It’s been 37 years since Lorie Shelley first began snapping pictures in California’s Capitol building. In her office, you’ll find evidence of her nearly four-decade career as the Capitol’s Senate photographer pinned up along the walls — photos of politicians and celebrities, like Joe Kennedy, Jane Goodall and Kendrick Lamar.
When she first started in 1985, Shelley wasn’t a full-time photographer. She says she initially started working at the Capitol as a legislative assistant. Taking black-and-white photos of notable moments was just one of her many duties.
California Capitol’s Senate photographer Lorie Shelley.Courtesy of Lorie ShelleyBut over time, her position evolved; for a while, she was the Senate photographer for Democrats. Eventually, she became the Capitol’s first nonpartisan photographer. That’s the position she holds to this day.
She retired at the end of June. CapRadio visited her office at the Capitol before her retirement to ask her what she’s learned over the years and what it’s like to be a fly-on-the-wall in California’s Senate.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
What was the landscape of photography like at the Capitol when you first arrived?
When I started, the photography was done by caucus photographers, so there was a Democratic photographer and a Republican photographer. They were really interested in kind of spying on each other and really making it a political thing. I lobbied to make this a position that's nonpartisan, that has more emphasis on the historical record.
I made it my goal to collect everything. I spent years in the libraries collecting all the pictures that I didn't have, bringing back all the photos so that we could have a historical record ourselves.
Photography has evolved so much since you started. How did that influence the way you did your job?
During the film days, you didn't shoot much because you're limited. Everything was so intentional. But then when digital came, you're taking 600 pictures. This job became a full-time job, mostly because of digital, but also because I had to figure out a way to archive the 14,000 black-and-white film photos that I took.
Now, when you see a story about one of the members, they're going to show an action shot. They're going to show a shot of a member on the floor. They're going to put it into place. But in the ’80s, they just put a headshot [in the newspaper] because that's all there was. There were no action shots because you didn't burn film watching people talk. It just wasn’t a thing.
Former President Pro Tem of the Senate David Roberti (right) and former state Attorney General Dan Lungren (left) at a press conference about an assault weapons ban, taken by Lorie Shelley.Courtesy of Lorie Shelley
A Keep Fair Wages labor rally in the early to mid-90s, photographed by Shelley. She said it was her first large-scale rally at the Capitol.Courtesy of Lorie ShelleyWhen I first got digital, it felt weird and strange and very space age-y. I was really excited, but I was never happy with the quality. And even when the major companies started making DSLRs, I carried a film camera with me for probably five years because even the DSLRs couldn't match film.
How do you feel about it now?
I thought at one point in my career that this job took the fun out of photography for me because I loved taking pictures as a hobby and then all of a sudden I didn't love it as a hobby anymore. It was before digital — it was still film. It was grip and grins — the nature of the job then wasn’t interesting. Take a picture of me smiling at the camera, then shaking someone’s hand. It wasn’t creative.
Digital made it interesting and fun because I could do so much more. I wasn’t tied to those 24 frames. If I took a picture [on film], if I had 24 shots in my camera and God himself showed up [for] the 25th and a senator said, ‘Can you get a picture?’ I'd say, ‘Oh, sorry, I'm out of film.’ I mean, that's just the way it was.
You’ve witnessed a lot of change at the Capitol, but you’ve also met a ton of interesting people. I see photos of celebrities and politicians all around your office. Anyone that sticks out to you?
(Shelley gets up and begins to show me around her office, pointing at different photos.)
Paul Reiser — the nicest guy in the world. Just in love with the [Capitol], respect for the building. Kevin Hart, same thing. While everybody was gawking over them, they were gawking over this [building]. And I loved how excited they were to be in the presence of greatness — because it was such a different world for them. Kendrick Lamar was like that. They really respect the institution.
Some aren't so gracious — Steven Seagal. Oh, you can tell him that. Just so difficult.
When I took this picture of Ted Danson — this was years ago — he [didn’t have] gray [hair] yet, you know, he wasn't publicly gray. So he came [to the Capitol] as himself but for TV, he was still dying his hair. That was wild, getting to see that first.
Several of Shelley's photos are printed out and attached to the walls of her office.Manola Secaira/CapRadioI will tell you a funny story about that corgi up there next to [Jeff Bridges].
Please tell me about the corgi.
They hate cameras. This corgi was ready to jump on my face. It's really easy to take it personally because you're the only person they're screaming at. I don't know what they think you're going to do with the camera, but he went crazy on me in that room.
Jerry Brown, he had two corgis, and one of them hated me. And I remember running — there was a really long hallway from his office, and I was being chased by [the corgi], but I needed to follow the governor coming out. I was running backwards so fast, just trying to get away from this corgi. I didn’t get many good shots.
You’ve had a lot of influence over what your job has become. What’s been your main goal in this position?
It's important to me that we know who all these people are, because in 40 years, when I'm gone, somebody is going to care. Somebody is going to want to know what happened when you passed this certain bill, what was going on on the Senate floor. What was it like? Crazy? Was it wild? Was it calm?
Most of the calls I get are kids whose grandparents are old and they want to find the pictures of them when they were young, when they were fancy little senators. I get calls from documentarians, historians and textbook writers, often because they're writing a textbook on some part of California history or California policymaking.
Most people don't even know I have all of this. But I know it's here for historians someday and I'm sure they want it.
Courtesy of Lorie ShelleyIt sounds like photography has made you really aware of how easy it is to lose these memories. Any advice on keeping track of it all?
Print your keepers. Don't think you're going to remember things.
Once you put it on paper, except for fire, then you're going to have it. And I'll tell you that a couple of weeks ago, I found a box of photographs in one of my kid's rooms. I went through it, and it was memories that I had forgotten and I never would have recalled again — college memories and people that I loved and people that I didn't love, but moments that had completely escaped me.
I’m so sad to think that today's kids will never have that box, because their moms are shooting with digital. Grandma's not going to give you a thumb drive of your childhood and kids aren't going to see their mom's childhood. You have to treat these pictures as a treasure.
What’s on your mind as you approach your final day in the job?
If somebody had told me I was going to retire as a photographer, I would have been incredulous. I wouldn't have believed it. I would have laughed in their face. It was so far from what I had planned to do. I loved government and I loved politics, and I had every expectation I'd be moving to Washington, D.C. and getting involved somehow politically. But never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I'd end up taking pictures for a living as my job.
Every single day, bar none, in my entire 37 years here — when I walk up to that building, I am filled with awe. I feel so privileged to have spent my adult life here. I've never gotten tired of this institution, ever.
