A follow-up from the photographer, Agence France Presse’s Roberto Schmidt, attempts to cut through the interpretation of Michelle Obama’s expression with what the context he actually witnessed http://blogs.afp.com/correspondent/?post/Selfie:
“All around me in the stadium, South Africans were dancing, singing and laughing to honour their departed leader. It was more like a carnival atmosphere, not at all morbid…photos can lie. In reality, just a few seconds earlier the first lady was herself joking with those around her….” So why leave her in the photo? The way the picture was composed from his angle of view, it would not have been possible to cleanly crop her out.
US President Barack Obama (R) and British Prime Minister David Cameron pose for a picture with Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt (C) next to US First Lady Michelle Obama (R) during the memorial service of South African former president Nelson Mandela at the FNB Stadium (Soccer City) in Johannesburg on December 10, 2013. Mandela, the revered icon of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and one of the towering political figures of the 20th century, died in Johannesburg on December 5 at age 95.
