“Kennerly is honestly a photographer’s photographer.”
Kathy M.Y. Pyon, The Los Angeles Times
“David’s simply the best in the business.”
Susan Glasser, POLITICO editor
One of the youngest winners of the Pulitzer Prize, David Hume Kennerly’s 1972
award included photos of the Vietnam War, the Mohammed Ali v. George Frazier
fight, refugees from East Pakistan, and images from Cambodia. Two years later,
on August 10, 1974, at age 27, Kennerly was appointed President Gerald R. Ford's
personal photographer.
Kennerly was named, "One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography"
by American Photo Magazine, and one of the 50 most important journalists in
Washington, D.C. by Washingtonian Magazine.
Kennerly’s awards include two first prizes in the 1976 World Press Photo contest
for his coverage of the final days of Cambodia, and the 1986 Overseas Press
Club’s Olivier Rebbot Award for his coverage of Reagan and Gorbachev’s first
summit in Geneva. In addition, he is the 2015 recipient of the prestigious Lucie
Masters of Photography Award for his achievement in photojournalism.
He was named a Contributing Editor for POLITICO in 2015 to focus on creating a
series of photo essays documenting the 2016 presidential election. Kennerly also
worked as a contributing editor for Newsweek and a contributing photographer
for Time and Life magazines. Kennerly has published several books of his
work, David Hume Kennerly On the iPhone, Extraordinary Circumstances: The
Presidency of Gerald R. Ford, Photo du Jour, Seinoff: The Final Days of Seinfeld,
Photo Op and Shooter. Kennerly also a produced and was one of the principal
photographers of Barack Obama: The Official Inaugural Book.
Kennerly received a 1988 Primetime Emmy nomination for Best Picture as
executive producer of The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story.
Portraits of a Lady, the 2008 documentary that he Executive Produced made
Academy Awards short list. In 2014 he produced The Discovery Channel’s
miniseries, The Presidents’ Gatekeepers about the White House chiefs of staff
and is currently executive producing The Spymasters documentary about
directors of the CIA for CBS and Showtime.
DAVID HUME KENNERLY BIO 2 Kennerly is a Canon Explorer of Light, one of an elite group of photographers
sponsored by Canon USA. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Gerald R. Ford
Foundation, the Atlanta Board of Visitors of the Savannah College of Art and
Design (SCAD), and Creative Visions, a non-profit supporting creative activism.
His archive is housed at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the
University of Texas, Austin.
In May of 2015 Kennerly will give the commencement address at Lake Erie
College, and will be awarded an honorary PhD.
Kennerly is married to Rececca Soladay Kennerly, and has three sons, Byron,
Nick, and James Kennerly.