A new photo from Assistant Photo Editor Pat Nabong captures the Nelson Mandela Skyroom inside the Obama Presidential Center Museum, where Idris Khan’s “Sky of Hope” ceiling installation—thousands of hand-stamped words referencing President Obama’s Selma speech
When you step into the Nelson Mandela Skyroom at the Obama Presidential Center Museum, the first thing your eyes catch isn’t a wall or a display case. It’s the ceiling—triangular, luminous, and threaded with words that seem to pour downward.
Assistant Photo Editor Pat Nabong spent the preview days hunting for a viewpoint that could hold the whole effect in one frame. She says every corner of the room felt photogenic, with too many possible angles pulling her attention in different directions. Even the letters on the windows would have made a striking silhouette image. But she kept returning to the ceiling itself: the triangular structure. the words streaming down it. and the warm light coming from above.
The challenge was practical. Nabong worked with a 24mm lens, and fitting everything she wanted into the frame wasn’t easy. With most visitors standing close to the window, she found the composition kept flattening out, leaving an empty center. So she crouched as low as she could and waited for the right moment—when a person in a suit walked into the shot.
The photo shows the Nelson Mandela Skyroom’s centerpiece: “Sky of Hope,” an art installation by Idris Khan. Victoria Miro. a gallery that represents Khan. describes the work as “an immersive. site-specific painting for the Museum’s Skyroom. ” built from thousands of hand-stamped words referencing President Obama’s Selma speech. Those words—she says—match the same text permanently sculpted into the building’s exterior. From the apex of the ceiling. the installation is intended to radiate outward. creating what the gallery describes as a contemplative environment that invites visitors to reflect on democracy and the power of public voice.
The museum, which marks history as the first presidential museum in Chicago, opened to the press for preview on Wednesday and is scheduled to open to the public on June 19.
Nabong’s technical choices show how carefully she tried to capture that atmosphere without losing the structure. She photographed the scene with a Sony A7IV using a 24-70mm lens at a focal length of 24mm. The exposure was set to 1/400, with an aperture of F/4.0 and an ISO of 400.
There’s a tight symmetry to the moment her lens found: a ceiling installation meant to draw people inward. framed by the way visitors move through the room. In her picture, the installation doesn’t sit quietly overhead. It pulls the viewer into the same act of looking—slowly. deliberately—before the rest of the museum can even compete for attention.
Obama Presidential Center Nelson Mandela Skyroom Idris Khan Sky of Hope Selma speech Chicago museums photography Pat Nabong
So it’s like the ceiling is literally words from Selma? Kinda cool I guess.
I read “Selma words” and thought it was gonna be like a plaque or something, not an entire ceiling. Also Obama Presidential Center… in Chicago… so when does the outside words part glow too? The article says it’s “hand-stamped” but I’m imagining glitter lol.
Wait is this Idris Khan guy painting with thousands of words from Obama’s speech or is it Mandela related? The title says Selma words but the room is called Nelson Mandela Skyroom so I’m confused. Either way, seems like they spent way too much time on the ceiling and not enough on the rest.
All I got from this is “glows with Selma words” and that you can basically stand there and stare at it. People will come for photos and then miss the point about democracy or whatever. Also isn’t this the same place where they said it would open June 19 but it’ll probably open later bc construction always drags on…?