The Merkel-Obama photo from the G7 summit in 2015 went around the world - it really shouldn't have existed

Created: 06/27/2022, 09:46 am

By: Astrid Theil

The iconic photo that went around the world: Angela Merkel speaking to Barack Obama at the 2015 G7 conference in Elmau.

© Michael Kappeler/dpa POOL/dpa/Archive

The iconic photo of Angela Merkel and Barack Obama at the 2015 G7 summit in Elmau went around the world.

Actually, this photo shouldn't even exist.

A picture of the G7 summit in Elmau spread like wildfire in 2015: Angela Merkel, speaking in front of the Alpine panorama, gesticulating with Barack Obama, who is comfortably seated on a bench.

Actually, this photo shouldn't even exist.

And yet the chief photographer of the German Press Agency, Michael Kappeler, did it.

The photo not only went through all the media, but was also used for countless memes on social networks.

All information about the G7 summit 2022 in Elmau is available in our live ticker.

The photographer Michael Kappeler explained to the

how the photo came about.

Like all good press photos, it was not planned, but just by chance.

At the G7 summits, photographers could only move from one photo point to the next in a very controlled manner.

The Federal Press Office's original plan at the G7 summit in 2015 was to sit all the participants on a long bench and take a group picture in front of the Alpine panorama.

Merkel-Obama photo from the G7 summit in Elmau: Shielded by the Secret Service

In order to be able to take this photo, Kappeler was led past behind the bench where Obama was already sitting and talking to ex-Chancellor Merkel.

The two were shielded by the Secret Service.

In fact, Kappeler shouldn't have been allowed to take photos at all.

Still, he snapped six photos in a second in passing.

Below is the iconic photo.

The photo shows the world's most important politicians at the time in a familiar moment that is normally closed to the public.

It is very difficult to take such photos at summit meetings.

The summits are planned every minute and photo motifs are carefully selected beforehand.

"Our golden seconds are the moments before and after the staging," emphasizes Kappeler in an interview with the

.

Between staging and naturalness: politicians at summit meetings

As soon as the politicians are aware of the situation, they will stage themselves however they want.

Before and after, however, they were detached from the situation and acted more naturally.

In precisely these moments, such photos would be taken as that of Angela Merkel and Barack Obama at the G7 summit in 2015.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is meanwhile more difficult to photograph, as Kappeler emphasizes.

As a man in a suit, he doesn't particularly stand out among many other men in suits.

"Of course it was easier with Angela Merkel in her colorful jackets.

Like in a hidden object, she always caught the eye in the mass of black suits.”