Left: President Martin Torrijos Espino, Republic of Panama Centre: Chief Malietoa Tanumafili II, Independent State of Samoa Right: Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council General Than Shwe Sr., Myanmar
When all member states of the United Nations were asked to submit the official portrait of their Head of State the diversity was surprising: ranging from snapshots to staged tableaux in generic offices, from full-length portraits in front of stately buildings to close-ups before national emblems. Some portraits invoke the bureaucratic machinery that went into their production, while others seem more indebted to personal whimsy; even the banality of the everyday snapshot occasionally creeps into these staged displays of official power.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Republic of Italy
Editorial note by Klaus Zwangsleitner, editor of Official Portraits:
When we started to collect the images shown in this book from embassies, governmental press offices or permanent missions of each of the 191 United Nations Organisation member states the responses varied.
Although most countries supplied images by email, some countries sent us posters, some countries sent us books, others took the portrait of their Head of State in the embassy off the wall and sent it to be scanned or suggested to photograph the picture in their offices.
There was however no identifiable pattern to the range of replies we received. Neither the countrys size, geographical location, type of government or state of economic development determined the kind of response or the availability of the official portrait.
The decision who constitutes the Head of State in executive power was left to each country. Even if we disagreed with the assessment we have printed their selection.
The countries whose official portrait did not meet our print requirements are in a separate selection at the end of the book.
All Heads of State shown were in power on 13 September 2004.
An excerpt from the letter sent to the offices of the Heads of States for their photographs:
Berlin Press is currently preparing the book Official Portraits. The official portraits of each executive Head of State of the 191 UN member states will be included. Our aim is to show the diversity in official photography of worldwide leaders.
For this purpose, I ask you to please send a copy of the official portrait of your head of state in executive power. (We are looking for the head of state who actually runs the country, e.g. in France it is the President and not the Prime Minister, in Germany it is the Chancellor and not the President, in Great Britain it is the Prime Minister and not the Queen.)
Please include their full name and title and the full name of state. If possible please also include the name of the photographer so they can be credited.
Berlin Press is a publishing company based in Berlin specializing in art and photography. We will publish a visual record only, no text will be included in this publication, simply the photograph of each head of state and their full name and title.
It would be a great disappointment to us if we were unable to include a state due to not having received the necessary image. We would greatly appreciate your help and look forward to hearing from you.
Left: President Denis Sassou-NGuesso, Republic of Congo Right: Colonel Muamar al-Qadhafi Leader of the Great al-Fatah Revolution, The Great Socialist Peoples Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
