Decoding Donald Trump’s new official portrait

Very difficult. Terrible. A “message picture”.

Those are some of the explanations for The latest picture of Donald Trump, captured by his main artist, Daniel Torok. In this photo, the president-elect wears a stern expression, eyebrows furrowed.

“The official portrait of the president is the most printed, most viewed portrait of the president,” former White House photographer Eric Draper told the BBC.

He worked for George W Bush during his eight-year presidency, taking both of his portraits.

Mr Draper’s first impression of the Trump portrait was that it had been “heavily edited” by lighting the studio and retouching it after the shoot.

The photo appears to use “monster” lighting, he added, to dramatically illuminate the President-elect from below and make his eyes pop.

The lighting gives the image a “scary” quality often seen in horror films, said Eliska Sky, a photographer at the London Institute of Photography. He compared Trump’s appearance to a boxer before the fight.

The lighting “shows depth and purpose”, according to Paul Duerinckx, senior lecturer in photography at Swansea College of Art.

This image is interesting, he added, because the light in most images comes from above, such as the sun or the lights on the roof, and turning the source in this image “has a big impact on us”.

Many on social media compared the photo to a “cup shot” of Donald Trump, who was taken to the Fulton County Jail in Georgia after being charged with trying to interfere in his 2020 election – a charge Trump denies.

Recording YouTuber Jared Polin said that they discussed the picture and Mr Torok and was told that the mug shots provided the inspiration.

“The cup shot image was one of the most researched images, probably,” Torok’s Polin said. Mr Torok did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

The mug shot, adopted in 2023, has become a US tradition, adorning everything from coffee mugs to T-shirts.

The style of Trump’s new portrait is a departure from the style of his 2017 portrait, as well as that of past presidents, including George W Bush.

“Of course you create images to impress the client, and in this case, I think that’s the kind of image they want to portray,” Draper told the BBC.

He recalled sitting down with then-President Bush and first lady Laura Bush to brainstorm options before deciding on a favorite.

“The idea was to make it look bright, bright, look like a professional image, it’s a good word because these images will be receiving people when they go to the post office,” he said.

Andrew Parsons is a political photographer who has worked for four British Prime Ministers from David Cameron to Liz Truss, as well as Boris Johnson for 13 years.

“It’s a picture of a message, I’m giving you a message,” he said of Trump’s photo. “It’s not like a bright smile, it’s a hard, hard, look straight down the barrel of the lens.”

In contrast, Parsons said the 2017 iteration was “a commercial image of Donald Trump”.

It’s hard to explain the importance of political images like Trump’s, he said. “An image can make or break politics.”