Spanning more than 50 years of history dating from 1965, the David Hume Kennerly archive features almost one million images, prints, objects, memorabilia, correspondence and documents. It includes iconic portraits of U.S. presidents, world leaders, celebrities and unknown individuals, as well as personal correspondence and mementos such as the helmet and cameras that Kennerly used while photographing the Vietnam War. The archive attests to the integrity of this news photographer’s career, as he trained his lens on history as it was being made—often providing exclusive documentation of momentous global events.
Kennerly is among the most celebrated photojournalists of the modern era. His images have appeared in hundreds of publications around the world, including on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Life. He has photographed ten U.S. presidents from Lyndon Johnson to Donald Trump, and leading world figures as Queen Elizabeth II, Mikhail Gorbachev, Anwar El Sadat, Fidel Castro, Deng Xiaoping and many others. He also covered the two 20th Century presidential impeachment stories, Nixon’s and Clinton’s.
“The extraordinary archive of photos by David Hume Kennerly is an asset for scholars, students and visitors to campus. His visual legacy will be an integral part of our curriculum,” said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. “He is already working with the Center for Creative Photography to create programming that will draw on his experience and expertise and will spark conversations throughout our campus and broader community.”
Kennerly said, “The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona is the pinnacle of photographic institutions. Their dynamic leadership values the importance of images, and they are committed to incorporating them into the wider curriculum at the university. Having my archive join the work of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and so many other great photographers at the CCP is hands-down one of the most exciting and satisfying moments of my life!”
The University of Arizona acquires this archive at the same time as it introduces a new interdisciplinary curriculum that will leverage the power of photography to change how history is understood. Last year, Kennerly was appointed as the first University of Arizona Presidential Scholar, dedicated to encouraging interdisciplinary work and the study of photography among the arts, humanities and social sciences. Kennerly’s archive will provide innovative resources to learn and build upon current understanding and knowledge of world history.
In conjunction with the acquisition of the archive, the Center for Creative Photography will present an exhibition, David Hume Kennerly: Witness to History from October 11 through October of 2020. A talk with Kennerly and fellow Pulitzer Prize-winner, the writer and historian Jon Meacham, will be held on October 11 at the University of Arizona. They will introduce the university’s In the Room series, which shares firsthand accounts of being “in the room” where history was being made.
Depicting the powerful and the powerless, Kennerly’s photographs helped define the genre of political photography and portraiture in the modern era. Giving viewers a renewed understanding of both famous personalities and unknown subjects, his images offer a probing examination of everyday life and intimate explorations of global political events such as the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Middle East Peace process and Camp David Accords in the 1970s, Jonestown, the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, and 9/11. Seeking to record historic events, often in dangerous places, Kennerly’s foresight about how images could impact the public catalyzed his relentless drive to create intimate documentation of history in the making.
The archive’s photographs reveal Kennerly’s extraordinary eye for capturing subjects both human and geographical. Whether celebrities on set, vacationers on holiday, or presidential candidates during intimate moments of celebration, such as the 2009 photograph of the Obamas on the night of his inauguration, Kennerly’s images capture the historical zeitgeist of the era, and define the high standards of candid journalism that the American public expects from the media.
Anne Breckenridge Barrett says “David Hume Kennerly’s contribution to the practice of photojournalism is unmatched and the Center for Creative Photography is poised and proud to steward such a critical body of work. Adding the Kennerly archive to our unparalleled holdings will not only allow the Center to connect the relevance of Kennerly’s work to the photographic legacy we uphold, but will allow us to focus our priorities around digital access, engagement and expansion.”
It is fitting that the Kennerly Archive find its home at the very place founded by his colleague, friend and world-renowned photographer, Ansel Adams. The Center collects, protects, and promotes the relevance and importance of photography today, deepening an understanding of how the medium impacts society, and Kennerly’s work now joins the canon of the Center, comprised of the work of more than 2,200 other photographers, including W. Eugene Smith, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Edward Weston, and Garry Winogrand.
About David Hume Kennerly
David Hume Kennerly has been a photographer on the front lines of history for 50 years. At 25 years of age, he was one of the youngest winners of the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Kennerly’s 1972 award for Feature Photography included images of the Ali v. Frazier World Heavyweight Championship at Madison Square Garden, the Vietnam and Cambodia wars, and refugees escaping from East Pakistan into India. Two years later, Kennerly was appointed President Gerald R. Ford’s chief White House photographer.
Kennerly’s photos have appeared on more than 50 major magazine covers. Kennerly has covered stories in dozens of countries. For ten years he served as a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine and POLITICO in which his 2015 photo essay “I Want to Be with the Circus” was one of the most widely-viewed stories in the publication’s history. He has worked as a contributing photographer for Time and Life magazines, and John F. Kennedy Jr.’s George magazine. American Photo magazine named him “One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography,” and Washingtonianmagazine called Kennerly one of the 50 most important journalists in Washington, D.C.
Kennerly is the author of seven books, most recently David Hume Kennerly On the iPhone. He was one of the principal photographers of Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book. He maintains a busy appearance and speaking schedule including on-air commentary, corporate keynotes, academic lecturing and speeches for professional organizations, conferences and panels.
Kennerly’s work has been exhibited and collected by museums and institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles; Portland Art Museum, Maine; Savannah College of Art and Design, Georgia; and the University of Texas; among others. His prints are part of the permanent collections of museums and institutions worldwide, including the Library of Congress, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Smithsonian.
About the Center for Creative Photography
The Center for Creative Photography (CCP) was established in 1975 by John Schaefer, then president of the University of Arizona, and photographer Ansel Adams. The CCP’s visionary mission to become the premier research collection of fine art American photography has enabled it to collect over 100,000 works by over 2,200 photographers, and house the archives of celebrated American photographers including Ansel Adams, W. Eugene Smith, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Edward Weston and Garry Winogrand. The CCP’s collection includes over 8 million archival objects including negatives, contact sheets, albums, correspondence, audiovisual materials and work prints. In addition, a library containing journals, exhibition and auction catalogues, and rare publications complements the CCP’s holding of its photographic collection.
