David Hume Kennerly

David Hume Kennerly has been a photographer on the front lines of history for more than 50 years.  At 25 he became one of the youngest winners of the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism. The 1972 award for Feature Photography recognized his work from the previous year, 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 more than a hundred countries.  He has photographed eleven U.S. Presidents, covered thirteen presidential campaigns, served as a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine for ten years, and was a contributing photographer for Time & Life Magazines. American Photo Magazine named Kennerly “One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography.”

In 2019, The University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography (CCP) acquired the David Hume Kennerly Archive. It features almost one million images, prints, objects, memorabilia, correspondence and documents dating back to 1957. His work joins that of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Richard Avedon, W. Eugene Smith, and scores of other legendary photographers.  In 2018, University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins appointed Kennerly the university’s first Presidential Scholar.

Kennerly has published several books of his work, Shooter; Photo Op; Seinoff: The Final Days of Seinfeld; Photo du Jour; Extraordinary Circumstances: The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford; and David Hume Kennerly On the iPhone. He was also a major contributor to CNN’s 2016 book, Unprecedented: The Election that Changed Everything. The cover image was from his exclusive portrait session with President Donald Trump.

He has an extensive film and TV production background. Kennerly was an executive producer of The Spymasters, a CBS/Showtime documentary about 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. He was co-writer and executive producer of Shooter, a two-hour NBC pilot filmed in Thailand starring Helen Hunt. The movie was based on his Vietnam experiences. Shooter won the Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography.

Kennerly received the prestigious Lucie Award for Achievement in Photojournalism, and that same year delivered the commencement speech at Lake Erie College, where he received an honorary doctorate.

Kennerly is a Canon Legend, an elite group of photographers sponsored by Canon.

Read More »