An Intimate First Family Portfolio

On the hot August afternoon when Gerald Ford was sworn in as the President of the U.S., he declared: "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over." For one of Washington's top freelance photographers, Fred Ward, the event had a particular impact. Says he: "Suddenly the entire atmosphere changed. People who hadn't smiled in years were smiling--everyone was smiling!" Ward decided to try to capture the new mood in the capital through images of the happy, informal Ford household itself. The President took to the idea. Remarkably unself-conscious about being photographed, he granted Ward the rare privilege of following his every move for two months last fall.

Just how open Ford was with Ward is shown in the remarkable photographs on this and the following two pages. They are part of a portfolio of Ward's pictures to be published in May by Harper & Row in a book entitled Portrait of a President. The volume also includes a portrait biography of the President written by Hugh Sidey, TIME'S Washington bureau chief.

Photographer Ward describes Ford as "the easiest subject I ever worked with." Ward rode alone with the President to the hospital to have lunch with Betty Ford after her cancer operation. Ward was there when Mrs. Ford said goodbye to her son Steve following her mastectomy. He was present at Camp David when Ford decided to coax Liberty, his golden retriever, into the pool. Shooting rapidly, and somehow managing to keep dry, Ward recorded a slapstick sequence as Betty Ford pushed her husband into the water, then Press Secretary Ronald Nessen and Nancy Howe, Mrs. Ford's personal secretary, dunked each other. And in a Truffautesque bit of business, Ward even caught Ford being rigged with electronic paraphernalia for a TV taping session with ABC'S Harry Reasoner at Camp David.

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