too quickly, they're trying to escape the press. All movement becomes something to be analyzed.
Between your footage stills and the photos, what do you want to convey?
During my father's campaign, I was seeing all these journalists photographing meaningful moments in time, and I knew for every roll of film, maybe a paper would print one photo and it wouldn't be the most artistic. And so much of the election is trained on the candidates; I felt it would be interesting to show what the candidate sees.
You also express a lot of your feelings about the electoral process.
I do, but I was hesitant about people perceiving me as capitalizing off my father's name, or that I was portraying that I know "the truth." Never having participated in politics before, then slowly wading into this maelstrom, I describe lots of different moments that tell a story rather than say what made me black-and-white angry, empathetic, or disappointed. It was about the lens being trained on the people, the citizens on the side of the road.
What's it like having a father as a presidential candidate...and then watching him being attacked?
Growing up, I was used to untrue rumors or people saying snarky things. I knew how to depersonalize that information. Strangely, when it starts coming at you very fast, it becomes easier because you can't take it all in... you get desensitized.
Is the press complicit in this?
We have a new journalism now. There are some wonderful journalists, but there's a level of tabloid journalism that's taken on a new form with all the types of media, so it's easier to perpetuate lies and exaggerations. The tone of respect has shifted.
Do you think Republicans will "swift boat" Obama the way they did your father?
They're going to try. Maybe there was an idea in 2004 that swift-boating wouldn't have an impact, but I know the Obama campaign is incredibly smart and has some really great advisors, so they're prepared for whatever happens. It's quite sad that the other party can only devise fabrications to lay claim to the White House. That's just my opinion.
Did you have any views on the American electorate before 2004 and how did that change?
Americans don't always listen. They don't always look-fear creates blindness. We live in a culture in which we're get content as quickly as possible, which makes it harder to know a candidate and to understand their impact. I think the media could be challenged to spend time looking at nuance. In journalism they call it "color," but sometimes they forget about it.
