Behind the Scenes of History with David Hume Kennerly

David Hume Kennerly has been a photographer on the front lines of history for almost 60 years. At 25 he was one of the youngest winners of the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism. Kennerly’s 1972 award for Feature Photography included images of the Vietnam and Cambodia wars, refugees escaping from East Pakistan into India, and the Ali v. Frazier “Fight of the Century” World Heavyweight Championship at Madison Square Garden. Two years later Kennerly was appointed President Gerald R. Ford's Personal White House Photographer.
Kennerly’s photos have appeared on more than 50 major magazine covers, and he has documented history in over a hundred countries. He has photographed 11 American Presidents, covered 12 presidential campaigns, served as a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine for ten years, and a contributing photographer for Time & Life Magazines for more than fifteen. American Photo Magazine named Kennerly “One of the “100 Most Important People in Photography” Washingtonian Magazine called Kennerly one of the 50 most important journalists in Washington, DC. In 2016 the Oregon Historical Society presented Kennerly and Nike founder Phil Knight with their Oregon History Makers Award. Kennerly received the Lucie Award honoring the greatest achievement in photojournalism, and that year delivered the commencement speech at Lake Erie College where he received an honorary doctorate
Kennerly is the author of six books - David Hume Kennerly On the iPhone, Shooter, Photo Op, Seinoff: The Final Days of Seinfeld, Photo du Jour, and Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. He also produced, Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book, and was one of its principal photographers.
Kennerly was executive producer of The Spymasters, a 2015 CBS/Showtime documentary about the directors of the CIA. He also produced The Presidents’ Gatekeepers, a four-hour Discovery Channel film about White House chiefs of staff. Kennerly was nominated for a Primetime Emmy as executive producer of NBC’s, The Taking of Flight 847, and was the writer and executive producer of a two-hour NBC pilot filmed in Thailand, Shooter, starring Helen Hunt and based on Kennerly’s Vietnam experiences. Shooter won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography.
In 2019, The University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography acquired the David Hume Kennerly Archive, which features almost one million images, prints, objects, memorabilia, correspondence and documents dating back to 1957. The Kennerly Archive includes iconic portraits of U.S. presidents, world leaders, celebrities and sports figures. His work joins that of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Richard Avedon, W. Eugene Smith, and scores of other legendary photographers. University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins appointed Kennerly the university’s first Presidential Scholar.
Kennerly is a trustee of the Ansel Adams Publishing Trust and is a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. He is also a Canon Legend.

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