American photographer Sharon Farmer was BOTD in 1951. Born and raised in Washington, D.C, she studied photography at Ohio State University. She began her career shooting album covers, and worked for the Smithsonian Institution, The Washington Post, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1993, she became the first African-American woman to be hired as a White House photographer, chronicling the presidency of Bill Clinton. Among her most famous images are the handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat after the 1993 Oslo peace negotiations, the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa and the 1999 launch of the space shuttle Discovery. Farmer was subsequently promoted to the directorship of the White House Photography Office, becoming the first woman to hold the position. She has contributed to the 1992 African-American photography exhibition Songs of My People and the Art Against AIDS charity project, and has lectured at the American University, Mount Vernon College and Indiana University. Openly lesbian since forever, she lives and works in Washington, D.C.