David Hume Kennerly
Encyclopedia
David Hume Kennerly in Roseburg, Oregon
, won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography
for his portfolio of photographs taken of the Vietnam War
, Cambodia
, East Pakistan
i refugees near Calcutta, and the Ali-Frazier fight
in Madison Square Garden
, March 8, 1971. He has also photographed every American president since Richard Nixon
.
outside of Portland, Oregon
, in 1965. While there he worked on the school newspaper The Amplifier and the yearbook, Green and Gold.
At 18, right out of high school, he became a staff photographer for the Oregon Journal
, and later, after returning from basic and advanced training as a member of the Oregon National Guard, Oregonian
, During his early career in Portland he photographed some major personalities, including Miles Davis
, Igor Stravinsky
, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
, The Rolling Stones
, and The Supremes
. That encounter with Sen. Kennedy gave him the determination to become a national political photographer.
Kennerly moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 1967 as a staff photographer for UPI. It was there in 1968 that he took some of the last photos of Sen. Robert Kennedy as he declared victory in the California presidential primary at the Ambassador Hotel. Moments later the senator was gunned down by the assassin Sirhan Sirhan
. The following year Kennerly moved to New York for UPI where among many other assignments he photographed the Amazing Mets win the 1969 World Series
.
In early 1970 Kennerly was transferred to the Washington, D.C.
bureau of UPI. At age 23 he took his first ride on Air Force One with President Nixon as a member of the traveling press pool
. But Washington wasn't for him, and he felt like he was missing out on the biggest story of his generation, the Vietnam War
. Kennerly said, "I felt like that scene in Mr. Roberts where Henry Fonda
, an officer on a supply ship, watched the destroyers sail into battle while he was stuck in some South Pacific backwater port."
Kennerly got his wish, and was sent to Saigon in early 1971 as a combat photographer for UPI. During that year, starting with the last assignment before he left the states, the Ali-Frazier fight, he took the pictures that won him the Pulitzer Prize. Kennerly became the photo bureau chief for UPI in Southeast Asia a few month later, but still spent most of his time in the field. In September 1972 he was one of three Americans to travel to the People's Republic of China to cover the state visit of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka
. During that visit he photographed Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai
, and one was one of the last Westerners to see him.
While still in Vietnam he joined Life Magazine in November 1972 as a contract photographer. After the great picture publication went out of business a few weeks later Kennerly stayed on as a contract photographer for Time Magazine. Among the many stories he covered for them while still in Asia was the last American prisoner of war release in Hanoi
, March 30, 1973.
Kennerly returned to the United States in the summer of 1973 for Time, during the midst of the Watergate crisis. He photographed the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew
, and the selection of Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as Agnew's replacement. Kennerly's first Time cover was of Congressman Ford after Nixon's announcement choosing him, and it was also Ford's first appearance on the front of the magazine. That session with Mr. Ford led to a close personal relationship with him and his family, and led to Kennerly's appointment as Personal Photographer to the President, the day that Ford took office after Nixon's resignation as the chief executive on August 9, 1974. Kennerly was only the third civilian to ever have that position (the first was President Lyndon B. Johnson
photographer Yoichi Okamoto
, and Nixon's photographer Ollie Atkins).
Kennerly enjoyed unprecedented entrée during the Ford Presidency, and photographed practically every major meeting, event, and trip during Ford's tenure in the Oval Office
. He also arranged unique access for photographic colleagues from the magazines, newspapers, and colleagues to have during that period, and more than 50 had exclusives with President Ford. There had never been that kind of access to a president before, and not since. It was one of his proudest achievements. His staff consisted of four other photographers who divided assignments with the First Lady and Vice President, as well as presidential duties. He also directed the White House photo lab which was run by the military as part of the White House Communications Agency
. Kennerly's photographs are in the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
During his White House days, Kennerly, a bachelor, lived in a Georgetown townhouse just a few minutes from the White House, and drove a black 280 SL Mercedes before he replaced it with a Volkswagen convertible. He dated several high profile women, including the actress Candice Bergen
and the Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee
. The rumors about a romance with him and First Daughter Susan Ford
weren't true, however, but he and Susan did give the President Liberty
, a golden retriever
, that became a signature of the Ford presidency.
In late March 1975, Kennerly accompanied Army Chief of Staff General Frederick Weyand who had been dispatched on a presidential mission to South Vietnam to assess what was becoming a rapidly deteriorating military situation. The president privately told Kennerly he wanted his particular view of what was happening. Kennerly flew around the country, escaped from Nga Trang before it fell to the advancing communists, was shot at by retreating South Vietnamese soldiers at Cam Ranh Bay, and landed under fire in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a quick visit there. When he returned from the trip, both Weyand's and Kennerly's assessments were bleak. The President ordered that Kennerly's stark black-and-white photos of the tragedy be put up in the halls of the West Wing
of the White House to remind the staff just how bad things were. Saigon fell a month later. Just days before that happened President Ford had ordered the evacuation of the last Americans and thousands of Vietnamese who had been working for the United States.
The day before the Fords were turning over the keys to the White House to incoming President Jimmy Carter
, Kennerly accompanied Mrs. Ford around the West Wing as she said personal goodbyes to the staff. They walked by the empty Cabinet Room and a mischievous look came across her face. "I've always wanted to dance on the Cabinet Room table," she said. The former Martha Graham dancer kicked off her shoes, jumped up on the middle of the table, and struck a pose. The photo was only published for the first time more than 15 years later in Kennerly's book Photo Op.
Kennerly left the White House the same day and time as President Ford. His letter of resignation to the President had only two lines:
The President's response:
Kennerly went back on contract for Time Magazine after the White House, where he covered some of the biggest stories of the 1970s and 1980s for them; Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
's trip to Israel, the horror of Jonestown
, exclusive photos of President Ronald Reagan
and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
's first meeting in Geneva in 1985, the Fireside Summit, and many other stories around the world. When Life Magazine made a brief comeback for Desert Storm in 1991 he produced an inside story on Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney
and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell
for them called "Men of War."
In 1996 Kennerly became a contributing editor for Newsweek Magazine where he produced inside stories on President Bill Clinton
, Sen. Bob Dole
, the Impeachment Hearings, Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr, the 2000 elections, and other top stories.
Kennerly also had a contract with John F. Kennedy, Jr.
's George
.
Kennerly has photographed more than 35 covers for Time and Newsweek, and covered assignments in over 130 countries.
He was married to Susan Allwardt in 1967-69, actress Mel Harris
from 1983-1988 (they had a son, Byron), actress Carol Huston in 1989-92, and Rebecca Soladay from 1994 to the present (they have two sons, Nick and Jack).
On March 16, 2006, Kennerly was named NBC News
Contributing Editor. he is providing special still-photo essays for NBC and its affiliates.
Kennerly was recently named, "One of the Most 100 Most Important People in Photography" by American Photo magazine, and was selected as the 2007, "Photography Person of the Year," by Photo Media magazine. He received a 1989 Prime Time Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama as Executive Producer of NBC’s The Taking of Flight 847: the Uli Derickson Story.
Kennerly was a Fellow in the American Film Institute
directing program in 1984-86.
He has won the Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award for "Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad," for his coverage of Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev’s historic summit meeting in Geneva. He also won first prizes in the World Press contest for his dramatic and powerful photos of the war Cambodia just before it fell to the Khmer Rouge. He has received numerous other awards from the National Press Photographer's Association and White House Press Photographer's Association.
He also worked on several, "Day in the Life," book projects on The Soviet Union, America, The People's Republic of China, and the United States Armed Forces.
Kennerly is a trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, and is on the board of the Savannah College of Art & Design Atlanta Board of Visitors, which is chaired by Chrysler Chairman Bob Nardelli, and he is on the board of the Eddie Adams Workshop.
Kennerly is a Canon Explorer of Light, and exclusively uses their digital cameras for his work. The August 2008 issue of pdn
features a full page Canon ad about one of his photos that runs on the inside back cover of the magazine.
His most recent book is Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. Former First Lady Betty Ford said, "Extraordinary Circumstances is a wonderful record of the Ford Presidency. David Kennerly’s heart and soul are in this book." Award-winning photographer Doug Menuez said, "The range of images and perfect moments add up to a master class of great photojournalism, timeless, classic and relevant. It feels very emotional, intimate, and worlds away from our current super-posed, photo-op political culture. What is truly amazing is how easy Kennerly makes the photography look.… Extraordinary Circumstances fills an important gap in American history from a rare talent given a ringside seat, it is an incredible achievement."
Additional information: www.kennerly.com
Getty Images exclusively represents Kennerly’s images: www.gettyimages.com
, Flip Schulke, Dirck Halstead
, Diana Walker, Shel Hershorn, Wally McNamee, Matthew Naythons
, Bruce Roberts, Dick Swanson, P. F. Bentley, Darryl Heikes, Dennis Brack, Lucian Perkins, and Margaret Sandahl Thomas. The collections include unpublished as well as published images. In addition to photographic holdings (such as slides, negatives, prints, and tear sheets), the photojournalism collections also include such archival materials as personal papers, correspondence, diaries, news stories, and other archival materials.
Roseburg, Oregon
Roseburg is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the county seat of Douglas County. The population was 21,181 at the 2010 census.-History:...
, won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography
The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography has been awarded since 1968 for a distinguished example of feature photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album....
for his portfolio of photographs taken of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, East Pakistan
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
i refugees near Calcutta, and the Ali-Frazier fight
Fight of the Century
Fight of the Century was the promotional nickname given to the first boxing match between champion Joe Frazier and challenger Muhammad Ali , held on March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York....
in Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
, March 8, 1971. He has also photographed every American president since Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
.
Biography
Kennerly is the son of O.A. "Tunney" Kennerly, a traveling salesman, and the son of the sheriff of Klamath County, and Joanne Hume Kennerly, the daughter of a railroad engineer. His parents are deceased. He also has three younger sisters, Jane and Chris, the youngest, Anne, is also deceased. His interest in photography started when he was only 12, and his career began in Roseburg, where his first published picture was in the high school newspaper The Orange 'R in 1962. Kennerly graduated from West Linn High SchoolWest Linn High School
West Linn High School is a public high school in West Linn, Oregon, United States. It is one of two high schools in the West Linn-Wilsonville School District, the other being Wilsonville High School.-Academics:...
outside of Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, in 1965. While there he worked on the school newspaper The Amplifier and the yearbook, Green and Gold.
At 18, right out of high school, he became a staff photographer for the Oregon Journal
Oregon Journal
The Oregon Journal was Portland, Oregon's daily afternoon newspaper from 1902 to 1982. The Journal was founded in Portland by C. S. Jackson, the publisher of Pendleton, Oregon's East Oregonian newspaper, after a group of Portlanders convinced Jackson to help in the reorganization of the Portland...
, and later, after returning from basic and advanced training as a member of the Oregon National Guard, Oregonian
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
, During his early career in Portland he photographed some major personalities, including Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
, The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
, and The Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
. That encounter with Sen. Kennedy gave him the determination to become a national political photographer.
Kennerly moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 1967 as a staff photographer for UPI. It was there in 1968 that he took some of the last photos of Sen. Robert Kennedy as he declared victory in the California presidential primary at the Ambassador Hotel. Moments later the senator was gunned down by the assassin Sirhan Sirhan
Sirhan Sirhan
Sirhan Bishara Sirhan is a Jordanian citizen who was convicted for the assassination of United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He is serving a life sentence at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California.Sirhan was a Christian Arab born in Jerusalem who strongly opposed Israel...
. The following year Kennerly moved to New York for UPI where among many other assignments he photographed the Amazing Mets win the 1969 World Series
1969 World Series
The 1969 World Series was played between the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles, with the Mets prevailing in five games to accomplish one of the greatest upsets in Series history, as that particular Orioles squad was considered to be one of the finest ever...
.
In early 1970 Kennerly was transferred to the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
bureau of UPI. At age 23 he took his first ride on Air Force One with President Nixon as a member of the traveling press pool
Press pool
Press pool refers to a group of news gathering organizations that combine their resources in the collection of news. A pool feed is then distributed to members of the broadcast pool who are free to edit it or use it as they see fit. In the case of print reporters, a written pool report is...
. But Washington wasn't for him, and he felt like he was missing out on the biggest story of his generation, the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. Kennerly said, "I felt like that scene in Mr. Roberts where Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, an officer on a supply ship, watched the destroyers sail into battle while he was stuck in some South Pacific backwater port."
Kennerly got his wish, and was sent to Saigon in early 1971 as a combat photographer for UPI. During that year, starting with the last assignment before he left the states, the Ali-Frazier fight, he took the pictures that won him the Pulitzer Prize. Kennerly became the photo bureau chief for UPI in Southeast Asia a few month later, but still spent most of his time in the field. In September 1972 he was one of three Americans to travel to the People's Republic of China to cover the state visit of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka
Kakuei Tanaka
was a Japanese politician and the 64th and 65th Prime Minister of Japan from 7 July 1972 to 22 December 1972 and from 22 December 1972 to 9 December 1974 respectively...
. During that visit he photographed Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
, and one was one of the last Westerners to see him.
While still in Vietnam he joined Life Magazine in November 1972 as a contract photographer. After the great picture publication went out of business a few weeks later Kennerly stayed on as a contract photographer for Time Magazine. Among the many stories he covered for them while still in Asia was the last American prisoner of war release in Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, March 30, 1973.
Kennerly returned to the United States in the summer of 1973 for Time, during the midst of the Watergate crisis. He photographed the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Richard Nixon, and the 55th Governor of Maryland...
, and the selection of Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as Agnew's replacement. Kennerly's first Time cover was of Congressman Ford after Nixon's announcement choosing him, and it was also Ford's first appearance on the front of the magazine. That session with Mr. Ford led to a close personal relationship with him and his family, and led to Kennerly's appointment as Personal Photographer to the President, the day that Ford took office after Nixon's resignation as the chief executive on August 9, 1974. Kennerly was only the third civilian to ever have that position (the first was President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
photographer Yoichi Okamoto
Yoichi Okamoto
Yoichi R. Okamoto was the first official U.S. presidential photographer, serving Lyndon B. Johnson. He was fondly known as "Oke", and was given unprecedented access to the Oval Office...
, and Nixon's photographer Ollie Atkins).
Kennerly enjoyed unprecedented entrée during the Ford Presidency, and photographed practically every major meeting, event, and trip during Ford's tenure in the Oval Office
Oval Office
The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...
. He also arranged unique access for photographic colleagues from the magazines, newspapers, and colleagues to have during that period, and more than 50 had exclusives with President Ford. There had never been that kind of access to a president before, and not since. It was one of his proudest achievements. His staff consisted of four other photographers who divided assignments with the First Lady and Vice President, as well as presidential duties. He also directed the White House photo lab which was run by the military as part of the White House Communications Agency
White House Communications Agency
The White House Communications Agency , originally known as the White House Signal Detachment , was officially formed by the United States Department of War on 25 March 1942 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The WHSD was created to provide normal and emergency communications requirements in...
. Kennerly's photographs are in the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library is part of the National Archives and Records Administration's presidential library system. The library is located at 1000 Beal Avenue on the north campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where Ford was a student and football player...
in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
During his White House days, Kennerly, a bachelor, lived in a Georgetown townhouse just a few minutes from the White House, and drove a black 280 SL Mercedes before he replaced it with a Volkswagen convertible. He dated several high profile women, including the actress Candice Bergen
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...
and the Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee
Suzy Chaffee
Suzanne "Suzy" Chaffee is a former Olympic alpine ski racer and actress. Following her racing career, she modelled in New York with Ford Models and then became the pre-eminent freestyle ballet skier of the early 1970s...
. The rumors about a romance with him and First Daughter Susan Ford
Susan Ford
Susan Elizabeth Ford Bales is an American author, photojournalist, and former chairman of the board of the Betty Ford Center for alcohol and drug abuse.-Youth:...
weren't true, however, but he and Susan did give the President Liberty
Liberty (dog)
Honor's Foxfire Liberty Hume was the Golden Retriever Presidential pet of Betty Ford and Gerald Ford. Liberty was born February 8, 1974 and given to the president as an 8-month-old puppy by his daughter Susan Ford and new White House photographer David Hume Kennerly in the fall of 1974...
, a golden retriever
Golden Retriever
The Golden Retriever is a medium-sized breed of dog. They were historically developed as gundogs to retrieve shot waterfowl such as ducks and upland game birds during hunting and shooting parties. As such, they were bred to have a soft mouth to retrieve game undamaged and have an instinctive love...
, that became a signature of the Ford presidency.
In late March 1975, Kennerly accompanied Army Chief of Staff General Frederick Weyand who had been dispatched on a presidential mission to South Vietnam to assess what was becoming a rapidly deteriorating military situation. The president privately told Kennerly he wanted his particular view of what was happening. Kennerly flew around the country, escaped from Nga Trang before it fell to the advancing communists, was shot at by retreating South Vietnamese soldiers at Cam Ranh Bay, and landed under fire in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a quick visit there. When he returned from the trip, both Weyand's and Kennerly's assessments were bleak. The President ordered that Kennerly's stark black-and-white photos of the tragedy be put up in the halls of the West Wing
West Wing
The West Wing is the building housing the official offices of the President of the United States. It is the part of the White House Complex in which the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, the Situation Room, and the Roosevelt Room are located...
of the White House to remind the staff just how bad things were. Saigon fell a month later. Just days before that happened President Ford had ordered the evacuation of the last Americans and thousands of Vietnamese who had been working for the United States.
The day before the Fords were turning over the keys to the White House to incoming President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, Kennerly accompanied Mrs. Ford around the West Wing as she said personal goodbyes to the staff. They walked by the empty Cabinet Room and a mischievous look came across her face. "I've always wanted to dance on the Cabinet Room table," she said. The former Martha Graham dancer kicked off her shoes, jumped up on the middle of the table, and struck a pose. The photo was only published for the first time more than 15 years later in Kennerly's book Photo Op.
Kennerly left the White House the same day and time as President Ford. His letter of resignation to the President had only two lines:
"Dear Mr. President,
Effective January 20, 1977, at twelve noon, I hereby resign my position at the White House.
It's been real!
David Hume Kennerly"
The President's response:
"Dear Dave,
Of all the letters coming to me during these closing days of my Administration, the ones that touch me most are those from members of the White House staff -- and yours stood out among the rest!
You say 'It's been real.' and from working so closely with you it's not only been real, it's been fun. In addition to being the world's best photographer, you have an uncanny ability to put people at ease, to bring out their best. Thanks largely to you and your determined effort to see people as what they are--people--the Ford White House will not go down in history as 'stuffy.' You photographed history being made, and you helped make it lively as it was happening. Your spirit will prevail in your photographs for year to come and I know that whenever we view them we'll remember the event, and we'll remember the spirit!
You have been a special friend to all our family, and I hope our paths will cross often in the days ahead. Betty and I will be watching your career with enthusiasm and cheers. We send you our wishes for every success and happiness in the years ahead.
Sincerely,
Jerry Ford"
Kennerly went back on contract for Time Magazine after the White House, where he covered some of the biggest stories of the 1970s and 1980s for them; Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
's trip to Israel, the horror of Jonestown
Jonestown
Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby...
, exclusive photos of President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
's first meeting in Geneva in 1985, the Fireside Summit, and many other stories around the world. When Life Magazine made a brief comeback for Desert Storm in 1991 he produced an inside story on Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
for them called "Men of War."
In 1996 Kennerly became a contributing editor for Newsweek Magazine where he produced inside stories on President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, Sen. Bob Dole
Bob Dole
Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...
, the Impeachment Hearings, Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr, the 2000 elections, and other top stories.
Kennerly also had a contract with John F. Kennedy, Jr.
John F. Kennedy, Jr.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr. , often referred to as John F. Kennedy, Jr., JFK Jr., John Jr. or John-John, was an American socialite, magazine publisher, lawyer, and pilot. The elder son of U.S. President John F...
's George
George (magazine)
George was a glossy monthly magazine centered on the theme of politics-as-lifestyle co-founded by John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Michael J. Berman with publisher Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in New York City in September 1995...
.
Kennerly has photographed more than 35 covers for Time and Newsweek, and covered assignments in over 130 countries.
He was married to Susan Allwardt in 1967-69, actress Mel Harris
Mel Harris
Mel Harris is an American actress.-Personal life:Harris was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the daughter to Mary Michael "Mike", a high school science teacher, and Warren Harris, a university football coach...
from 1983-1988 (they had a son, Byron), actress Carol Huston in 1989-92, and Rebecca Soladay from 1994 to the present (they have two sons, Nick and Jack).
On March 16, 2006, Kennerly was named NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
Contributing Editor. he is providing special still-photo essays for NBC and its affiliates.
Kennerly was recently named, "One of the Most 100 Most Important People in Photography" by American Photo magazine, and was selected as the 2007, "Photography Person of the Year," by Photo Media magazine. He received a 1989 Prime Time Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama as Executive Producer of NBC’s The Taking of Flight 847: the Uli Derickson Story.
Kennerly was a Fellow in the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
directing program in 1984-86.
He has won the Overseas Press Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award for "Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad," for his coverage of Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev’s historic summit meeting in Geneva. He also won first prizes in the World Press contest for his dramatic and powerful photos of the war Cambodia just before it fell to the Khmer Rouge. He has received numerous other awards from the National Press Photographer's Association and White House Press Photographer's Association.
He also worked on several, "Day in the Life," book projects on The Soviet Union, America, The People's Republic of China, and the United States Armed Forces.
Kennerly is a trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, and is on the board of the Savannah College of Art & Design Atlanta Board of Visitors, which is chaired by Chrysler Chairman Bob Nardelli, and he is on the board of the Eddie Adams Workshop.
Kennerly is a Canon Explorer of Light, and exclusively uses their digital cameras for his work. The August 2008 issue of pdn
Photo District News
Photo District News is an American monthly trade publication for professional photographers. PDN was first published in 1980. The publication takes its name from New York City's photo district, an area of photo businesses that was once located in Flatiron District.Originally named New York Photo...
features a full page Canon ad about one of his photos that runs on the inside back cover of the magazine.
His most recent book is Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. Former First Lady Betty Ford said, "Extraordinary Circumstances is a wonderful record of the Ford Presidency. David Kennerly’s heart and soul are in this book." Award-winning photographer Doug Menuez said, "The range of images and perfect moments add up to a master class of great photojournalism, timeless, classic and relevant. It feels very emotional, intimate, and worlds away from our current super-posed, photo-op political culture. What is truly amazing is how easy Kennerly makes the photography look.… Extraordinary Circumstances fills an important gap in American history from a rare talent given a ringside seat, it is an incredible achievement."
Accomplishments
- Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography, (1972)
- Trustee, The Gerald R. Ford Foundation, (2008-)
- Contributing editor, NBC News (2006 – present)
- Contributing editor, Der SpiegelDer SpiegelDer Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
magazine (2008) - Contributing editor, Newsweek Magazine (1996 to 2006)
- Personal photographer to President Gerald R. Ford, (1974–77)
- National Program Chair for WAMU's, "Home of the Free Student Photojournalism Project")
- Contributing correspondent, ABC's Good Morning America Sunday (1996–98)
- Contributing photographer, George Magazine (1996–99)
- Executive Producer, Portraits of a Lady, HBO
- Co-Executive Producer, Profiles from the Front Line, ABC reality series with Jerry BruckheimerJerry BruckheimerJerome Leon "Jerry" Bruckheimer is an American film and television producer. He has achieved great success in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. His best known television series are CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Eleventh Hour, Without a Trace, Cold Case, The...
and Bertram Van MunsterBertram Van MunsterBertram van Munster is the co-creator and executive producer of The Amazing Race. He is also the creator of Profiles from the Front Line and was the Executive Producer on Oprah's Big Give and Take the Money and Run .... - Executive Producer and writer, Shooter, NBC Television Movie of the Week based on his book about Vietnam combat photographers
- Executive Producer, The Taking of Flight 847, NBC Movie of the Week (1989)
- AFI Directing Fellow, 1984–85
- Contract photographer, Time magazine (1973–74, 1977–90)
- Contributing photographer, Life magazine (1972, 1993–96)
- Staff photographer, United Press International (1967–72)
- Staff photographer, The Oregonian (1967)
- Staff photographer, The Oregon Journal (1966–67)
Books
- Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. University of Texas, Center for American History 2007
- Photo du Jour: A Picture-A-Day Journey through the First Year of the New Millennium, University of Texas Press, 2002. Photo du Jour was named one of American Photo Magazine’s Best Photo books of 2002.
- Sein Off: The Final Days of Seinfeld, HarperCollins, 1998
- Photo Op: A Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer Covers Events That Shaped Our Times, University of Texas Press, 1995
- Shooter, Newsweek Books, 1979
Selected awards
- 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.
- Five prizes each in the 2001 & 2003 White House Press Photographer's contest
- Named one of the top 50 top Washington journalists in the March 2001 issue of Washingtonian Magazine, the only photographer on the list
- Photo Media magazine's 2007 Photographer of the Year
- 1997 President's Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club.
- 1989 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama as Executive Producer of NBC’s The Taking of Flight 847: the Uli Derickson Story
- Overseas Press Club Award for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad (The Olivier Rebbot Award, 1986
- 1976 World Press Photo contest (two first place prizes for Cambodian coverages).
- National Press Photographers’ contest (first place).
Selected exhibitions
- Extraordinary Circumstances, various locations 2008
- Savannah College of Art and Design, Lacoste France 2007. Retrospective.
- University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication 2006-2007.
- University of Texas at Austin - permanent. Photo du Jour exhibition.
- Houston Museum of Fine Arts – 2004. Photo du Jour exhibition.
- Smithsonian Institution’s Arts and Industries Building 2002. Photo du Jour exhibition
- New York Historical Society from 2002 - 2003.
- Visa Pour L’Image, Perpignan France. 2000 Retrospective.
- U.S. Capitol, Cannon Building Rotunda. 1995 Photo Op exhibition.
- Portland Art Museum, Portland Oregon. 1995 Photo Op exhibition.
- The Harry Lunn Gallery, 1979
- Moderator – World Press Photo. Moderated conversation among 2006 award winners, USC, 2007
- Guest lecturer - Savannah College of Art and Design, Lacoste France 2007.
- Keynote speaker - .Eddie Adams Workshop 2000 – present;
Additional information: www.kennerly.com
Getty Images exclusively represents Kennerly’s images: www.gettyimages.com
David Hume Kennerly Photographic Archive
The David Hume Kennerly Photographic Archive resides at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Kennerly is at work on a long-term project to digitize his vast archive of images currently existing in transparent formats (positive and negative film). When completed, these materials will be accessible on CD. The Kennerly Collection includes an online finding aid and a limited number of photographic prints available at the Center for research purposes. The Briscoe Center provides researchers with unparalleled resources on of the history of photojournalism. This actively growing component includes the archives of David Hume Kennerly, Eddie Adams (photographer)Eddie Adams (photographer)
Eddie Adams was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American photographer and photojournalist noted for portraits of celebrities and politicians and his coverage of 13 wars.-Combat photographer:...
, Flip Schulke, Dirck Halstead
Dirck Halstead
Dirck Halstead, is a photojournalist, and editor and publisher of The Digital Journalist an online photojournalism magazine....
, Diana Walker, Shel Hershorn, Wally McNamee, Matthew Naythons
Matthew Naythons
Matthew Naythons is an American photojournalist. physician and publisher Trained as a medical doctor, beginning in the 1970s he photographed many of the twentieth century's historic events. During his photographic career, he founded an NGO, and later became a writer and...
, Bruce Roberts, Dick Swanson, P. F. Bentley, Darryl Heikes, Dennis Brack, Lucian Perkins, and Margaret Sandahl Thomas. The collections include unpublished as well as published images. In addition to photographic holdings (such as slides, negatives, prints, and tear sheets), the photojournalism collections also include such archival materials as personal papers, correspondence, diaries, news stories, and other archival materials.
External links
- "David Hume Kennerly", Photojournalism and the American Presidency, University of Texas.
- Kennerly's official web site