Michelle In Focus

Take a peek inside a new coffee table book of intimate, never-before-seen photos of the former first lady

- Jane Vorster

FROLICKING with the family dogs, picking kale in the garden, kicking off her heels so she can get comfortable while chatting to a group of interns – a new book of candid photos of Michelle Obama’s White House years shows America’s former first lady in a completely different light.

As her dedicated personal photographer, Amanda Lucidon was tasked with following Michelle’s every move – so she got to see what she was really like out of the public eye. But it wasn’t just a case of point, focus and click. For Amanda one of the biggest challenges was just keeping up with the former first lady.

At 1,8m, Michelle (53) towered over the petite Amanda (38), who’s just 1,62m tall, and she was always on the move.

So for four years the photographer lived in constant anxiety about arriving too late or getting left behind and missing a career-defining shot.

Much to her relief, this never happened. Day in and day out she managed to keep up with and capture Michelle’s interactions with her husband, Barack (56), their daughters, Malia (19) and Sasha (16), and a host of dignitaries and celebrities in a variety of settings from the Great Wall of China to the White House kitchen garden.